Just noticed I got tagged by Spence on the '5 Things You Didn't Know About Me' meme that's been doing the rounds. So here's my bit of trumpet blowing -

1. I don't have a CS degree or any sort of higher education qualification to my name. I left high school in 1985 after finishing 6th year with 9 'O' grades (I flunked my 5 highers two years in a row - something to do with the BBC Micro my folks got me when I was 16 I think, but I did learn 6502 assembler inside out and how to program 6522 VIA's - didn't help a hell of a lot with higher chemistry though). The noticeable lack of highers put me at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to choosing computer related further education. To cut a long story short, I managed to leave college with no HND due to my distinct lack of interest in 'data processing', punched cards, management accounting, out of date organisational theory and other tired old subjects that belonged in the 70's. That said, I was lucky to  to work at the local Data General/PC shop during vacations and picked up a whole bunch of real world skills that got me my first full time programming job in 1989 (Clipper, C and DBase II/III). I've never looked back or regretted my lack of formal academic qualifications. Through hook and by crook, I've managed a field service/tech services team, run a 20,000 sq ft data centre, ridden the crest and trough of the development dot com boom and bust (remember client side java applets? CORBA anyone?), and now I work as a senior dev and ASP.NET security & hosting specialist for a web hosting organisation.

2. Until I was about 16 I actually wanted to do something scientisty. I always had an interest in computers dating back to my introduction to the school Apple II in 1979 but I initially had my sights set on being a chemist or a geologist or an astronomer (even earlier when I was four or five I was gonna be an astronaut, but hell who wasn't?). I still buy New Scientist when there's stuff on the cover about black holes, dark matter and exotic particle physics.

3. Some folk do the rebel roadtrip in their teens, I waited until my 20's. Back then I had a 28" waistline, hair down my back, used to love mosh pits and looked like I shoulda been on the roadcrew for any grungy SubPop label band you might care to mention - Tad, Mudhoney, Superchunk...take your pick. And oddly/annoyingly enough I didn't start smoking until I was 23. The present circumference of my waistline shall remain a secret for the time being though :-).

4. I love music. I've got a reasonable stash of 1500 albums in my MP3 library (and heaps of vinyl that isn't) and in a flush month I can quite happily blow 150-200 notes on CD's. I'm also presenter on a radio show for a local radio station and enjoy introducing the locals and casual passers by to the aural delights of Silver Apples, Comets on Fire, God Speed, The Mars Volta and healthy wads of Krautrock, prog and psychedelia. Sadly I'm no musician but boy can I belt out a face melter on my air guitar :)

5. I'm a procrastinating workaholic. I can fart around for ages at the start of a new project avoiding getting anything definitive or concrete down, and then at some random time in the evening a switch in my brain gets thrown and you'll see me signed into MSN at weird hours whilst I keybash into the dawn.

So that's me done and now I tag:

Colin
William
Martin
Alistair
Mark