The PhoneBoy Blog

8 Things You May Not Know About PhoneBoy

02 Jan 2008

This meme seems to go around every so often. This time I was tagged by The Gabby Geek. You can read my last attempt at this. Here’s another 8 things you may not know about me.

1. In my professional life, I have spent more time working from my home than I’ve spent working in an office. I started working from home in 1998 when I moved to Spokane, WA, yet maintained a job with a small software company in the San Francisco Bay Area until I joined Nokia in 1999–still working from home. Nearly 10 years later, I’m still working from home.

2. I actually had my first “real-world” job while I was still in college. Unfortunately, I did not get along with the people at this company, so my tenure there was relatively short. However, the whole experience ended up being a huge lesson in humility and not burning bridges. A good lesson to learn early in one’s carpet.

3. While this should not be a surprise to anyone, I got to use my first computer when I was about 4 or 5. It was a state-of-the-art (back then) Apple II. I still remember my step-father telling me to type RUN HELLO.

4. My wife, back when we were dating, convinced me–over the phone, no less–to cut up my credit cards. Yes, I was in well over my head back then. My financial situation has improved substantially since then. I don’t spend more money than I have anymore.

5. While I was licensed to drive at the age of 15–legal age in Hawaii–I did not own a car until I started dating my wife nearly 10 years later. No, she didn’t ask me to get one, but she was the main motivation for getting one. I grew up navigating public transportation, which felt better than owning a car at the time. It was certainly a lot cheaper and a lot less responsibility.

6. I don’t actually like talking on the phone that much. Kind of strange for someone with the name PhoneBoy.

7. While a lot of geeks of my generation were into playing Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games, I got bored of them during high school. I did used to play a variety of those games, and I did used to find them fun. I can’t play any game like them for very long anymore.

8. I suck at public speaking. This is even after having taught Check Point FireWall-1 classes for a number of years. I am a much better writer than a speaker.

So who am I going to tag? I’m supposed to tag 8. Good question:

1. Jim Courtney
2. Andriy Tymchenko
3. Carol Chen
4. Jonathan Greene
5. James Whatley
6. Jeff Pulver
7. Aswath Rao
8. Ted Wallingford