About Me
Personally
I am a nice friendly guy that most people enjoy hanging out with. My hobbies and passions describe it best: personal growth (including NLP, mythology, Jungian work, and other not as well-known models and practices), reading, writing, podcasting, martial arts, playing piano, photography, video, sound, web, and other multimedia projects, and otherwise constantly improving myself as a human being.
Professionally
October 2009. As the luck (or fate?) may have it, I'm back to EDA, this time as an Architect at Calypto Design Systems. I'm still figuring out what exactly this means and what I'm going to be doing, but one thing for sure, some things are gonna change. As usual, it starts on Monday…
In early July 2008, I have "jumped the ship" of my 20-year long career as a scientist, and now I am turning my wheels towards an entirely different career as a creative artist and multimedia publisher. We'll see how that goes (I'm sure I'll be updating this paragraph periodically).
Until July 2008, I worked as an R&D Engineer at Synopsys, Mountain View, CA.
In 2001 - 2005, I was a Research Associate in Hardware Verification Group at Stanford University, CS Department, enjoying the warmth and sunshine of California.
Before that, I was a graduate student in Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where I was working with prof. Edmund Clarke. I graduated in 2002.
Spiritually
I truly believe that the Universe is a friendly and abundant place, and it will always provide anything you ask for. Just be careful what you really ask for... And the way you ask for it is by giving more than you expect to get back. This way you will always receive more than you need.
For human beings, there is no life without a purpose, just as there is no single answer to what this purpose is - everyone's purpose is different. Find one that would last a lifetime, and you will find happiness.
My personal mission is to find my own happiness, and on the way do my best to improve the quality of life for the people in the World.
Because, after all, we are human beings, and not human doings.
Brief Personal History
This section is intended primarily for my own reflections, kind of a static version of a blog if you like.
- Computer Science - in Search for Truth - I
- NLP - in Search for Truth - II
- Personal Growth - in Search for Meaning
- Filmmaking - in Search for Creative Outlet
- Hobbies - in Search for Fun
Computer Science, Logic, and Formal Verification
or in Search for Truth - I
For those folks who know me as an ex-Synopsys employee, a former researcher at Stanford University, a graduated CMU student with a Ph.D. in Computer Science, or maybe even a long-ago formal verification guy and a student at the Novosibirsk State University (Russia), then you might find my Professional Information page to be of help.
To sum up, for close to 15 years I've been solving basically the same problem: having written a program (designed a hardware chip), does it really do what it was intended to do? The answer to that turned out to be deeper than I ever imagined.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
or in Search for Truth - II
Now comes somewhat more esoteric crowd who may be searching my name in relation to NLP, which last time I checked still stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Strange, given its very basis to include the requisite variety principle - but that's beside the point.
My interest in NLP was, in a way, similar to that in computer science, only now the "computer" was a lot more interesting and a lot more complex - the human brain. The question, however, was still the same: does it do what (I thought) it was intended to do, and how do I fix it?
Having been there and done that (and gotten a "T-shirt" of a Master & Health Practitioner), I have played with this "objective model of the subjective reality " for a few years with a good friend of mine at the Holographic University up in San Francisco, and, tired of never-ending success without failures to learn from (hey, just kidding, alright?) decided to move on to study other fields and models related to Personal Growth.
Reason? However strange it might be, I discovered that, despite the fact that a human being is incomparably more complex than the most sophisticated super-computer, the field of computer science has been - and still is - thriving with new developments, discoveries, approaches, and rapid advances for the past half a century, while NLP, being twice as young as a field, has been stuck at the same place since about mid-80s. Not a good sign...
Personal Growth
or in Search for Truth - III Meaning
Finally, we arrive at the most curious audience of all - the audience that is being curious about themselves (granted, it is also a rather curious crowd in and of itself).
This has all started as my reaction to NLP being too stagnant, and my natural (as a scientist) desire to kick the dust and get it going again. With a couple of friends, the three of us have come up with a bunch of wild ideas, got a mic, sat down at a round table, and recorded a set of rants on NLP and other subjects that have become a stream of podcasts. The gang has become known as the Radical Change Group, releasing a steady stream of weekly podcasts starting from fall of 2007.
Here we touch upon many streams of thought, pulling together NLP, Mythology, Clare Graves model (aka Spiral Dynamics), 8-circuit brain model, Carl Jung's analysis, and other things.
Filmmaking - in Search for Creative Outlet
Since fall 2008, I've been actively pursuing my dream of becoming a filmmaker, and making a movie. For starters, I've got a whole new website just for that purpose. And many hours of hard work and thousands of dollars later, I've had my first short film hit the big screen Oct 4, 2009 in San Francisco! If you missed, at least watch the trailer. I've also helped to shoot a few other movies along the way, and more are in the pipeline.
In the coming months (or years?) I'm planning to come up with bigger and better, and hopefully feature-length movies, and - who knows? - maybe I'll make it my next career.
Hobbies and Passions,
or in Search for Life, Happiness, and Fun
By describing the long progression of my personal search for whatever it happened to be, I might have lost you for something rather simple and something you know I do, but have not mentioned yet. Yet. Time to tie up the loose ends.
In addition to all of the above, my hobbies, passions, routines, practices, and addictions include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Dancing - I always loved to dance in night clubs, but never before I thought I would fall so-o-o deep in love with the 5Rhythms dance. I've even written a poem about it. It's not just a dance, it's a moving meditation, it's an ecstatic prayer with your sweat, it's the beat of life itself. It is sheer poetry of the body. Come, dance with me!
- Martial Arts - I hold a black belt rank (1st dan) in Kuk Sool Won, and studied for some time a form of Aikijujutsu.
- Music - both listening, mostly to classic and progressive rock of high quality, trance dance, some good new age stuff (too bad there is too little of it), and playing some piano (synthesizer) and guitar.
- Reading books - all sorts of books, mostly educational (given my searches I, II and III above), and occasionally a sci-fi or fantasy novel (Harry Potter rules!)
- Multimedia - photography, video, flash, sound editing, podcasting, web design... If you follow the links and pay attention, you'll see the traces of it all around here.
- Hiking, biking - there was a reason I moved to the Bay Area, after all :-) I especially love to go to the ocean, walk and play bare-foot in the sand, run with the waves... I've been mountain biking around the hills a few years back, maybe I'll get back to it one day. Hope our Governator doesn't close all those parks by then...
- Chocolate - dark, hot, sweet, and melting at your touch... No need to say "More!!..."
That's it, folks! Have you found what you've been looking for? If you've read all the way till here, probably not... Well, tough luck. At least you have enjoyed the experience!