I’ve Been Tagged!
It looks like this little game of blog tag that Jeff Pulver started has meant that Ken Camp, Peter Csathy, and Luca Filigheddu all tagged me–at least that I know of so far. With that in mind, here are five things people online may not know about me:
- Right out of college, I did IT for a now-defunct company that employed recruiters who sold both internal and external candidates into various IT jobs. I myself was “whored out,” as I lovingly called it, into a company that I ultimately ended up working for doing a job I never thought I’d do–phone support.
- My hyphenated last name was the result of me losing a best 3-out-of-5 coin toss with my wife. No, her name isn’t hyphenated and the kids have her last name.
- I am originally from Santa Cruz, California. Aside from the four years I moved to Hawaii and went to high school, I lived in the Bay Area until 1998. After that, I moved to Washington state where I have lived in both Spokane and the Greater Seattle area–rather opposite in terms of geography and politics. Despite having lived outside of the Bay Area for nearly a decade now, I have managed to remain employed by companies with a Bay Area office and been able to work from home all that time. I consider myself lucky.
- My online history goes back 2 decades. I first got online in 1986 using a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem hooked up to an old Apple II+. In fact, that acoustic coupler used to respond in kind when I played Hardball! and a few other games. The handle I had back then: KC, sometimes KC Smith if I needed more characters or a last name. 10 years ago, PhoneBoy became the handle of choice.
- I earned my first dollar singing on stage with my father when I was three. I did try and experiment with a guitar and piano when I was a little older, but unlike my father and many other geeks, I didn’t seem to have the musical aptitude and/or didn’t feel like working at it enough to get anywhere with it. Although, to this day, when presented with a piano, I try and play a few songs that I haven’t seen sheet music for, yet manage to work out the melody for. Maybe there is something there…
Meanwhile, who to tag. Tom Keating, Om Malik, Irwin Lazar, David Beckemeyer, and Giacomo Vacca. All of you should consider yourselfs “it” in this game of blog tag. 
