About

About DocNgu Words

During the fall of 2020, I could not sleep. The discomfort from the bilateral knee surgery kept me awake. Ideas have been bubbling in my head for decades, but I did not know what to do about them. Once my wife suggested writing a book. So on that sleepless night in the fall of 2020, I opened my laptop and started to write. This first step eventually resulted in the first book of the Frog-In-The-Well series. It was not my "first" book: Four decades earlier, when I got my doctoral degree in computer science, the school asked if I would like to have my thesis published. I paid the pride money; and that was my first book, hidden somewhere in the world's forgettable literature.

Once one gets the writing bug, it keeps biting. I have so many ideas I would like to put down on paper. Any book I can finish will have its separate website. The DocNgu Words site is the place to corral them all in: Click on the Books label on top of every page. For other writings, such as a pamphlet, an article, or a speech, they will be presented directly on DocNgu Words site: You can access them by clicking the proper label next to the Books label.

I should say it in the beginning, but it is not too late to say it: Welcome to DocNgu Words!

 

About Đốc Ngu

My name is Đốc Ngu. "Đốc" is the Vietnamese term for "Doc", and I am a "Doc" because I have a master's and doctoral degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology after getting my bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), four years after coming to the U.S. as a boat people refugee from the Vietnam War.

My name is Đốc Ngu. "Ngu" is because my last name is "Nguyễn". No, I am not related to your friend or family member of the same surname: About 40% of Vietnamese are "Nguyễn"; there is an interesting story about why it is so, and you should check it out on the web. After graduating from UIC, I went to work for a division of AT&T Bell Laboratories. On my first day of work, they needed to set up my email account; since there was no other "Nguyễn" in that division, they just abbreviated my surname for my username. I liked it right away, because "Ngu" meant "Idiot" in Vietnamese.

So "Đốc Ngu" means "Doctor Idiot" in English. I am a man of many ideas. Sometimes I tell my friends or family members about one of my ideas. They frequently rolled their eyes: it is my "Ngu" in action. In some rare cases, they agree with me: it is "Doc"'s time! If you have a chance to read one of my writings, keep this Doc-Ngu teeter totter in mind: laugh at the "Ngu"s which I assure you there are many, and nod in appreciation of the "Doc"s because they are so rare.