Tagging isn't just for walls anymore

You may or may not be aware of the current craze sweeping the (cringe) blogosphere. When you get tagged, you are supposed to reveal five things about yourself that the typical reader is unlikely to know. Since I was honoured by Rob Windsor with a tag, I feel compelled to continue the chain.

1.  My first job in the computer industry was also my first job ever. I was fifteen and I spent the summer writing computer games for the Oxford County Board of Education. On a Commodore Pet. The coolest part of this is that a number of the games that I designed were eventually converted into LOGO and were still being used by the province of Ontario more than 10 years later.

2.  I was a poor writer when I was in high school and university. Not that I’m a great writer now. Only that it comes much more easily than it used to. The key for me was a suggestion to write the way that I speak. Don’t worry about the grammar or coherence. That can be added in the editing process. Just get words down and work from there.

3.  I grew up in Canada and never learned how to skate. Not until this past December, when I laced up skates for the first time in over 35 years. Now I play in two hockey leagues. Not well, but not killing myself is my only bar to success in the sport.

4.  I love playing volleyball. I played the sport on and off for years, but took it up with a vengeance once I moved back to the Toronto area. My height (or lack thereof) means that I set when I’m playing court volleyball. But I also play beach volleyball in the summer, where I mostly play doubles.

5.  When I lived in Los Angeles, I tried out for a number of game shows. This includes a couple that never made it to air, as well as the venerable Jeopardy. I actually appeared on one show, QuickSilver. It was on the USA Network for a couple of seasons. I won the grand prize for the show that I was on, said grand prize being a week at a Dude ranch in Colorado. And I still have the tape to prove this.

Now to pass the baton on to others. I’ll start with one of my partners, Dave Lloyd. Next is Dave Totzke. The someone who probably doesn’t know that I read his blog: Eli Robillard. Finally I go way up the food chain to two blogs that I read to help me get better with my writing and presentation skills, And I know that they have no idea that I read their posts religiously: Kathy Sierra and Garr Reynolds.