Ok, now its my turn to play in the tag game. A number of bloggers are tagging each other and asking you to state 5 things that your audience probably doesn't know and then you need to follow suit by tagging 5 other bloggers with the same task.
Paul Colligan tagged me, so now it is my turn:
- About 12 years ago my Dad was diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis was not great. The Doctors recommended for him to get his affairs in order and I moved back home to Estevan, Saskatchewan to be closer to the family. Instead of packing up and giving up he continued his job as an executive for a large Canadian manufactured housing company. I joined that same company too and was able to work along side my Dad. Each day I'd see Dad return from chemotherapy and go to work. He was nauseated, losing his hair, but still closing deals and driving the business forward. Lets just say not a lot of people called in sick during this time. If he was doing it while under going chemo, what is a small cold? :-) Through this time working along side my Dad is where I got my positive attitude and learnt what it meant to be a fighter. The great news? My Dad is still here with us, retired and cancer free. Positive attitudes are contagious and can cure terminal diseases. I believe it.
- We're selling our home. My parents are moving to the Canadian west coast to escape the harsh climate of Saskatchewan. They'll just be a few hours away from us so we're looking for a bit bigger home in Sammamish that will allow for more comfortable extended visits from them. I've been a tad homesick lately, going to be amazing to have my parents right near by and able to see them more often. If you're looking for a great home, that's totally decked out on the Sammamish Plateau, drop me a line. I'll throw in a red corvette if you buy it before the real estate agents get on board. :-)
- I love to cook, if I was ever to start a business outside of Microsoft it would be a restaurant. Even after reading the book Heat, I think this would be a fabulous thing. A Christmas Eve tradition my father and I have is to eat mussels in light cream, sauteed with onions.
- I do not have a CS degree, instead it is in engineering with some classes in architecture. I started programming when I was about 12 and had learnt C and Assembley by the age of 14 running bulletin boards out of my parents basement that I had coded on my own. Connecting with people online has been a passion of mine. After graduating from college once the engineering manager at my first job out of college found out I "could code" they'd move me from drafting to automating the CAD systems which to be honest I preferred. Since that first college job I've always been working in the software business.
- In the summers between high school and college I worked a lot of dangerous labor jobs in the Canadian oilfield. (Stuff you'll see on Discovery Channel's most dangerous jobs. I've worked on everything from pipelines, service rigs, steam cleaning crews to oilfield construction and survived. These are jobs where 15 hour days and 7 days per week are the norm and easily are the hardest physical work I've ever done. Lots of opportunity to get yourself killed if you're not careful, but man the money was great.
So now its my turn. I'll tag Robert Scoble, Chris Pirillo, Rory Blyth, Frank Arrigo and Chris Sells. Thanks again Paul!
And remember House For Sale on the Sammamish Plateau! Merry Christmas :-)
technorati tags: robert+scoble, chris+pirillo, rory+blyth, frank+arrigo, chris+sells
