About Me

Who are you?

No one of consequence.

This is my third time writing an ‘about me’ page and I told myself that I wouldn’t simply copy the last ones.  Fortunately, since this blog has a different format, I’ll allow myself a little bit of leeway.  I’ll first start with who I am now, then go into where I came from.

I am…

…a computer geek, but that’s an oversimplification.  I’ve been in the industry since 1991.  I’ve worked as a software test engineer, software development engineer in test, software design engineer, and a data engineer.  I have a deep appreciation for each of those disciplines and would like to think that I was competent at each.  Among those disciplines, software design engineer in test (SDET) is probably what fits me best; it allows me to exercise both my creative (developing software) and my destructive (breaking software) instincts.  I can, and have, talked about just software for hours.  I have a natural fascination for puzzles and thus I enjoy programming problems.

I am blessed with an exceptional memory.  I’m not saying this to brag; this is simply what my friends and family tell me.  To me, since it’s the only memory I know, it is average.  My memory is neither photographic nor eidetic, and it certainly isn’t infallible.  That said, I remember details decades later and sometimes will reflect back upon not only what someone said or did, but also how that transpired.  It is sharp enough so that I will regularly creep people out with my ability to recall details from an event; this occurs even with people who know me well.  It is also reliable enough so that I can catch people in inconsistencies or outright lies, though I rarely call anyone on it and will do my best not to I judge you.

I am a writer, of sorts.  There’s this blog, of course.  In high school I had aspirations to be a writer, more specifically a novelist.  Though based on my test scores, my guidance counselor effectively said that I had the writing aptitude of a house plant.  I had high aptitude scores for mathematics and engineering, so I went into engineering at the University of Miami.  Years later, I kept an online journal on Geocities though that is long gone; in fact, I met my wife through that page when she did a web search.  I write in another blog, though that is in a different format.  I’ve never been paid for writing, so I can’t claim to be a professional writer.

I am an AFOL, though I generally wince at the word ‘fan’ because it’s short for ‘fanatic’.  This started when I was very young and my dad bought us a couple of Lego sets.  We built fanciful, colorful structures that served no purpose.  I was both saddened by taking those builds apart and excited at the prospect of building something new.  My dad passed away when I was nine, and in some ways, Legos are a way of remembering him.  As I grew old enough to collect my own sets, I came to realize how expensive these can get and gained a new appreciation for my dad, who got us these sets when we were very poor.  I enjoy collecting discrete sets, but I also enjoying building my own creations.  This is probably one of the biggest reasons why I’m an engineer.  I’ve also been known to do unconventional things like building sets in glass bottles (like a ship in a bottle).  Yes, I realize that there’s a debate between the term ‘Legos’ and ‘Lego bricks’; I use the former even if the latter is the ‘official’ way.  Don’t judge me.

I am a baseball enthusiast and more specifically I root for the Atlanta Braves.  It all started with a seemingly magical season in 1982 when the Braves started the year with a 13-0 record.  While I don’t listen or watch every game (and even fewer in recent years), I have spent more hours than I care to know listening or watching games.  I have an informed opinion on most baseball topics and can probably spend too much time discussing the details.  I generally think that the designated hitter rule is an abomination and should be stricken from the game.  I have never lived in Atlanta but do not believe in cheering for a team based on geography.  In fact, I’ll generally root against the local sports team because it tickles my sensibilities about peer pressure and conformity; this naturally pisses off many of my friends, who have taken to decorating my office and car with local team paraphernalia.

I am a Fitbit enthusiast.  I have been on the platform since 2012 and have worn a tracker every day since.  I’m fascinated with numbers so it tickles that element of my mind.  As of today, I’ve yet to miss a 10k step day since October of 2015; that’s over five years and recently passed 50 million lifetime steps.  I have way too many trackers, nearly twenty different models.  I know quite a bit about Fitbit products and am pretty active on the forums.

I came from…

…dedicated and hardworking Chinese parents.  I was born in Spain and moved to Puerto Rico when I was very young.  My dad passed away when I was nine and my mom outlived him by 29 years.  We spoke Cantonese at home and I learned Spanish and English (though distressingly poorly) at Catholic school.

We moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida a year after my father passed.  This is where I attended middle and high school.  I survived bullying, though it still colors many of my experiences and reflections to this day.  I generally excelled in high school, especially at science and mathematics.  I competed in math, computer, and Latin contests.  I attended a couple of summer programs in mathematics and engineering.  I was a geek even in high school.

I attended the University of Miami in engineering; it was familiar since I had just done a summer program there a year before.  It was only a short distance (less than an hour’s drive) from my home, which allowed me to continue to work.  Though close to home, going to college liberated me and it’s where I really became an adult.  I had graduated with two bachelor’s (computer engineering and computer science) and two minors (mathematics and psychology).

I moved to the Seattle area to work for Microsoft in 1991.  Though I stayed for decades, I’m no longer at the company.  I’m still in the area and remain passionate about the field.

Other details:

Discover your Strengths:  I am a believer in the CliftonStrengths and their Now, Discover Your Strengths assessment.  It has helped me team up with people and has helped me understand where I should focus.  I found this to the most useful among these assessments.  My top strengths are:

  • Relator: People exceptionally talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
  • Maximizer: People exceptionally talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.
  • Learner: People exceptionally talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
  • Ideation: People exceptionally talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
  • Strategic: People exceptionally talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator:  I’m an INTJ (Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, Judgment) after taking a recent assessment.  However, I sat close to the center (between 40% to 60%) on each of the four preferences.  I got the impression that was pretty rare, a sort of jack of all traits (and perhaps master of none?).

Quiet Revolution:  I became interested in this when I watched Susan Cain’s TED Talk on introverts.  After finding that she had a website, I took the assessment, and found that I’m pretty close to the center (ambivert).  This actually makes sense to me.