I lived in Silicon Valley for the four years previous, met Brian in March of 2003, got engaged a year later, and plotted with him to move to the east coast thereafter. I'd lived in DC for a number of years post-college, and migrated out west with the Internet boom, along with quite a few of my friends, and, having not struck gold, I followed the wagon train home along with most of the rest of the migrated.

Previously, I lived in something akin to the geek dream, working at DIGEX (a large national ISP), living with a group of people that I originally met on-line, in a house that had a dedicated T-1 line and a frightening number of computers. Before that, I was living in the "Madhouse", again with people I met on-line, all part of the so-called DC Conclave, a social group comprised mostly of people who, at one point in time or another, played on AmberMUSH.

In Myers-Briggs personality typology, I am an INTJ (Introvert iNtuitive Thinking Judging). The Ansir test says my Thinking / Working / Emoting styles are Visionary / Visionary / Visionary. And Kingdomality makes me a Discoverer or Prime Minister. In Ulla Zang's picture test, I chose the artwork in the center, making me Professional - Pragmatic - Self-Assured.

My current hobbies, links of interest, and ramblings of various sorts are detailed on my Resources page. This page just talks about my past.

I was born in Singapore, emigrating with my parents to the United States at the age of two, and eventually becoming an American citizen. I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago, in the conservative Bible Belt town of Wheaton, Illinois, home to Wheaton College and Billy Graham.

My cute little sister and I both thought that we would follow my father's footsteps -- he's a physician, practicing internal medicine. Instead, I ended up making a career of computers instead, and my sister got a degree in information technology from MIT's Sloan school of business.

Before college, I spent a stint at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, graduated from Wheaton Central High School, and did a year part-time at Wheaton College.

I attended the University of Pennylvania (Not Penn State! it's an Ivy League school), in Philadelphia, where I majored in computer science engineering at the Moore School of Engineering, minored in music history, and took a classes in an awful lot of other disciplines as well.

While I was working at DIGEX, I began a Master's in Computer Systems Management at the University of Maryland, University College graduate school of Management and Technology. Someday I might finish this -- 100% web-based.

I was active with the following organizations, during my undergraduate years:

The Dining Philosophers

The undergraduate Computer Science Engineering Society. Named after the well-known scheduling problem in computer science involving five philosophers, five chopsticks, and impending starvation. I was the software person, maintaining the society's public software directories on Eniac, the main engineering computing cluster, as well as the secretary and member of the Executive Board. I was also on the Engineering Peer Advisory council for two years, mentoring freshmen.

Penn Gamers

A campus roleplaying group that I founded and was the president of for several years. Throughout the six years of its existence, there've been campaigns in a wide variety of systems, including Pendragon, Star Wars, AD&D, and Ars Magica.

Arts House Theatre

My first involvement with Penn performing arts, in my freshman year I concertmastered the pit orchestra for a production of Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Penn Players

I joined sixty years of theater tradition at Penn by my association with this group. I was the concertmaster of the pit band for a production of ABBA/Tim Rice's Chess (where I got my first experience working with a rock band), and the assistant concertmaster of the pit orchestra for a production of Bock and Harnick's She Loves Me (where I got to play a spiffy virtuosic opening solo cadenza).

Penn Singers

Penn's superb thirty-year-old light opera company, under the direction of the amazing Bruce Montgomery. I did four shows in the pit: Trial by Jury, The Sorceror, The Mikado, and H.M.S. Pinafore.

Law School Light Opera Company

The other light opera company at Penn, composed mostly of law students, many of whom, amazingly enough, have previous professional theatre experience. Actually, despite their name, the company hasn't done much light opera of late -- Sondheim musicals have dominated instead. I concertmastered two shows, both Sondheim musicals: A Little Night Music, and Into the Woods.

Pennsylvania Triangle

The Triangle is the twice-yearly magazine of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, where I spent a few years as a staff writer.

Event Horizon

The unfortunately now-defunct science-fiction and fantasy magazine/club. I was a contributing writer at first, eventually becoming club secretary and the Editor of the magazine.

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