I have been blog-tagged by Sam, so here is my list of 5 things others may not know about me:
- I grew up with my grandparents in Tulsa, Oklahoma and learned a great deal from them about past eras. I feel I have many outlooks and tastes (i.e. music) of their generation.
- I played string bass in the Tulsa Youth Symphony for 3 years while I was in high school. The Youth Symphony is the education component of the Tulsa Philharmonic Society and is still going strong after 42 years. Ron Wheeler was also the conductor when I was there 20+ years ago!
- When I was in junior high and high school, I wanted to be a theoretical physicist. I taught myself relativity and quantum mechanics early on and my heroes were Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, etc. (I read many biographies too). In college, I took many physics courses, but switched to mathematics because I found I really liked the mathematics part of physics even more (a mathematical physics course turned me around). In the end, I went into software because I had been working as a programmer for the federal government during summers and vacations (on a special intern-like program) while attending school and enjoyed it, though reluctantly at first because I honestly believed PC software development wouldn't take off. After I left the government program, I took a software development job instead of a physics or mathematics related position, and I haven't looked back since (well, I still do, but not as a "paying" job).
- I sometimes mention I had "another career" to people without saying much more. In my 20s, I attended two seminaries and was short a couple of hours of a Master of Divinity degree. I either started and/or pastored or served with 5 churches in Oklahoma, Indiana, and Massachusetts. The training and speaking I do today indirectly comes as a result of my training from that time, and certainly my desire to help others.
- Kit and I have, between us, 6 children -- 5 boys and 1 girl with 2 hers, 2 mine, and 2 ours. My oldest is 6'5" at 16! It is quite a site when all 8 of us arrive and get out of our vehicle (ask Sam!). We have had many joys, but occasional difficulties. One son has epilepsy, which has been difficult at times to keep under control. Another son has slight autism, but has done extremely well through the Massachusetts' Early Intervention program -- one of the few like it in the country.
Now, I want to tag these 5 others: Chris Bowen, Kirk Allen Evans, Jason Haley, John Papa, and Migel Castro.
I have been heads down design and coding for the last 2 1/2 half weeks on an interesting WCF project (yes, unfortunately, even over the holidays -- I hope to share some of what I have been learning) and completely missed this in the email until late last night.
I have been re-awarded (3rd year in a row) the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for Visual Developer - Security in 2007. It is quite an honor and I very much appreciate the recognition. I always enjoy being a part of the .NET community and giving back my time and talents to help others learn secure coding practices. I look forward to doing more of the same in 2007.