Name: Horace Yat-Hong, Chan
Birthday: 6th August, 1976
Nationality: Chinese, British, Canadian.
Favorite Color: Blue

Many people had asked where my name comes from, and here is the answer. In Greek Mythology, Horace is the God in charge of time, The Time Keeper. The most famous and probably the first known Horace (65-8 B.C.) in history is the author of Odes, Epistles, etc., who is one of the greatest Roman poets. In ancient English, Horace is the same as Horatio. If you had read Hamlet, you'll notice Horatio is the only surviving main character at the end of the book. My mother chose this name for me as my Christian name when I was baptized with no particular reason.

Characters: I was born in the year of Dragon with Leo as my horoscope. Dragon and Leo are the most powerful character in the Chinese and Western constellations respectively. My character resembles them a lot. I'd say myself is a confident and optimism person. I handle stress well, or I should put it this way, I don't feel stress very often. I have absolutely no talent in music or arts. So far, I'm the only person I know who can sing a song in Karaoke with every note off by a different key.

Life: I should thank God and modern technologies for saving my life. I was small, I was not a healthy kid. I was born with yellow blood disease, asthma and allergies. Anyway, I grew up like a normal child. I studied in Methodist Primary School, La Salle College, Appleby College and University of Waterloo.
Among them, Lasalle is the one changed the course of my life and I'm always proud of being a Lasallian.

Computer: Being a computer engineer, computer is half of my life. I had my first computer, an Apple IIe, since Grade 5. . It was merely a gaming machine to me at that time. As I grew up, my computer is upgraded to XT, AT, 386SX, 486DX, Pentium and finally, the Pentium II I'm now using. For a period of time, I was very into BBS. Now, I shifted my interests to programming and I'm a die-hard net addict. I know something on everything on computer, from Assembly to Java, from 3D rendering to Word Processing, from computer architecture to the net, and from network security to Internet protocols. Personally, I dislike Macintosh, especially iMac, the machines form Apple are just too impersonal.

Games: My first game was Lode Runner on my Apple IIe, since then I played hundreds of games. There are several games worth to mention. Tetris, it's my most favorite game and the only game stays in my harddisk since 1993. Wing Commander Series, when a new episode come out, I know it's the time for me to upgrade my computer. Warcraft, I spend many sleepless night playing this game in Helix lab with my buddies, and it's the game make my carpal tunnel syndrome getting worse. Final Fantasy, A game so addictive that I skipped lectures for 2 weeks for the sake of just finishing it. One last word about computer games, I never own a console system, do I miss something in my childhood?

Arcade: Arcade is my other addiction. I have no interest in those mindless fighting or shooting games, I only play games required skills. Driving and shooting games are my favorite. Virtual Racing was the first game I invested my money and time to become an expert. Now, I am very skillful on the successors of VR, which are Daytona USA, Super GT and the most recent Daytona 2. Area 51 is an amazing game, in which I can finish the game using both guns. My other favorite shooting games include Time Crisis, Jurassic Park, Time Crisis 2 and Silence Scope. There is one very exceptional fighting game worth to mention about, Virtual On. I am one of the top players in the university, anyone are welcome to challenge me.

Anime: I am a long time Japanese anime and manga fans. The works from Hayao Miyazaki like Nausicaa, Laputa, KiKi's Delivery Service are considered the best of all time. The three greatest mecha animes, Gundam, Macross, and Evangelion are also my favorites. There are many other titles worth to mention such as, Escaflowne, Patlabor, Initial D, etc. Personally I had only collected two manga series, they are Nausicaa and Akira respectively. I read lots of mangas though, some borrowed from friends, some rented at book stores. Here is the list of manga series that I strong recommended; Gunnum, Area 88, Video Girl Ai, Silence Service, Five Star Stories, ARMS, and Eat-man.

Pop Culture: I like watching movies. Usually, I would consider a movie good if I didn't fall asleep while watching it. There are some classic movies that one must watch; Star Wars Trilogy, Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, and Saving Private Ryan. I listen to Chinese music most of the time, occasionally I'll listen to English or Japanese ones. I am not a fans of any particular singer, I emphasis more on the melody and the lyric of the song than who sings it. There is one singer I really hate, Leon Lai. I support mp3, it has been the only source of my music collection for quite a while. If anyone think downloading free mp3 are morally wrong, please send me an email, I'll like to convince you. In the foreseeable future, the only CDs I'll buy are those composed by Yuki Nishimura. She is simply the best composer.

Reading: An old Chinese proverb says, "Haven't read any books in three days, your will look terrible." I enjoy reading alot, I'm interested in books of all topics. My most favorite authors are Louis Cha, Issac Asimov and Haruki Murakami. I have a personal collection of all available Chinese translation of Haruki Murakami's novels. Besides reading books, I also have a pretty good reading habit on magazines. I read the followings regularly; PC Magazine, The Economist, IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Potential, IEEE Personal Communication, and try to read the followings when I have time; Times, Fortune, Car and Driver, National Geographic and Scientific America.

Sports: I used to be a very good swimmer. I was in the swimming team of Lasalle and Appleby. I entered the final round of HK interschool swimming competition, and ranked 2nd (from the bottom). I like playing badminton as well, I tried to play at least once per week. Having a pool table in my basement helps me become quite a good Billiard player. Starting this year, I'm very into skate and ski, enthusiastic enough to buy my own gears. In addiction to all the above, I love extreme sports. I have tried paintball, shooting, white water rafting, sea kayaking, bungy jumping, sky diving. My next advanture will be either one of the white-water kayaking, scuba diving or hang gliding.

Love: I'd like to conclude my profile with some of my thoughts on love.
- Two people fall in love is not just about being close, is about they grow and become mature with the help and support from each other.
- When one's love is not proportional to the distance between one and his lover, he will be in great pain, either way are true.
- I don't believe in love at first sight, however, one should able to recognize whether the girl is his type or not on the first sight.
- Love takes time to develope, but no one would bother to develope a relationship with a girl he doesn't like.

Last updated: Feburary 2000
by Horace Chan

Background Music: Say Yes - Yuki Nishimura