Li Zhang: Coolest Asian in the Universe

Site best viewed with my connection, on my hardware, using my resolution.
But if you can't do that, anything else will suffice.

I am currently studying at the University of Texas at Austin as a petroleum engineering major. I haven't really done anything yet: just taken a whole bunch of weed-out classes and more chemistry than I'll ever need in my life (seriously, why water equilibria?), but it's going pretty well so far. I attend meetings of the UT chapters of the Society of Petroleum Engineers as well as the American Association of Drilling Engineers (not because I'm forced to). Petroleum engineering is a pretty cool major: I'm in high demand everywhere and the ridiculous number of veteran petroleum engineers retiring is only going to help my paycheck.

In case the petroleum industry ever topples over, I also have a passion for business. Maybe it's because I enjoy presenting, maybe it's because I really like Excel. Who knows? Who cares? I've begun to pursue a Business Foundations Certification from UT, and although I understand that this degree pales in comparison to a BBA, it will still give me an edge over my coworkers in any company I join.

When I'm terribly bored, I try to write. I've noticed that my creative writing focuses on a lot of wit and satire (read: all satire), so I try to pick interesting topics to write about that can benefit from some added irony. There are examples of my writing on my personal blog as well as in the 'downloads' section. I try to show the world only my favorite works, so what you find on this site and on my blog is a limited selection.

I've been studying the violin since the beginning of time. I played in the school orchestra through junior high as well as high school, but since I entered college, I have very few opportunities to touch my violin. I can't say much about my playing abilities, since I was brought up under the Suzuki method: I learned to play through listening, completely ruining my ability to read music.

I have plans to learn piano on my own when I get some more free time.

Too lazy to study spanish in high school, I am onlybilingual in English and Chinese. These languages have served me well so far, but I plan to learn to speak at least two more languages in the near future. I have made decent progress in my study of Japanese through the RosettaStone software suite: I can say "hello" and "that boy is reading a book."

I do not play any sports competitively, but for recreation, I do play a few sports just to prove I'm not a total nerd. I've played tennis since my sophomore year of high school, and am pretty decent at hitting the ball back to my opponent. I play ping pong quite a bit at college, and am also taking classes in swimming stroke techniques.