Seven Things

So it seems I’m not immune to internet/blog meme’s, and there is currently a game of “tag you’re it” going on in the PHP community.  People are stating seven interesting or obscure facts about themselves, then tagging seven different people to do the same.  Well, I was jointly tagged by both Wez Furlong and Ben Ramsey … so I guess I better not disappoint, and keep the game alive:

So seven things about me:

1. I’m extremely active in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA for short).  It’s a medieval reenactment organization that focuses on pre-1600 life.  In the SCA I’m known as Lord Siegfried Sebastian Faust and I dress in the form of a 16th century Landsknecht (German mercenary).  I have many sub-hobbies inside of the SCA, including full contact sword fighting, archery and brewing (beers, wines, meads & ciders).  I also volunteer a fair bit of my time to helping run the organization to that others can enjoy it as much as I do.
2. While many folks know that I’m a beer aficionado, what’s interesting is that I didn’t get into beer until later in life.  My first exposure to beer was back in college when I was handed some VERY cheap beer.  Generic store brand, 25 cents a can.  It was horrible, and I never wanted to touch the stuff again.   Every couple of years, I’d try something that someone handed me, and it would end the same way.  Until one fateful Christmas many years after I had graduated college.  My company at the time did a Yankee Swap, and I ended up with a Guinness & Bass Black & Tan kit, with beer, glasses, and the magical spoon.  I decided that since I got it, I was going to enjoy it.  I sat down one evening to make myself a Black & Tan.  I tentatively took a sip, and it was good!  I then sampled each beer separately, and found that I adored Guinness.  And therefore, my love of good beer (especially Stouts & Porters) was born.
3. I have a full woodworking shop in my basement that I use to make medieval replica crossbows, or whatever else I feel like making (such as my poker table)
4. I grew up with my wife.  We met in kindergarten where I didn’t like her because we lined up by height to go anywhere, and she was the only person in class taller than me.  In 8th grade I wrote a letter asking her to a dance but never delivered it.  Then in High School we ‘traded rings’ on a football game band trip (we were both in the marching band).  We then dated all through High School and college, and got married after graduating college.
5. My very first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a (just like Marco), and I loved writing ‘adventure’ games for it.  I later upgraded to an Apple ][c and was an Apple fanboy until the early Macintosh line came out.   Now many years later, and thanks to OS/X, I’ve returned back to Apple fanboy-dom
6. I’m extremely addicted to Video Games and usually play a little every night after both son & wife are in bed.  I’ve been playing ever since I was 3 years old and we got a Sears Pong Machine.  I even won a Doom Tournament back in college (and I had a failed attempt at becoming a professional gamer at one point, turns out that while I might have been good, other people were GOOD).  I currently have sitting in my house an Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Gamecube, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo NES, and an Atari 2600.  I also admit to caring a bit too much about my Xbox 360 Gamer Score.
7. While the current roundness of my belly doesn’t show it, growing up I had an affinity for sports.  I played baseball & basketball for my school teams as well as golf.  I was a 4 year Letterman in Varsity Golf in High School & Captain of the Golf Team.

so now, I have to tag 7 people that I want to see make a Seven Things writeup myself, So many people have already been tagged that it’s up to me to find some PHP diamonds in the rough … so in no particular order:

• Stephane Daury – @stephdau – PHP Geek who will probably mention skateboarding
• Owen Byrne – @owenbyrne – Digg coder #1 who has moved onto other things (including photography)
• Luke Welling – @lukewelling – Who will regale us of horses in his Austrailian accent.
• Andrei Zmievski – @a – We must hear from the infamous White Russian!
• Dylan Richard – @detour1999 – Coder extrordinaire for Threadless, and fellow guy who understands the need for truly 2X t-shirts.
• Harper Reed – @harper – Dylan’s boss, ’nuff said 😉
  
• Lauren Cooney – @lcooney – MSFT-ite who is working hard to embrance the PHP community there.
  

and the rules of this ‘game’ for those that I have tagged:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Also, they are trying to keep track of all this this madness over at PHPDeveloper.org, so check there for a list of who has done it, and who is slacking.