Born and raised in San Jose, California, I grew up the eldest of 4 siblings in a cozy home in the middle of an amicable cul-de-sac. From an early age, I developed a fond love of numbers, computers, and Spiderman. (I swear this is starting to sound like my Cal essay, so I'll only hit the main points)
I went to Valley Christian High School, where I was a founding member of the robotics club and International Space Station team. It was 4 years of waking up at 6am - because I spend way too long showering in the morning - to get classes at 7:40, school ending at 2:25pm, and then robotics "officially" going from 5 to 9pm. I forget the actual official times because it really started 2:30 and ended when the tasks were completed that day, usually around 10pm. (Don't ask me how I got sleep or homework done; I'm still trying to figure that one out). But in all honesty, I wouldn't give up the experience for the world. I met some fantastic people, learned a great deal, and had the time of my life.
My "path to Cal" was a choice between here, Santa Clara University, and UIUC, since those other top-tier engineering schools rejected my application. Though I wouldn't mind small classes or cold weather, I figured Cal's the best hand God dealt me, so I should run with it. Turned out to be a great decision, since class sizes aren't an issue for me and I prefer not living in the middle of nowhere!
I'm proud to say that I've done my 10000 hours of programming, but I've still got a long way to go before I'm really any good at it. There's always something more to learn! :) CS61A was my first real programming class (AP Comp Sci was a joke...), and I've had a lot of fun with 61B and 188. 61C was... interesting and an exercise, to say the least. I've programmed robots, support systems for science experiments on the ISS, websites, and the suite of things you'll encounter as a CS student in Cal.
I'm not a huge fan of doing the "programming language size" comparison, but if you really want to know, here's the things I've messed with (roughly chronological order):
My current hobbies are eating and sleeping, since I apparently can't get enough of either of those. I love entertainment of all sorts. My current video game distractions are League of Legends, Hearthstone, Runescape, and all the Super Smash Bros. I follow way too many mangas and anime currently (it's really a talent how much watching or reading I can marathon in one sitting!). I also enjoy rock climbing, bouldering, and swimming.
Is "catching food in my mouth" a talent? How about cracking jokes and puns? I like to think I have a talent for keeping things light-hearted and entertaining. I'm a great listener and I also give great hugs!
Two events readily come to mind. The first is winning the Sacramento regional robotics tournament way back in 2010. I programmed the autonomous portion of our robot and I got so excited every time it successfully worked! We won that regional by the skin of our teeth, but it was a monumental moment in my life. The second is watching the shuttle that took my team's project and science experiment into space. Our experiment monitored the growth of certain plants in a zero-g environment, and we designed, built, and tested the whole thing. I got to program the water system, the camera, and various sensory inputs, so I was excited to see the whole thing launch into space!
A recent memorable event was the robotics camp I taught. It was a week-long camp in SF for jr. highers that taught basic engineering and programming through Legos. By the end of the week, they had built and coded their own soccer playing robots! Remarkable, sure, but what makes this really memorable was the way their faces lit up when they had little bouts of discovery or fixed those troublesome bugs.
Well, anime doesn't watch itself... kidding! I'm taking Sociology 3AC, but besides that, CS61A has my (mostly) undivided attention. I practically live in Soda Hall anyway, so it's not a huge change. I want to make swimming or rock climbing every week a commitment, but we'll see how that goes.
Personal and visual. In regards to the formar, I was a team captain and a tutor before I was a TA, and I've found myself more comfortable as a tutor. I'll do my best to make sure everyone gets the individual attention they need. For the latter, I like using pictures and visual analogies to explain things, especially for OOP topics.