Random Facts about jean:
1. My native language is Chinese, and you can find my Chinese weblog here.
2. Occasionally I would write the same weblog entry twice, once in Chinese, and once in English. But they almost never translate verbatim. They often ‘feel’ different, too. I don’t know why but I can’t help it.
3. Won’t blink twice before I curse in English, but I can’t bring myself to say the mildest curse words in Chinese.
4. Dream in color and with massive details.
5. I’m a word person. (versus being a picture person or a musical person)
6. I’m a cat person. (Dogs are cool, but cats are so much cooler)
7. My high school was a boarding school in the center of Beijing, and it was supposed to be one of the finest in China. It means we were taught some rather liberal ideas in the late 1980’s China. It was only 15 minutes away from Tian’an men square, on a bicycle.
8. Wasn’t into politics until 911.
9. Enjoy traveling and have traveled to a few popular western European countries by myself. I enjoyed traveling alone. I enjoyed being alone in general.
10. I’m now living in SF with someone I love and who claims to love me as well. If Happiness is a promise, then i think we got one.
11. Among all the cities I’ve been to, I think San Francisco is the best place to live and work. The runners up are Nice and Barcelona.
12. I graduated with an EECS (pronounced ee-ks) degree but I gave up pursuing the profession of circuit design the day I graduated. I’m doing software programming for a living. I equate debugging with working on jigsaw puzzle. So I enjoy it somewhat. I changed job in June 2005, and I’m doing project management/Tech Consulting now. Debated heavily whether to go back being a programmer and finally decided against it. I think i am a good programmer, but i’m far better at proj. management than programming. To put it another way, there are way too many people who can program better than i could, but there are very few who could manage a project better than me. So i stop fighting with my head, even though my heart might be else where.
13. Listen to NPR everyday. Ever since i started taking company shuttle to work since 2007, i haven’t been listening to NPR as much. That might change soon, fingers crossed.
14. Believe all things are balanced out at the end, you gain some and you lose some. There is no eternal tragedy.
15. Love good stories well told. Love good movies well made. Then again, who doesn’t?
16. I cry frequently when watching movies, in a very non-discriminatory fashion, i.e. including those not so well made ones.
17. I say no often, but i change my mind often, as well.
18. Love Skiing with a passion. There are few things can make me happier than craning down a slope while light snow following on my face.
19. Legally allowed to operate a motorcycle. Scuba certified. Sky dived once. No, I don’t think I’m crazy. No. Not having a “pre-midlife” crisis either. It is more because of “you gotta try everything at least once” curiosity.
20. Used to be a social cigar smoker. Martini, Cigar, smokey bars, and jazzy piano music seem to go together. Since I love jazz, the others were loved in the same package. In Chinese, we say, if you love the bird, you gotta love the house where the bird lives, too. (As all your Chinese speakers out there know, i got this one backward. The actual saying was “if you love the house, then you must love the bird land on the roof, too.” i like my version better. 🙂 )
21. Love musicals, and cities that love them: New York, London, Toronto…
22. Used to drink black coffee only. No, it was not an artsy-fartsy thing. It was more a first-flight-out-of-SFO-every-Monday-morning thing. Drinking something warm was immense comfort to someone who had to get up at 4:30am. And I’m allergic to diary product. Now i take coffee with one sugar.
23. Most of my friends think i’m a city person. I start to believe it, especially after I moved to the city in March’04. [update 2008- it is confirmed, i’m definitely a city person. I can’t imagine living in the suburb again.]
—end of original 2004 list—
24. My biggest asset is passion, which is contagious (i’ve been told); my biggest shortcoming is impatience, which i have been trying to tame for a few years. i have mellowed out substantially comparing to my younger days.
25. I love a good argument. I’m opinionated and judgmental. But I adore quick wit and rational thinking. Thoughtful argument, clever come back, and most importantly kindness can swing my opinion (at least i’d like to think so).
26. I love data-driven results. Show me the facts!
27. I’m intensely curious. And i’m worried someday my curiosity will get me in trouble. I prefer to think myself as a hopeless romantic. My best friend Gui thinks I’m more rational than i’d like to admit. 🙂
28. One quality in others that i admire the most, also the quality i wish i had is the ability to persuade.
29. I don’t do diet because my mom taught me, “There is no shame in gaining weight, your body put in lots of honest labor to acquire those weight, you didn’t steal them.” 🙂
30. I don’t do regret either. Move on already!
–end of 2008 list–
31. Addicted to twitter since Nov. 2016 US election. Anxious about the future of mankind ever since, like so many others since then.
32. Started collecting tillandsia since Dec. 2014, succulents since May 2015, and just started a land hermit crab tank May 2017. I think all three have something in common but haven’t pinpointed what it is (nerdy, maybe?) Noah said he loves the smell of the rain forest from our tank, “just like academy of science!” (he is referring to the rainforest glass dome in Cal Academy of Science). That statement melt my heart, we have 15 gallon of rain forest in our dinning room, how cool is that?!
33. Fell in love with camping since we went on Noah’s first school camp trip at the beginning of his 1st grade year. Bay Area has so much nature beauty to offer! We are truly blessed to live here.

change log:
v1: 2004.05.25
v2: 2008.12.19
v3: 2017.08.30