Still striving for improvement!

Tattoo is fake, by the way... - 2003

More pics of myself...

Basic Stuff:

So, you do want to know about my life eh? I guess since you came this far, I should tell you a bit about myself. I was an EE major (Electrical Engineering) at Cal, or University of California at Berkeley. I graduated from the EECS department and the EECS Honors Degree Program in 1999 with the Bechtel Achievement Award. Yeah, time has gone by pretty quickly, and I often think back and wonder, "Where have years gone?!" I guess I just have to accept that I'm getting older and older... kinda depressing eh? =) Ok, going off track... I graduated from Stanford Univeristy with an MS in EE degree in June, 2001, with a focus in Wireless Communications. Since then, I have been working for Lockheed Martin in California, starting in August, 2001 with their Advanced Tech Center as a Software/Satellite Communications Engineer. I can't believe it's been more than two years already since I started. Man...

My Hobbies:

My favorite hobbies include Classical Music/Violin, Astronomy, Tennis, Ice Skating, Movies, and Photography.

Classical Music is often thought of as boring, but if you sit down and really listen (meaning: pay attention) to it, you'll find that it contains endless variety and awesome complexity. It is unlike pop music since it does not repeat as often and there are more themes/melodies explored. I will further discuss this topic once I have time to add content to my Classical Music Page (which I'm not sure when that'll happen =P). Right now you can find out about my favorite pieces of music and favorite composers on this page...

I love Astronomy due to the sheer beauty of celestial objects such as planets and stars and also because of its mystery. Even though it is a science, when you discuss the mysteries of cosmology like the creation of the universe or black holes, it becomes a philisophical debate. Like the classical music page, I will hopefully get an Astronomy page filled up soon too... Recently, I began working with Vinci Park Elementary School 5th graders, being their "resident astronomer" and hoping to get the kids interested in astronomy early on. Hopefully I'll be a positive influence on them and teach them what *really* causes the seasons on Earth! (See if you can explain what causes the seasons, you'd be surprised how many people get it wrong! =P)

Sport-wise, I became pretty interested in all types of sports when I went to college. Right now I probably like tennis and ice skating the most. I used to play beach volleyball for fun every week, but I haven't had time to do that for the last 2 years. Bummers. I also play *every* racket sport somewhat proficiently. (The order of my skills go as: Tennis (by far), ping pong, racketball, squash, badmiton) So if you're interested in playing ping-pong, badmiton, tennis, racketball, or squash with me, feel free to mail me! I'm always looking for an opponent ;)

Since tennis and ice skating are my two favorite sports, it follows that I have two separate pages devoted to them. I'll try to keep them updated when I get the chance, and put info there on how my favorite pro athletes are doing.

Another one of my main hobbies is photography. I started around spring of 1997 thanks to my good friend Mike Magpayo introducing me to the world of SLR (Single Lens Reflex) Cameras. I was hooked after that. That summer, I saved up enough to buy myself a Canon Rebel G (a pretty good camera for beginner/intermediates) and a set of lenses. The rest is history. If I can ever get the time to scan all my pictures in (I have two *crates* of pictures), you'll see how crazy I got taking photographs. My favorite types of pictures are landscapes and "spy" pictures of my friends when they're caught by surprise. =) I purchased the Canon Elph Powershot 300 digital camera in 2001, and it has saved me tons of money now that I don't have to print my pictures out and scan them into the computer. For now, you can check out some of the random pictures I've taken here. Also in Fall 2001, I began taking photography courses at the UC Berkeley Extension in SF with Mike, and am trying to get a photographer's certification and maybe a fine arts degree in the future! I'll eventually scan some of my beginner's portfolio onto my webpage for you to look at.

My other hobbies include reading sci-fi/fantasy books, playing RPG games, collecting mp3's, learning other languages (I'm fluent in Mandarin, English, Taiwanese and proficient in Cantonese), and dancing (hip-hop, good trance, and top 40 pop). You can click on the links above to find out more about it.

Activities:

As for activities I did, my "political" involvement in student organizations really started when I became the Social VP of my residence hall (Unit 2 Griffiths) my sophomore year in college, as well as being one of the Peer Review Board members of Unit 2 and Security Monitor for Griffiths Hall.

During my junior year, I became officers for three societies, Eta Kappa Nu (HKN - National Electrical Engineering Honor Society), Tau Beta Pi (TBP - National Engineering Honor Society), and EJC (Engineer's Joint Council).

HKN/EJC:

I was elected as the EJC Represnetative for HKN my junior year. Because of that, I also became the IM/Athletics Coordinator of EJC where I was responsible for getting all the engineering societies to participate in sports and compete against each other. We had seven very successful seasons with a record of 16 engineering teams in the one of the seasons!!! There were teams participating in sports such as Indoor Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Basketball, Flag Football, and Speed Soccer. In my final semester at Cal, I successfully initiated the first "Mini-Olympics" and EJC All Star Basketball team for EJC. For the "olympics," we had more than 70 people competing in 5 sports (tennis, ping-pong, soccer, ultimate, and volleyball), and even though there was a rescheduling due to rain, the turnout was great!

After that semester, I put most of my attention into TBP, therefore I became an active member of HKN, supporting them when I can and participating in their activities.

TBP:

I still spend some time with Tau Beat Pi even though I haven't been an officer since Fall 1998. Maybe I just feel that I put too much time into the society already, and I want to see it succeed and realize it's potential. I used to be the president for the Berkeley Chapter (CA A) in Fall 1998. Now, my main jobs are to help the chapter out when they need advice and I am one of the advisors of the Chapter. In October, 2000, the TBP National Convention was hosted by the Berkeley, Stanford and Santa Clara and San Jose State Chapters. I was the Convention Treasurer for the convention. It was very exciting to see three years of hard work paying off and all the delegates from all around the country enjoying California and the Bay Area!

In the summer of 2001, Yu-Han Chen (the TBP CA A Chapter Mascot!) and I, under encouragement of many old CA A members/officers, decided to take on the project of reviving the San Francisco Bay Area Alumnus Chapter for Tau Beta Pi. The chapter is going pretty well at this time, and we're going to push to recruit more alumni in the area to join this fall. I am currently the VP of the chapter, and am in charge of outreach to the collegiate chapters and hosting events that help the local chapters out (Berkeley, Stanford, Santa Clara, San Jose State)

Mein Kampf:

Finally, before I bore you to death, I should say some stuff about my life. I was born in Missouri and soon moved to Michigan for 6 years. Ever since, I've moved so much I almost lost track. I've lived in various places in Taiwan and California, and those moves had a great impact on me. For a long time, I was an extreme introvert because of all the changes that accompanied the moves. The changes affected me even more since I moved not only from state to state but from COUNTRY TO COUNTRY. It wasn't until I settled in Arcadia, CA (Go Arcadia!) in 9th grade that I began my quest to become more outgoing. I can say that with my efforts and the help of being so active in Tau Beta Pi, I am more or less outgoing now. =)

Though, moving that much does have its merits, because I am now fluent in both Mandarin Chinese and English (including reading and writing), while also being able to understand Taiwanese. I took Taiwanese and Cantonese Conversation classes in grad school, so my Taiwanese is nearing fluent status and my Cantonese is "survivable" I am also quite open minded about people of different cultures, races, sexual orientations, beliefs, principles, etc. as well as being very adaptive to different environments. So I guess moving that much did help me a bit! =) In the end, my whole life I haven't lived in the same place for more than 3-4 years max. Especially the past four years, I live an almost nomadic existence. The one thing I crave right now is to settle down and finally be able to stay in one place for a long period of time (say, 10+ years?). I did just purchase my own condo, so I guess that dream might come true for me!

My Personality:

Personality wise, I'm a pretty laid back and friendly person. Even then, I have 6 principles that I hold firmly. They are honesty, loyalty/commitment, clear communication, timeliness, friendliness/kindness, and fairness. They're all pretty much equal weight in my mind. Other than that, I pretty much follow the basic law of "not doing things to others which you don't want done to yourself." I'm very honest about my feelings, and if a person is my good friend, I would pretty bluntly (yet tactfully) tell them how I feel about things. I love talking to intelligent people about deep philosophical stuff, but random, brainless chat is cool with me too! Sometimes I can be a bit stiff or shy, especially in a new environment, but I guess that's just the "leftovers" of my past... I'm still working to get rid of that! If you want to know my Myers-Briggs personality type, I'm sort of an "ENFP", where the E, F, and P are VERY borderline. I guess the only thing I can trust is my intuition... ok, bad joke... ;) Anyway, I should probably stop boring you now (you still awake?) and let you explore the other parts of my page (if they're updated...), so check back in the near future to see if anything has changed! Of course, if you ever want to know more, just mail me at kryzakk@yahoo.com. Thanks for dropping by!!!

Past Activities of Importance:

March 2003:
CANCUN!!! Finally I got to go there, even though it's 2 years after college (I still look young, right? =P) Had a blast there, because we (my friends Greg, Caroline, and Grace) avoided the "American" areas and went into the local town. Refreshed my Spanish quite a bit and got to eat some EXCELLENT Mexican food (ESPECIALLY THE CHURROS!) for insanely cheap prices... Greg got a *1 liter* cup of margarita for $4 I think... scary...