The equivalence of chain letter is playing out in the blogsphere. When tagged, one is obligated to blog 5 not-so-well-known things about oneself and tag 5 more people. Simple math will show, like other similar attempts in other media, how fast this pyramid scheme will reach the entire blogsphere and collapse. Many very smart people, Jonathan Schwartz himself included, obliged. I don't know the chain that leads to him. But Hal Stern, whose blogs I read regularly, tagged me. Then, right before I was going to tag Mel, she did me.

• A typewriter changed my life
  When I was 13, my father gave me a manual typewriter made by Brother. Naturally curious, I tried to learn everything about it. To get a better angle, I held it up upside-down. And it exploded.

  I did not know the types were held up by springs and they slip off the hooks when upside-down. I froze in panic.

  For the entired week after, I re-assembled the machine in secret — without any help, like a manual. And I brought it back to the original working condition. I liked it.

  I then disassembled and reassembled everything I could lay my hands on: clocks, locks, bicycles, etc. Screwdrivers were my friends.

  And that's how I became a Mechanical Engineering major in college.

• I miss having a dog
  When I came to China, I thought bringing a dog into the country will be a big trouble. I therefore left Monty, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, with a relative. We see Monty probably 3 to 4 times a year since then. Somehow, he can sense our arrival and get excited waiting for the doorbell. He will dash out and greet us all together and one by one at the same time. (It is very confusing to him.) All of us would of course drop everything, get down to the floor, and roll with him until poor Monty is exhausted.

  At night, he will fall asleep in one of daughters' sleeping bags (or happily got abducted) but wander to my room trying to get onto the bed.

  I have been searching for the right breeds of dog in Beijing.

• I code in Scheme
  Scheme is a dialect of Lisp and is the only (or one of the very few) programming language based on Lambda calculus — the theorectical foundation of programming languages. Its entire spec is less than the preface of your C++ or Java book. Programming in Scheme is a joy.

  I believe all software engineers should practice Scheme for few years. Many schools, at least in US, agreed and use it as a prerequisive for all CS majored. When the starting age of programming dropped to high-school, or younger, with Visual Basic, JavaScript, or Java, this Scheme religion lost most of its followers. The new generation of programmers, sigh, no longer appreciate recursion the same.

• I am a lucky person
  I lost most times when I gambled. I never won lottery more than $10. I never won any raffles. But I am a pretty lucky person.

  I never felt poverty, even growing up in a developing country with a government employee father. I didn't have good grades in schools, but got great jobs ever since I started working. I don't have much social skill when I was young (or now), but I have many friends and a loving family. I indulged in foods and not exercised much (until about 10 years ago), but I feel healthy and my doctor agrees (well, mostly).

  I hope my kids can be as lucky.

• I wear reading glasses
  Do you know there are bi-focal contact lenses? Few years ago, my optomestist prescribed them for me. They are godsends! Much better than bi-focal spetacles or multple pairs. They are probably better than Lasik that cannot help these aging eyes.

As an attempt to bring this tagging game into China, I tag James Bai and Forrest Wu. Two members in Sun China who blog mostly in Chinese. I also tag Claire, whom I have not heard for a while. Pavel in Prague. Lastly, anyone tagged Rich yet?