Non-DB2: Someone blog-tagged me

Blog tag 8*8:My response to Craig Mullins

If you follow the Planet DB2 blog aggregator, you'll see that there's been some blog-tagging going on, with my blog being one of the more recent targets. Although I generally stick to DB2-related content for this blog, I'll play along and reveal eight things you may not know about me. Then I'll tag eight more bloggers before someone else gets to them (we know a lot of the same people).

1. I played the tenor saxophone pretty much every day from junior high through college, in nearly every possible format: marching band, concert band, jazz big band, combo, and various jazz/funk/R&B groups that gigged around town. Although my grades were good, all of my scholarships were music-related.

2. Being a band geek meant it was inevitable that I would meet my future wife at band camp. This year we will have been married ten years.

3. By the time I first rode on an airplane, I was 18 and had just finished a summer internship at Honeywell, where I was editing Pascal source code for the Airbus A320. So, I was debugging airliners before I ever set foot on one.

4. Since moving to Portland over 11 years ago, I've become a bit obsessed about coffee. I even volunteered (but did not compete) at a regional barista competition, which was more than enough to convince me to stick with my day job. After giving up on trying to make good espresso at home, I now brew my morning coffee a cup at a time, using a Melitta cone, electric teakettle, and two digital scales. (OCD much?)

5. Last spring I donated my 14-year-old car to charity and started riding a bicycle for the first time in 20 years. Despite all of my business travel last year, I still managed to bike over 500 miles on it, just running errands around town. It sure beats hunting for a parking space in downtown Portland.

6. I'm both proud and a bit surprised that the homegrown TiVo I built last summer from commodity PC hardware still works. It uses MythTV software to simultaneously record shows from two different HDTV channels. It's the envy of my neighbors (at least the ones who understand what it is).

7. A few years ago I found a really good recipe for baby back ribs, which I make every summer for my neighborhood potluck. Invite me over, and maybe I'll bring some.

8. 2008 marks my third year as an independent consultant, a bold and exciting move that I've never regretted. One of the things that has helped me succeed is having a large room to use exclusively as a home office. Working from home also gives me the opportunity to fiddle with various pieces of networking equipment, a secret hobby of mine.

That wasn't too painful. Now I take great pleasure in tagging Alexander, Dan, Dawn, Jeff, Leon, Martin, Scott, and Vincent