Mostly through my past, I used to decide firmly on what I wanted and where to go before I set out and to change the course of studies and in the pursuit of careers. There was one unexpected twist in that.

When I first went to berkeley in 1991, internet and WWW were burgeoning. I felt comfortable with UNIX, networking, UUCP, bitnet, internet and programming, so catching up with WWW was trivial for me at the urge of friends, classmates, mentors and peers at that time. I just learned it to answer the questions to them and had no real motivations inside me to acquire it. Internet/WWW was not taught formally at all, and was dicussed in informal seminars around the campus.

U.C.Berkeley is progressive and in the frontiers in accepting new experimental thoughts and technologies. Circumstances around me made me learn the new technology which I'd never thought about it.

Working some jobs in Internet/WWW developing supported with my strong UNIX and programming skills helped me to get paychecks. I'd never thought about making a career out of it. I just wanted to get through the time.

Studying on Altaic Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence and Logics didn't work out well as I'd intended. I went there to study those and nothing else, and tried to stick to those.

I don't know which came first, losing interests in linguistics or seeing enormous chances in internet/networking; anyways, I had to reshape my objective in being in Berkeley and to map out the plans for the next. Non-homogeneous period of confusions came and went. At that time, it seemed like a period of wasting valuable my youth. Looking back (after leaving Berkeley and having settled in LA for a while) it was a time to accept and adjust myself to new challenges, but I didn't get it smoothly. That's it.

For a while, I regretted having been there wasting time and money. Now I don't see that way and am just glad that I've got a new challenge and real one. It doesn't matter it is a way of rationalizing and beautifying the past. I didn't hesitate to pack linguistics and language books into cartons, not planning on unpack it within a couple of decades. "I tried" is what I can say about it.

To be successful, you have to be at the right place at the right time. Computer Graphics was my real pursuit in my early twenties, but I had to give it up as I was at the wrong place at the right time. As for computer networking/systems field, it seems like I was at the right place at the right time looking back now. Not only the opportunities are enormous, but also I've got confidence and fresh flow of energy through it. With the enery recharged, I'm delving into computer graphics this time. With the confidence mentioned, even if I am at the wrong place at the wrong time, I'm sure will make it up to the certain level I've planned.

If you are on the right track, life seems easier and pleasant. If you are on the wrong track, you have to agonize about it, but you can still make it by keep pursuing it.

I used to set the rigid plan and goal before I started anything. At that time, that didn't work. What I really learned is the real knowledge of things to come. What I realized now is the importance of opportunities which Berkeley provided me with. When I say Berkeley, Berkeley includes both the educational instituition the Univerisity of California at Berkeley, and atmosphere and some people in and surrounding the campus and the city of Berkeley.

Several paragraphs above, I mentioned I don't know which came first. Now I think seeing the future came first. That's why I didn't hesitate to throw away the old pursuits. (Nov-9-97)