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My real name is Frank Wong. I'm a single Chinese-American male. I'm trilingual, speaking English (well… duh), Cantonese (a Chinese dialect), and Spanish. I was born on June 1968 (you do the math) in Madrid, Spain. I have two sisters, Aileen, who is one year my junior, and Terry, who is four years my senior, and no brothers.
I don't really remember anything about Spain. I left before I turned two. I was baptized in Spain, which I suppose started a long struggle with religious dysfunction.
I then moved to Puerto Rico. For those of you who don't know, Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean; although it is a US commonwealth, they speak Spanish there. I lived in Mayagüez, Ponce, and Rio Piedras. I don't remember much about Puerto Rico either. I attended Catholic school, which helped perpetuate the religious dysfunction. The funny thing is that my parents were not that religious. I remember failing English, which was taught in conjunction with Spanish. I remember my first communion, which was as a matter of fact, a school function. I remember most vividly the death of my father. I moved to Florida shortly after that.
Okay, now there's Florida. Florida's biggest industry is tourism; so imagine, if you will, growing up in a place that is best known for being a vacation spot. I lived in Fort Lauderdale during the 80's, when I was in my teens. Fort Lauderdale was apparently the place to go to for Spring Break. Despite all this, I never really became a party animal. Go figure.
If you can imagine this, I was a Chinese boy attending a bilingual Spanish/English homeroom. If that's not disorienting, I don't know what is. That very same elementary school is now some kind of facility for teenage delinquents. I had nothing to do with that… Really!
Middle school was certainly an experience, more so in life than education. You see, nothing before in my life had prepared me for racism. I suppose it started early when for no apparent reason some kid decided to call me Eskimo. Now, my English wasn't all that hot yet, but it at least sounded like the Spanish word Esquimal, so I figured it out. Of course, my first mistake was asking my teacher why I was being called an Eskimo. My second mistake was not realizing that this kid and I rode the same bus. So I got in my first fight, or more accurately I got my butt kicked. I won't bore you with an account of every single fight I got into. Suffice it to say that there were a fair number of them, and admittedly I started some of them. I suppose the strange thing is that I always managed to avoid getting caught. In retrospect, I'm not sure that was entirely a good thing.
The other significant thing that happened in middle school was that somewhere along the line I started to dislike having come from Puerto Rico and my Hispanic culture. It was mostly because life in Puerto Rico was too nurturing and didn't prepare me for some of the adversities I faced.
During that time, I was also struggling with religion in my life. Okay, before I get thumped by you religious fanatics out there, I'm not questioning the idea of faith yet. (That'll come later and you can thump me then) You see, back then my family and I attended a Chinese Baptist church in Miami. I questioned the idea of religion in relation to community and family. What I found curious is that they weren't interested in my beliefs, they were interested in my behavior. As long as we were happy little lemmings, everything was okay. Go figure. Apart from that, this was also my introduction to the politics of the Chinese community in South Florida. You see, my attending church was not an issue of religion or faith. It was an issue of community cohesion and politics. In essence, my family would lose face if I didn't attend, which I didn't particularly care to. I remember getting into shouting arguments with my family over this and eventually, I stopped attending.
Besides the regular academic stuff, there were a number of things that I learned during the time I was in high school.
First, besides the racial prejudice that Chinese people face from others, there is the prejudice that ABC (American Born Chinese) face from the more traditional Chinese folk.
On a brighter note, racial prejudice wasn't quite as blatant and more people felt guilty about that type of thing, so they would find other ways to rationalize not liking you. Actually, I shouldn't really complain, many of the preconceived notions about Chinese folk are actually pretty good: good work ethic, good at mathematics, etc.
On a positive note, I found that I had developed interests in academics. Particularly science and mathematics. I had also developed an understanding of computers. Back then the only thing you really used a computer for is word processing and programming. So I programmed and I was pretty good at it.
Somewhere along the line I considered the idea of becoming a novelist, but my guidance counselor politely pointed out that, based on test scores, I had the writing potential of say… an onion. I also toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor (as in medicine, not doctorate). Although I think that I would've made a good doctor, most of my current friends shudder at that idea. So coming out of high school I decided to major on engineering.
After high school, I attended the University of Miami, which incidentally was rated the number two party school… not that I noticed really. I majored in electrical engineering and towards the end tacked on a computer science major and a minor in psychology. You know… this entire introspective schmeal.
I've made some of my dearest friends in college. You can meet some of them at The Troll Café.
I suppose one significant thing was that I started to identify with the Latin community again, admittedly it was partially because of a particular young Hispanic/Chinese lady (Hi Ana!), but it was more because I was finally starting to get over this socially imposed self hatred thing.
Oh, and this is also the time when I finally decided that organized religion was not for me. It was a difficult time for me; there were many years of brainwashing Err… I mean teachings that I had to overcome and question. In the end it seemed like there were just too many things that didn't make sense and no matter how you cut it, it is a matter of faith. And somewhere along the line I've managed to lose mine.
Funny, I wouldn't have picked up the second major, the minor, nor my current job (which is very cool) for that matter had it not been for my senior project advisor, or more accurately my first senior project advisor. We won't go into the intricate details of why I had to stay that extra year, but suffice it to say he was affectionately known as Lucifer. I suppose that maybe I should send him a thank you letter, but somehow I think a letter addressed to The Prince of Darkness would not be taken entirely well.
I graduated in 1991 and shortly thereafter came to the Seattle area to work at a software company. I should probably point out that it has been rumored that I have the messiest office at work.
I only have one roommate Magic. He is actually extremely good company. He is also a devilishly good chess player, but that's just a warning. Whatever you do, don't play him for money!
During my time here in Seattle, I've actually spent time with a teenager named Lucas. Like any teen, he occasionally has a little bit of a tough time with life. You'll often hear me refer to him as my little brother. Ironically, spending time with him as helped me understand quite a bit about myself. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. I only wish I had more time to spend with him.
What is Blue Dragon like? You should probably have a fairly good idea by now. However, in the off chance that you want to know more about me, you can check out:
- My rants - Probably the best insight into my personality. Here I list a number of observations, pet peeves, etc.
- My friends - I've included a quotes from each of my friends to/about me. After all, who better to describe me?
- My list of favorite things - Just the things I like and why I like them.
Why Blue Dragon? In case you were wondering if I'm delusional… No. I don't really think that I'm a dragon. It's just that I've always been fascinated with dragons. It probably due to the fact that I'm Chinese and that I enjoy reading science fiction/fantasy, but I went through the trouble of looking it up. [Now… where did I put that CD?]. According to Microsoft Encarta 98:
"… In the sacred writings of the ancient Hebrews, the dragon frequently represents death and evil.… In Christian art, the dragon is a symbol of sin.… Among the Chinese people, the dragon is traditionally regarded as a symbol of good fortune."There you go… death, evil, sin and good fortune. No wonder I'm so confused. Admittedly, the death thing is a bit morbid even for me, but the rest of it amuses me. Not that I think I'm a satanist or anything like that, but if you ignore the religious hoopla, evil and sin are not really that bad.
Actually, I played a Latin dragon in a high school skit for homecoming. We were paladins and we were playing against the dragons (I don't remember the school). There I was on stage wearing a green toga with a "DRAGON" sign pinned to it. It was one of the more memorable moments in high school. Maybe that was why. As for why blue? It's my favorite color.
February 7, 1998