Foo Bar and Grill

Here's my "Hundred Things about Me" list...

0. I'm enough of a geek that lists start at zero, not one
1. I was born in 1964
2. I have gray eyes
3. I am a rare native Californian
4. I live about fifteen miles from where I was born
5. My mom lives about 1 mile from where I was born
6. I pay attention to the Oakland A's
7. But I'm more of a SF Giants fan
8. I was in the left field bleachers at the World Series in the 1989 earthquake
9. I lived in Beijing for eight months
10. I speak "survival-level" Mandarin Chinese
11. My wife is from Anhui, in central China
12. I understand much more Mandarin than I can easily speak
13. I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood
14. Most of my friends from my kid days are Vietnamese
15. I have spent my career in tech startups
16. A couple worked out - the rest didn't
17. I ran a computer store business for a year
18. I'm a C programmer
19. My advice on programming is irrelevant to 99% of programmers
20. ...but the 1% to whom it applies find it very useful
21. My software is in several million small devices, mostly in Asia
22. The fact that millions of people are using my software daily makes me happy
23. I use Windows for web surfing
24. ...but Linux for working and software development
25. I helped to develop a major open-source database engine
26. It is currently in wide use, which I also think is cool
27. I'm an INTJ
28. I'm close to my mom and brother
29. We also go to Shanghai to visit the in-laws fairly frequently
30. I like Shanghai and wouldn't mind living there, except in the summer
31. My wife and I backpack once or twice per year
32. My wife makes wonderful Chinese food
33. I can no longer eat Chinese restaurant food outside of China
34. I'm horribly spoiled foodwise
35. My wife and I take long (5M+) walks together, four or five times a week
36. We also work out on an exercise machine twice or three times a week
37. Despite all this exercise, I still can't lose weight
38. ...but I don't need advice - or lectures - on this point
39. Even though it's expensive, I love the SF Bay Area
40. I sometimes toy with the thought of moving
41. ...except that I'd be Somewhere Else
42. I'm not a big fan of yardwork or housework
43. ...and I don't mind outsourcing it
44. For some reason, I'm not a big music fan
45. Probably because it's usually highly distracting
46. I do like classical music
47. I like opera, and will someday watch the full Ring Cycle
48. I'm a "small ell" libertarian
49. I'm pro-defense, and would rather be a live hypocrite than righteously dead
50. I am not religious, but I'm not anti-religious
51. I can't abide trivial conversation
52. I have a few close friends
53. I like discussing a few topics deeply
54. I have little patience for people who can't say "I don't know"
55. I am painfully blunt, to the point of being impolite
56. I have a dangerously sharp "BS detector"
57. Which occasionally gets me into trouble...
58. I was married on 22 Dec 1999
59. ...which was a week after my wife-to-be arrived in the States
60. I met my wife on the Internet
61. We are very happily married
62. My wife is very kind - and also quite blunt
63. Her family always said she was very American, even when she was a kid
64. This was not a particularly good thing during the Cultural Revolution
64. She speaks perfect English and writes better than I do
65. We are both honest to a fault, which sometimes gets us into trouble
66. My sister-in-law and her husband are both Chinese Communist Party members
67. ...but live like Republicans
68. I get along very well with both
69. I drink tea, diet coke, and water, in that order
70. I am relatively frugal, but not obsessively so
71. I am too lazy to be a good stockmarket investor
72. I invest in things that are a bit odd, but they've done well over the years
73. I avoid technology stocks, because I work in it
74. ...so I missed the Great Boom. Thankfully.
75. I knew several people who had eight-figure paper net worths
76. ...but most of them rode their options all the way down
77. I like giving advice and helping people
78. ...but having been burned, I'm careful to avoid people with "issues"
79. I don't like snobs, poseurs, or painfully "nice" people
80. ...which is a problem here in the uber-nice SF Bay Area
81. I wear shorts to work in the summer
82. ...and know I get away with it because I'm a darn good programmer
83. But I will wear "appropriate attire" (ie, a suit) if need be
84. I had a dog growing up, and hope to have one again
85. ...along with a house with a proper yard
86. I've been using the Internet since 1984 (yes, that's eighty-four)
87. I actually remember when many called it the "ARPAnet".
88. I got obscenely drunk once
89. ...and woke up in a strange apartment. In Beijing.
90. Since then, I've been careful not to drink beer followed by hard liquor
91. My whole family was chased by Chinese troops out of Tiananmen Square
92. ...but the reason for it was quite boring.
93. I like to put kimchee on homemade hamburgers
94. I love hot food, especially Hunan and Sichuan (Sze-chuan) food.
95. I don't particularly like Japanese food, except sushi
96. I can't read most self-improvement books. Too earnest and preachy.
97. I am a big history fan
98. I think too much, and occasionally "go angst"
99. I celebrated my "Life, the Universe, and Everything" birthday recently

(And since the numbering started with zero, that's it...)