AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION (following Jack Kerouac's bio from Lonesome Traveler)

NAME: Liane Chan
NATIONALITY: Chinese-American
PLACE OF BIRTH: Riverside, California
DATE OF BIRTH: November 21, 1979
EDUCATION: (schools attended, special courses of study, degrees and years)
Canyon High School (Anaheim); El Rancho Middle School; Riverside Christian Day School; University of California, Los Angeles (1997-2002); Fullerton College (2003); City College of San Francisco (2005-now). Psychology, Bachelor of Arts, minor in Classical Civilizations (1997-2002). Played piano from 1990-1998. Member of French Club and Literary Society.
MARRIED: maybe later
CHILDREN: still growing up myself
SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL OCCUPATIONS AND/OR JOBS:
first paid job, stamping cigarette cartons with a friend for her dad so we could shop at Ponytails; tutored a couple kids in high school, mostly math; did a mail run for an on campus restaurant office, then became the office admin; joined the promotions and productions dept. at the campus radio station and trained to be a DJ; became registrar for my off campus fellowship; started doing street team work for various companies; became a lab admin for a Mac Statistics lab; started a website for B.R.M.C. - my current favorite band; wrote some music reviews; became an assistant to the CFO at a CD/DVD wholesale distributor; returned to being a full-time student, music reviewer, and street teamer for Beggars Group/Matador Records.

INTERESTS
HOBBIES: music, internet, reading, writing, ebaying, collecting
SPORTS: none really, I took tennis lessons a long time ago
SPECIAL: music
PLEASE GIVE A BRIEF RESUME OF YOUR LIFE:
Had a pretty decent childhood mixed with happy memories and traumatic experiences (fights, car crashes, loneliness), youngest of 3 children with one older brother (Jacob) born 8/9/77, who is a sculptor/artist/student at SFSU, and older sister (Gina) born 3/21/75, studied Molecular Cell Bio at Berkeley where she met her husband Tarek, an Egyptian man, and they have a son named Ali born 10/17/01.

Had a good early education at Riverside Christian Day School until 3rd grade when we moved from Grand Terrace to Anaheim Hills; as a child, visited grandparents in San Francisco often and occasionally relatives in Arkansas, took a trip to Hawaii with parents and brother, visited New Orleans one summer when my dad worked there - this was when Hurricane Andrew hit; drew a lot and took painting lessons as a child, somewhat seriously considered being an artist - maybe in comic books, but didn't see much future in it.

My parents never got along too well and haven't lived together since he moved to Louisiana to work for the US Army Corps of Engineers, then moved to San Francisco to help his dad with apartment buildings. My mom raised us all until she started working as a chemist, though she had her mom's help when she came to live with us in 1982.

Early literary influences included C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and John Steinbeck. (Also, various series of formulaic books for girls, such as The Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, etc.) Kept some journals and diaries during junior high and high school, but stopped until junior year of college. Family moved from Anaheim Hills to Buena Park the summer before my junior year. During my last few years of college, I wrote in journals pretty often, even during my summer visit to Taiwan in 2001, during which I studied Chinese and went on trips with relatives and people I met through the university.

Learned the joys of email during college by joining various email lists for bands I liked. Through the Dubstar mailing list, I made a good friend in England who exchanged many emails, CDs, and tapes with me throughout college. We eventually did meet in Sheffield after I graduated and visited England for 3 weeks. In that time, I went to V2002, Leeds Festival, Hampton Court, Hampstead Heath, and a Garbage concert in Camden. Then, I joined a tour group and visited many places in London and Paris, includin Bath, Stonehenge, the Tower of London, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe. Started working at a company with music industry ties in an attempt to learn more about the business, became annoyed and disillusioned by most of it, though I did get many promo CDs and discovered some great bands (The Raveonettes, The Caesars, The Tyde, etc.)

Took over a year and a half off from work (and life practically) after a manic episode landed me in a hospital. Met some interesting people there, but didn't actually keep in touch with them. Not long after getting out of the hospital, I crashed my new car after running a stop sign, which I didn't notice possibly due to heavy medication. I was very isolated at home and only went to church and bible study to see friends. I even wanted to return to the job that I hated so much.

Summer 2004, my brother returned from San Francisco where he'd gone to study art in January. Also, a cousin who'd visited from Taiwan came with her sister and her friend to stay with us. We went on some trips together: Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Yosemite, Solvang, Bryce Canyon, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Disneyland, Hollywood, and Knott's Berry Farm. After that, I was home alone most of the day with little to do but surf the internet all day. This continued until March of this year when I went to stay with my sister in Santa Clara. I played with and read to her son Ali and helped with house cleaning and cooking. I also took some recreational classes in Tai Chi, crocheting, and basket weaving. Most of my classmates were senior citizens since the classes were during the day. I still enjoyed the classes.

This summer, I enrolled in a class at City College of San Francisco. I enjoyed the class and I found it much easier to get out and do things in the city. After that, I moved into my own apartment and am currently working on couple certificates in Multimedia and Broadcast Media. Music is still very important to me and I try to go to as many concerts and instores as I can. I've had a website for one of my favorite bands since 2002 and have regularly written on Xanga since 2003. Recently, I rediscovered the joy of keeping a journal and have been actively writing in it since last month. I also began to have more time and interest in reading books and magazines.

Favorite complaint about the contemporary world: the directionlessness of today's youth, hippocracy of everyone, the focus on work or school as the sole purpose of life

PLEASE GIVE A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THIS WEBSITE, ITS SCOPE, AND ITS PURPOSE AS YOU SEE THEM:
To introduce myself to my audience, whoever that is, and to give people a better idea of who I am and what I stand for. Perhaps, to also learn more about myself and why I do the things I do.