It is a little hard to describe myself, since sometimes I feel that I don't know much about myself. But since you are reading this, I guess I should say something more than that. (Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that the things I post here can come back to haunt me in the future.)
I am currently working at Arup as an environmental consultant, mainly on air quality modelling and risk assessment associated with LPG storage and gas pipelines, in Hong Kong (for now at least). Sometimes I am also involved in writing programmes to automate the modelling process.
There are times when I have a little trouble acting in a way that is appropriate to the occasion. Often I act silly when I should be serious, and vice versa. I also have a tendency to have a few jabs at my own expense occasionally (you can find examples of that from my articles and quick-hit comments). I am also a little shy and an introvert (a little odd considering that I describing myself on a public web site).
I have a tendency (perhaps habit) to make close observation to things that few do (often those things are ignored because they are not too interesting/important).
I am an avid sports fan, but not to the point of being obsessive (not yet, anyway). I can talk about sports non-stop, from rule changes to labour deals to player movements. From time to time, I also try to participate in sporting activities myself. I would also like to develop a theory that explains everything in the world in terms of sports.
A significant portion of my spare time is spent on solving problems in recreational mathematics (a perfect exhibit of how dull I am), some of which can be found here.
During my travels, I collect coins and banknotes of the places I visit. This hobby probably won't help me much if I am on dire straits financially, but it did taught me how to count and say "how much?" in a few languages.
I have probably reached the age where the schools I attended should not be a significant part of my self-introduction. It is not very interesting to anyone (unless someone is trying to identify all of one's former classmates) and I didn't do anything special during my time there. Just in case one is interested, I received, in reverse order, degrees from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Civil and Structural Engineering — I still wonder how life led me there), Carleton University and University of Waterloo (majoring in Mathematics).
The origin of the domain name is something like this: in many team sports, there is an offside rule where an attacking player would be called offside if he/she is caught beyond a certain (physical or hypothetical) line. Sometimes the referees make mistakes in making these calls, where an legitimate offside call is not called or offside is called when the offender player is onside. This often triggers jeers and howls from the stands, where fans would scream "offside!" (when the offside call is not made) or "offside?" (when the "offender" is onside) at the official making the call.
Comments on this web site can be directed to: jcylau at uwaterloo.ca.