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Fred's Chinese name is Tang Fung (Tang is the same Tang as Tang Dynasty and Fung is left side wood, right side wind). Anyway, Fred has couple siblings, all married with kids =). Fred's parents still live in Jakarta. Fred attended Catholic schools ( Kanisius, Jakarta, Indonesia ) and was baptized in Dec. 1980. Fred goes to Church regularly, well, he used to anyway =b.
After high school, Fred's parents decided to send him to US to get "better" educated but let him pick where he wanted to go. Getting confused, Fred ended up in Michigan, well, as usual he never check his map and thought Michigan was only slightly colder than Jakarta, a balmy 85 degrees year around. Nevertheless, Fred really enjoys his undergraduate years at the lovely Ann Arbor where the University of Michigan is located.
After getting his undergrad degree in Electrical Engineering, Fred decided to move to a sunny and warm place. This time, armed with a real map, he ended up at Stanford where he did his PhD in Electrical Engineering under Prof. James "Da Coach" Harris (Yes, yes, yes, I know, that's three EE degrees & you can't spell gEEk without one). Anyhow, he was a member of the Harris Group from summer 1993 till summer 1998. Fred's dream of graduating one day, get a job, and get a life, finally became a reality in July 1998 when he went to work for HP/Agilent's Microwave Technology Center at Santa Rosa, designing pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistors (pHEMTs), joining the "darkside" of the force (Electronics rather than Optics, get it?).
Well, after nearly 2 years of wine and cheese life and uncountable trips to junk foods with his buddy Beavis, errrr, Boris (Well, these two were VIPs at fast foods in Santa Rosa. Hey, they knew them so well, these guys didn't even have to order their food. Just show up and pay, how pathetic.). Anyhow, Fred got really disoriented and thought all he ever needed in life was a bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (Not that he can afford one). Meanwhile, his parents and friends continued their naggings for him to move away from Santa Rosa. One day, the sky opened up and Fred got sober. He decided that the wine and cheese life was not his and being a VIP at fast foods was not all that glamorous. So, he packed his belongings and moved back to Bay Area to be closer to his no-junk-food buddies.
Starting March 2000, Fred joined Agilent Laboratories' Communication and Optics Research Lab in Palo Alto. He was back working on his first academic love, wavelength tunable Optoelectronic devices. On August 2000, after getting worn out by the long commute to work, Fred again packed his belongings, kissed San Francisco goodbye and headed for Palo Alto. Alas, his buddies got married so his social life does not improve much. Since he can no longer spend his time driving, he is forced to find a new hobby, gardening =)!!! He planted "Aimee" Gardenia , "Meiwa" & "Nagami" Kumquat , 2 "Mauritius" Lychee , "Kohala" Longan , "Maroon" Guava , & 6 roses (Queen Elizabeth, Fragrant Cloud, Peace, Midas Touch, Mr. Lincoln, & Opening Night) in 2001. Getting more & more ambitious everyday (not necessarily more confident), he is looking to plant "Mystery" Gardenia & Michelia Champaca Alba or "Matsubara Red" Prunus Mume next. Quite a change for someone who used to think all lovely plants are made of plastic =).
Back to the main topic ... a year later, errrr, like, right now 2001, the sky opened up for the second time. Fred realized that the politics at big companies is really not his cup of tea. He then decided he had enough and moved to a small startup company called Big Bear Networks. His commute time suddenly jumps from the "predictable" 7 minutes to the "unpredictable" 40 minutes depending on what time he leaves home. But such is life, always full of tradeoffs. The upside??? He is a lot more happy at work and also he moved up the technology "food chain" and now works on optical systems and the story continues ...................
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Poems and Songs that I found very touching:
(Don't get me wrong, I am artistically challenged)
