Tag, I’m it

I got tagged by my friend Jared Richardson on Wednesday. Now I’m supposed to blog about five things that people don’t know about me. Oh joy. I have to actually do some thinking? This might hurt.

1. I’ve lived in seven different states over my 25 years of existence. I’ve visited 30 states. No, my father wasn’t in the military. It’s just worked out that way for some reason. I can’t say I’ve particularly enjoyed all the hopping around, but it sure gave me a chance to see a wide variety of scenery and discover how people differ between regions.
2. My ambition going into college was to become an astronaut. Yes, I’m serious. My plan was to get a masters in Computer Engineering, learn Russian, get my pilot’s license, and move to Houston. Then I discovered that the computer programming I had been doing since I was 9 was actually kind of enjoyable. Funny how circumstances and chance occurrences can have such a dramatic impact on carefully laid plans.
3. Shortly after I moved to North Carolina, I spent eight months apprenticing at Ken Auer’s software studio in Holly Springs. There I was given the opportunity to learn XP (eXtreme Programming) and pair program with true masters of the craft of software development. The skills I picked up there have been immeasurably valuable to me ever since. Ken has been influencing the direction of XP since it was founded. Aside from getting to learn from him, being at the studio also gave me the chance to meet guys like Andy Hunt, Nathaniel Talbott, Duff O’Melia, and Adam Williams… all during my first year of college.
4. My first computer was a PC Junior. I was writing text-based adventure games in BASIC on it when I was 9. I still have one of the games I wrote. The code is definitely not DRY, but the game is fun to play.
5. I was taught completely at home from K through 12, along with my only brother. It’s an experience that I look back on with an incredible amount of appreciation. I’m grateful that my parents (especially my Mom) decided to go this route. They both could have just stuck us in a government school so they could accumulate money and things (like too many people choose to do these days), but they chose to invest themselves in us instead. It was a decision that has paid off in many ways, not least of which is a closer relationship between me, my parents, and my brother.

There you have it. Still awake? Good. I thought of a few more things I wanted to add to the list (such as “single and looking”) but it just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. Now I’ll tag Nathaniel Talbott, Adam Williams, John W. Long, Alan Hoffler, and Sri Sankaran.