Nothing special, just who I am!
Hmm...hmm... let's see what you want to know about me
?!?!... How about a brief biography? Will that help? 
.
More information about me can be found on my Yahoo!
360° Page.
| Full Name | Nguyễn Tường Thoại
Ngân (what on earth?!  ) |
| Nicknames |
I've had several nicknames in my life. For details, click here. |
| DOB |
|
| Birth Place |
Saigon, Vietnam |
| Grandparents |
4 (all deceased) |
| Dads |
1 |
| Moms |
1 |
| Siblings |
None (that IS NOT a
good thing, let me tell you! |
| Pets |
I used to have 4 (4
cats: Lucy, Bobby, Buddy, and Brandy! Lucy is the mom and
the rest are her products!). They're all gone now |
| Favorite Authors | Many, some of whom are Ayn Rand, Alexandre Dumas, Jack London. |
Favorite TV Shows (in
no particular order :-) |
Blind Justice (Canceled), Law & Order (SVU particularly), Friends, Little House on the Prairie, Sex & the City (sometimes), Jay Leno's The Tonight Show (his monologues only). |
| Favorite Movies | The Shawshank Redemption, Breakfast At Tiffany's, When Harry Met Sally, Indochine, The Quiet American ... |
| Favorite Actors |
Lee Chi Hei (or "Li Zhi Xi"); Ron Eldard |
| Cars |
1 |
| Occupation |
IPTV Deployment Engineer at Alcatel-Lucent. |
| School |
I graduated from The University of Texas at Dallas in August 2004. |
| Major |
Computer Science |
).
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Okay, I won't be able to fit everything into that little table, so here we go the fun part....
Personal | Education | Hobbies | Pets
My name is "Thoai Ngan" (full first name), or Ngan for short (everyone pronounces it as "Nan", "Nun", "Non", or "None"). I was born and raised in Saigon, the southern part of Vietnam. My family left for the U.S. in December 1997, and after living in CA for the first 6 months, we moved to TX and have been here ever since. I like TX because it is not too cold here (NOT because it's hot!) In fact, the heat does drive me crazy once in a while too!
As long as I can remember, these are other names I have gone by 
:
-
"Chị Hai": This is what my D́ Út still calls me. In Vietnamese, it usually means the first sister in the family (in terms of order of birth and relationships, not necessarily age or size :-). "Hai" = #2. Literally it means "the 2nd sister". In the south, unlike the north, for some unknown reason, the first child is called #2 instead of #1. Everyone else after #2 is #3, #4, #5, and so on... I bear this name because I'm my mom's oldest child and my mom, in turn, is the oldest among her siblings. To make things more complicated, both my grandparents (my mom's parents) are the oldest among their siblings as well. So almost everyone from my mom's side calls me by this name.
-
"Doremon": This is what my friends from Giồng Ông Tố (my junior high school, 6th-9th grade) call me. Doremon (the correct spelling is actually "Doraemon") is a Japanese cartoon character of a robot cat, who can do lots of tricks with tools stored his magic pocket. Here's a good site with more information on Doremon: http://www.petalia.org/Funpage/Phim/doremon2.htm. I think I will devote a separate section about the story of Doremon later, but for now, just know that Doremon is a short, chubby, cute, and smart cat. More interestingly, he is not afraid of anything except for ... mice! (Hence this picture :-). My friends and I still joke about this name a lot. It was a great time back then!
-
"NH3": This name was originated from Uyên, the leader of our group during 10th grade at Lê Quư Đôn High School. This was actually a long story. NH3, in chemistry, means ammonia
.
NH3 also stands for Ngân "Hoàng Hậu ... Hợi".
I would not tell you what "Hợi" means, but "Hoàng
Hậu" means the Queen. One time the girls put a
feature on my head and turned me into the Queen of the group.
And since NH2 didn't mean much, they added the last H and made me
an NH3. Our group used to have a blast. Unfortunately
I left that school shortly afterwards. However, I still have
close contact with Phương, another member of the group.
She now lives in Virginia. -
"Burin": This name was used for a short time by Ngọc Duy, who sat right behind me during the 2nd half of 10th grade and 1st half of 11th grade at Nguyễn Hữu Huân High School. I also had a tremendously fun time there. My friends there have created a website for our class, but it's temporarily down now. I'll list the link once it's up again. Here's a picture of Burin:
-
"Grasshopper": I earned this nickname during an MCSE training course I took at SMU in 2006. It was quite a funny story. My instructor then, Sohail (who is my colleague as of this writing :-), is a very funny, witty person. It was my first day in class and I was the last member to join. Hence everyone else was already acquainted with one another. I raised my hand for the 1st time in class and started my question with "Professor!" Sohail smiled at me and said, "If I'm the Professor, then you're the Grasshoper!" Everyone busted out laughing while I had no clue why it was. Turned out he just didn't want me to call him "Professor". But that name has stayed with me forever since. I even have a sign of it at my work cubicle.
-
Other nicknames include: Ngan-e-Ngan, Short Stuff, & Shorty Bob (I hope I spell this right
).
I plan to get my MBA some time soon...
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
School: University of Texas at Dallas - August 2004.
High School: Berkner High School (Richardson, TX) - May 2000. I actually attended 4 different schools between 10th - 12th grade.
Other Schools: Gunderson High School (San Jose, CA), Nguyen Huu Huan HS (Q.9, Vietnam), Le Quy Don HS (Q.3, Vietnam), Giong Ong To Junior HS (Q.2, Vietnam), Giong Ong To Elementary School (Q.2, Vietnam), Pham Hong Thai Elementary School (Q.5, Vietnam)...For hobbies, I virtually can enjoy anything as long as I'm in the good mood. Otherwise (meaning when I feel blue), all I want to do is to SLEEP or watch Hong Kong movies (those that last 30 tapes+ long :), or more often, I cry (that does put me to sleep soon afterwards too!).
Okay, you might say I'm too vague now, so let me narrow things down to a few (yet like I said, these and the ones I don't mention have the same level of interest to me). Most and foremost, I like CRAFTS, everything crafts-related! And yes, crafts are costly, so I've only managed to venture into a few areas: Scrapbooking, Crocheting, Embroidery, Cross Stitching, General Paper Crafts. I also knitted in the past, but it's been a while since I last held those 2 knitting needles. I also like to paint (only oil painting so far). I had managed to finish a few paintings in the past (haven't touch those brushes for a while either). I like surfing the internet, creating web sites (like this one right now :-), talking (to whomever that happens to be available!), cooking (oh yeah, I can cook! You might not neccessarily like my dishes, though, because I don't have much time to practice ;-), movies, reading etcetera etcetera etcetera...
Some of the web sites I've built (besides this one obviously :-) ... [Note: I don't manage these web sites, so they might have been altered significantly since I handed them off]
ESC Data Consulting Company
Ron Eldard Fan Site
dottorCorti USA02/01/2008: I decided to keep this section in memory of my beloved cat Lucy who passed away in June 2007 and her 3 kittens. I have no more pets now will adopt another feline in the future once I'm more settled down. I miss Lucy very very much. I can't recite the stories anymore since they will definitely send me to tears. You can see more of their pictures in my Gallery.
I had 4 cats: Lucy, Bobby, Buddy, and Brandy. My cousin Loi gave me Lucy a while ago, and she, in turn, produced the other 3 babies. Here are their pictures!
