Living in San Francisco Bay Area, I call myself Californian. Born and raised in Taiwan, I call myself Taiwanese. It has been a privillage, a luxuary, living in the Bay Area. We have one of the best cities, a romantic, a busy and rich one. And, we have one of the best red wood forests so close to the city. There is this famous beach town, Carmel just within less than 100 miles south. Yosemite, Lake Tahoe are also just hours away. And, Silicon Valley, the place surrounded by the companies centered in the hi-tech industry, is at the south tip and peninsula side of the bay, and still expanding. It was even a more precious experience to grow up in Taiwan during the take off of most amazing economic growth and democacy development. Also, it was a great challenge to study in Taiwan, having to compete with all those bright people just for the opportunity to study in a University, especially a public one.

I was an ex-athlete. I keep the attitude and the philosophy I learned from sports. With the attitude like the way I counted and analyzed every single step of each of my 100 meter splint, I was able to handle the technical issues thoroughly. I manage the team with the mind set of coaching a baseball team. Sports is a big part of my life. Living in California, one questions commonly asked by people from Taiwan is how life is different in US from that in Taiwan. The best answer I can give, as an athlete, was that "The American football spirit". You are given four chances for each possession. If you move the chain for 10 yards, you are rewarded another possession. If not, you have to give the ball away. Why I appreciate it? Because it measures you as a whole, instead of judging you on your every single move. You can be bold, making 2-3 high risk moves. As long as one of them works, you move your chain. You can also choose to take one step at a time. As long as you move average more than 3.4 yards per down, you also get awarded. Such culture helps you to find out who you really are, and how you enjoy different way of doing things! There is no right or wrong, as long as you make adequate progress. I learned about what I can do and what I can not do. Also, I learn about how to make progress through the course of life, and to devote myself to the society whatever way I can.

I am a hi-tech person. I decided to major in physics at college because I wanted to know the science behind TV, and because I wanted to build a laser myself. When asked about what do I do for my livings? I cannot even give a straight answer. As a physics major, I am definitely not a scientist any more. Am I still an engineer, or am I really is in marketing now? All my customers are engineers; the ones use the tool we sell are; the ones make the decision are; the companies use our tools are IC design company. I talk technology; I work in the IC design methodology. In the other hand, I also help to identify the product value proposition, and help to conduct business engagement, and develop the product roadmap. My title is business development, but my mind is full of technology. Ironically, I am the least technical person when it comes down to actually using the hi-tech products. I don't have fancy cell phone. This afternoon, I was struggling with another Ph. D. in my group trying to figure out how to operate the latest model of SONY's digital camcorder. I still don't shop on line, except for that once, I tried to get the Game 5 ticket in this year's MLB world series in Houston. Am I qualified as a hi-tech person?

I am an adventurer. My life is rich because I am willing to take challenges. My life is rich because of the opportunity provided by the jobs, and the luxuary support provided by my family. I have been in Japan, France, China and other countries in different occations. I once climbed the Great Wall, looking north from the battle fort, imaging how ancient Chinese people interacted with the semi-normadic people. I took the local train, touring downtown Tokyo, I walked in downtown Paris from Norte Dame to Lovre, to Eiffel Tower then back to my hotel near Arch of Triumph; I also took a short swim in Mediterranean outside our Corsica hotel. In Lyon, I had chance to visit the Roman Theatre, and another historic site featuring a Galo town that was built around 300 BC.

I was a historian, I have been spending time talking to Gene Krantz, the ground director of Apollo 13. He told me stories about the Space program. He also shared with me the time when he was in airforce before he joined the Mercury project. After heard from me that I was from Taiwan, he described to me how pretty Taiwan was when he flew over those mountains. I was so pround of it when he said Taiwan was the most beautiful country he ever flew in. Those were times, we discussed the history of Soviet Union's collapse, and how the caspian treasure become endanger when we were sipping champaign with fresh caviar, eating the most delicious egg with Foie Gras. We visited Europe when the single currency Euro became the reality, then in the next trip we realized there would be problem with our European engineer budget when our travel expense became about 40% higher than my previous trip, during the same period Euro rose 46% against US $, when I was working on our expense report in the airplane on the way back to Bay Area. A simple question such as this can lead to such complicate answer. Even more so about life.

Through the past 10 years, I started as a physist designing heterojunction devices for statellite, involving in several NASA projects, then became a programmer, developing the tools that helped to design those devices. Then migrate to work on the tool for Silicon IC's. In between I was part of a consultant company. During all the years, I had chances to see the prototype of products that won't hit the market until three to five years later, including IC's startign from PC centric products, e.g. CPU, memory, graphic card, to comsumer oriented products like cell phone, DVD, HDTV, iPod, etc. I went through the internet bubble, and suffered with most people during the down turn.

But, there are more than those grand part of the life I live in. I am also a son of a stroke patient, who is still lying on the bed without any communiation skill. Hearing my dad to speak another word, or having the opportunity to watch another baseball game with him become such an unthinkable event. Also a son of a mother who is willing to devote her life for others, from raising four kids, from teaching numerous students in the elementary school, from dedicating her time to Tzu-Chi. There are hundreds, even thousands of people who have once been in my life. That is who I am, and I am a unique person.

Identity is what each person is, and will be looking for consistently. The most common question is what it takes for us to presist from one time to another, and what is sufficient, for some past or future being to be you. Just talk about personal goal. People can choose to work hard for richness. Or simply choose to live richly. Your identity roughly consists of those attributes that make you unique as an individual, and different from others. Your identity is a property that hyou might have for a while and then lose. Richness is not something you can ask for, or to work for. To me, a rich life is there of my choice. People are curious about how much money I makes, and how much money I have. My answer to them is I make enough to have the life style I am having now. The salary only means something when I apply for the loan. For the money, as long as I save enough in my account to support my family in case of accident, I have enough.

I learned to live my own life, other than what people envision it. Some people know me because of my past history in sports. Some people know me just because they ran into me at schools, or at works. Who I am? I am a person love to explore my life, sports, music, sightseeing, religion, history and philosophically. I am the one who is fortunately to be granted a lots of possessions in my life. Now, I enjoy the most being the dad of two really cute toddlers, who are exploring this world with fresh spirits.