As technological progress marches on, it seems that the ancient, revered, time-honored practice of sending forwarded E-mails is no longer quite in vogue as it used to be.  Instead, these things are now posted on blogs and then other bloggers are "tagged" to post their replies.  Next you know, bloggers will be asking other bloggers to post something on their blogs so that Bill Gates will give them one million dollars.  Like posting about my dreams, I swore I would never actually participate in one of these tagging events; however, my wife has a great deal of sway over me so I decided that - like Donald - I'll make a one-time only exception and tell you all 8 facts you may or may not have known about me.  

1.  I used to be semi-morbidly obese when I was a teenager.  In my Grade 11 year, I was hovering near the 200 lb mark; I can safely tell you that almost *none* of this was muscle.  1a) My major fitness goal at the time was the successful completion of two push-ups! 


2.  I have spoken to and shaken the hand of Gabe Kaplan (the star of Welcome Back, Kotter).  2a) I haven't washed my right hand in 10 years*. 


3.  While in university I took several drama classes and successfully auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  This almost led to my postponing my CS degree and going to New York to study acting for 2 years. 3a) I originally thought I was the recipient of a prank phone call when they phoned me. This led to an awkward moment after I realized the guy on the other end of the line really *wasn't* my friend Craig.  3b) If you think this is an odd career choice, I almost ended up doing a degree in biochemistry before deciding on computer science in the first place.

4.  I used to be a male model after getting a "scholarship" to give me a free ride through the modelling classes.  Strictly low-rent walk down the runway stuff rather than photo modelling.  4a) Yes, I used to be in the physical condition necessary to be a male model.

5.  I used to sing actively in a choir as a second tenor (though my singing voice is more second tenor/baritone now).  5a) Yes, I actually have a singing voice.

6.  Corollary to points 3 through 5: seriously, I *am* heterosexual. 

7.  I've been coding since I was about 7 or 8 years old.  My family had an IBM PC Jr that I used to play a lot of minor games on; one day I found the BASIC tutorial and got hooked.  My father picked up several "text game development" books and thus my torrid love affair with programming began.  7a) I had a very lonely childhood.


8.  I have an intense fear of mutilated stuffed animals. 8a) No, you read that correctly.  8b) You think the freak-out this woman had about pickles was crazy?  That's *nothing*.

 


To get my "tagging" out of the way, I'll ask Anand (because he needs to keep his posting streak alive) and JWerx (who might as well do this since he hasn't posted anything at all for something like 2 months) to follow suit with their own replies!