About Thu Tu
«About Me
  Site Info  Help  Credits 

I have tended to avoid making an autobiographical page because I kind of have this fear of stalkers.eek I guess since you, as my site visitor, made the effort to come to my website, and then to specifically go to a page "about me," I should make it worth your while. grin

I realize some people hate the use of emoticons, but I think they are essential in nonverbal communication. When we talk, the words are a smaller fraction of the communication than the tone and facial expressions. Lots of misunderstanding occur when people lose the cues that tell them what the writer is saying. I am an active participant in my web host's forum. Since we are providing constructive criticism in some cases, it helps to be able to use emoticons to show that we do it with helpful intent.

I spent a whole paragraph on the use of emoticons because I am very interested in human behavior, which was what I studied in college. It was a combination of psychology and biology. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it career-wise, but it was interesting. I figured that regardless of what job I do, as long as there are people, my education is relevant.

I grew up in Southern California and moved up to Northern California for college. Before moving up here (since I have stayed), I didn't have a very good impression of Northern Californians. They seemed so mean and spiteful toward Southern California. NorCal wanted to secede from the state of California! I thought that was a silly idea. California has such a distinctive shape. If it split up into two, it would look like any other blah state. Another time, I was visiting in San Francisco, and someone had a huge sign saying, "They stole our water." I inferred that they=SoCal. That just sounded so hostile.

I have encountered many hostile people--indirectly-- in NorCal. They leave stupid parking notes because of stupid rules and/or they have nothing better to do. I like to park backing in. It's easier to use the mirrors when backing in, and when leaving, well, I am going forward instead of in reverse so I can see things better. One time, I got a warning note placed on my car at an apartment complex that they had a rule against that kind of parking. It also stated that my car's license number would be entered into the database and that the next time it happened, it would get towed. There were no signs stating that rule! Someone had nothing better to do at night (during the final episode of "The Apprentice," mind you) than to leave pre-printed notes about back-in parking. Pathetic. roll eyes

So why do I stay? Well, the people who are cool--my friends--would make it hard to leave. The weather is great... except when it gets too hot, but that doesn't happen as often as other places. When it gets hot, at least it's a dry heat... I can't stand high humidity. I love winter clothes: wool coats, scarves, gloves, hat. The weather here gets cold enough to wear those. However, I don't get to wear them as often as I like, but it's better than never. We're a few hours away from Tahoe for fun in the snow. Whitewater rafting, wine-tasting, and adventures galore are also a few hours away. And the thing that makes it worth it every day, is the air is soo much cleaner than in SoCal, where I would see the brown air when I flew in during the day.

One of my (many) hobbies is digital photography. NorCal is very photogenic. Up close, SF is quite ugly because it's a city. But it looks amazing when we back up to see the Golden Gate Bridge and The City is the backdrop. Yup, we call it "The City." Where are you going? "The City." Some people try to sound cool like they're a native by calling it "'Frisco" but I've been told that no self-respecting native calls it that. Also, when they say "San Francisco," they don't enunciate it; the words are slurred so you don't really pronounce the 'n' sound. That's a free tip for future visitors. wink

In 2003, my new-found interest in digital photography re-ignited an old hobby that I used to do: web design. Years ago, before server-side includes, web site maintenance was very tedious. I stopped doing it for a while. Now, with new technology and coding, web designing is so much fun! cool With CSS, I can change one line in a file and it changes formatting for a bunch of other pages. No more hunting down obscure font settings. I like it because I learn a lot. My web host has a great forum that I mentioned earlier. The people are really cool and helpful there. I try to help out other people, too, because it reinforces my current knowledge, or makes me recover forgotten information. I've been learning PHP and MySQL to update my skill set. It also helps to make my web site more dynamic.

I also love to dance. dance Sorry, I just had to add that so I can use that emoticon.

Wow... I didn't realize I would have much to say. Once I got on a roll, I just kept going and going. One thought just led to another. Writing is another one of my great interests. Having my own web site gives me an outlet to share my writing.

That's it for now. Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Thu Tu