Eight Things You Didn’t Know About Me

Luis Suarez has written a list of eight things you didn’t know about him. It’s a meme, where the rules seem to be pretty straight forward:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules
2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself
3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged

So, here’s my own list of things you may not know about me:

1. I was born in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, Australia, and am the eldest of five children. We moved around a lot as a family, moving based on where my Father wanted to work. He was a fleet car salesman, working for all the major car companies over the years — Ford, Toyota and Holden — and liked to change jobs a lot. As a consequence, I quickly learned how to pack my bags, move to new places, and make new friends (which is hard to do when you’re an introvert!)
2. I went to the University of Newcastle where I did a Bachelor of Science (Psychology). That was where I was first introduced to statistical analysis and completely failed my second year of it. It made me realise how hard a subject it was, so I worked hard to understand it and passed with flying colours the following year and began to tutor and lecture students in the subject for the last few years of my degree.
3. I learned how to cut code in my second year of university (a variant of C) after playing some of the world’s first text-based massively multi-user games (MUDs). With a friend, Ray Gilbert, we created and released our own version — Heaven7 (an LPMud). I suddenly found myself managing a team of programmers from around the world at a time when web-work and online teams hadn’t even been invented. My first real website was developed to support players of the game as well as its developers — a real, and very early online community.
4. I moved to Canberra in early 1998 and started my first full-time web-related position as the Web Manager for what is now the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Unlike a lot of other people I actually like Canberra. It’s a lot like the feel of Newcastle except that it doesn’t have a beach.
5. I bought a house in Florey so that I wouldn’t have to move around anymore. Unfortunately, 12 months later, I then went to live in Boulogne-Billancourt, France for two years. It’s just outside Paris near Parc Du Saint Cloud. I know people love Paris, but, being an Anglophone, I really hated the experience of living there — just try connecting telephone, gas, cable TV, internet, and electricity when you speak almost no French!
6. I like to experience new things — I’ve been scuba diving with sharks, hot air ballooning over the Hunter Valley, climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and went whale watching to see the annual migration of hump back and sperm wales.
7. I collect the Lego Ultimate Collector Series and particularly like the StarWars editions. I’ve got the Tie Interceptor, X-Wing, Rebel Blockade Runner, Naboo Fighter, AT-ST, Tie Advanced, and the Imperial Star Destroyer (which took about 2 months to build). I’ve also got the Bat Mobile and a dozen or so really tiny mini Star Wars items. I’d like the Death Star, but I just don’t think I’ve got anywhere in my house I can put it.
8. I was never a good fit for the public service, so finally joined a consultancy firm in 2006 — SMS Management & Technology. I’m now their regional-lead for web and information management.

The people I’d love to know more about are:

1. Dave Snowden — one of my KM idols.
2. Andrew Boyd — he’s done some fascinating things that I’d love to learn to do, like traditional Japanese sword fighting, and I’m sure there are other things I don’t yet know about him
3. Maria Murphy — my best friend (I’m sure there’s juicy stories I still haven’t heard)
4. Rascal, my Dog — I know he can’t actually blog, but if he could, I’d certainly like to see things from his perspective
5. Marina Chiovetti — someone I met at Oz-IA this year. Am trying to encourage her to blog.
6. Ruth Ellison — because I suspect that there’s a darker side to her personality
7. Chad Vader — because he’s just so funny
8. Kevin Rudd — the new Australian Prime Minister. I want to know what’s really on his mind.

Take up the challenge. Write some random facts about yourself.

M