Two days ago, in hope of ultimately connecting the disparate ramblings
of my blog, I presented a
list of my "life roles" that I use to conceptualize my life. I
set the expectation that I would come back to this list often, unpacking the
elements of the list. Before I jump into that task, however, I will offer a
chronological presentation of my life. Just like the list of life roles, this
chronological list will be sketchy. However, I hope that it provides a simple
framework to contextualize the things I write about on this blog.

(As I write this list, I have a nagging doubt that I feel the need to acknowledge,
if not fully address. I keep thinking, "Who cares about the chronology
of my life? In fact, who cares about the life roles?" It's interesting
that I should be nagged by this issue now since the "who cares?" question
should have come up long ago when I started blogging. Who cares that I love
Bach and computers?

But the "who cares" question wasn't an issue then because, maybe,
I wasn't trying to be more systematic and had presented no grand pretensions
about my blog. But now, making formal lists somehow raises the level of seriousness
of my humble blog. Am I now writing my memoirs? Why would anyone care to read
that? Again, I come back to the thought that my blog is first and foremost for
me, to help focus my life -- and if the product of the process is "useful"
to others, all the better. In the meantime, I shouldn't let these nags keep
me from continuing....[This tangent reminds me of what
Chris wrote a while back and the article by Tom Coates ("My
obligation to you") to which I referred Chris.])

I was born on March 10, 1967, making me 36 years of age at this very moment.
Major phases in my life so far map (not surprisingly) to the three cities in
which I have lived:

1. Timmins, Canada (1967-1986)
   I was born in Timmins, a small
   city of 45,000 residents located 400 miles northeast of Toronto. My parents,
   Wayne and Joanne, came from China and arrived in Timmins in the mid-fifties
   and mid-sixties, respectively. My younger sisters, Janice and Shirley, were
   also born in Timmins. I grew up in Timmins and left when I was nineteen to
   attend university in Toronto.
2. Toronto, Canada (1986-1990)
   I studied Engineering Science
   (physics option) at the University of Toronto,
   where I lived at New
   College. The single most significant event of those years -- and there
   were many -- was my conversion to Christianity during the late summer of 1988
   (a story both complex and simple).
3. Berkeley, USA (1990- present)
   I moved to Berkeley to start a Ph.D.
   program in Biophysics, which I completed in1997. (I studied electron transfer
   in photosynthetic reaction complexes under the guidance of the theoretical
   chemist David
   Chandler.) I spent four years living at the International House, which
   I thoroughly enjoyed. I was booted from the House in 1994 so that I could
   get a life. Fortunately, I then moved into the Regent/Lorina House community
   of which I have been a part for the last nine years. After finishing my graduate
   work, I decide that instead of pursuing a career in biophysics, I would worked
   as staff at UC Berkeley, first in the Statistics
   Computing Facility and then at the Interactive
   University Project (where I am still happily
   ensconced).

   Since the last thirteen years of my life -- basically all of my "adult"
   life -- has been spent in Berkeley, this period has been profoundly formative.