Friday, January 30, 2009

20 Things about me

Yes..I was tagged. It really is the best excuse to start up a blog and probably a great way to introduce myself.

20 Things you may not know about the coffeedude

1. One grandparent is from China. Another is from St. Vincent. A great grand parent is from Madrid.
2. I moved from Port of Spain to Chaguanas 8 yrs ago to "get away".
3. I am a *crazy* star wars fanboy...so are my sons.
4. I trained and qualified as an open water life guard.
5. Life would not be the same without: Lewiss Carroll, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Ernest Hemmingway, Frank Herbert, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Dr. Seuss.
6. When I met my wife, the heavens opened and angels sang - dead serious.
7. Have partied, shook it, wined it, dines it, drank it, dropped it and stomped it enough for 10 lifetimes!
8. My family, including 1st cousins, look like a United Colours of Benneton ad..ALL colours, shades and hues.
9. Had my first computer at age 14. A Commodore Vic-20.
10. Takes great pride in my success as a manager and leader of people.
11. Is outwardly socially gregarious, open and warm. Will takes a lot for me to genuinely open up intimately though.
12. Thinks that the best parties in the world were Trinidad Panorama (steelpan) competition preliminaries in the 80s and 90s.
13. Felt crushed after reading the 'biography' of Khalil Gibran. Cannot read Gibran ever again.
14. All I need in life is solitude, a comfy chair, good coffee/beer and lots of old, weathered books
15. Was a nerd when nerds were uncool. Is not much of a nerd now that nerds are cool.
16 I was an altarboy in the Catholic church for 6 yrs and thought about becoming a priest.
17. Is not big on organised religion and abhors the quoting of scripture for moralistic persecution.
18. Reads the bible to my sons Jakob and Benjamin.
19. From when I was 9, I read Playboy for the articles. I really did.
20. One of the best things ever to happen to me was to get laid off in 2007. The rebound from life changing event such as that can slingshot you to places you never dreamed attainable.

Hope this gives you a quick snapshot of me.

In the spirit of things, I tag:
@piscesinpurple (http://piscesinpurple.com/)
wuzdescene (http://wuzdescene.com/)
c'mon folks, you both have blogs...get to it!

Inspiration of the Coffeewallah

Even though I have been in tech for years, I never thought that I would ever be blogging in any form. However, two things this year changed my outlook on blogging.

Firstly, I starting using twitter (http://www.twitter.com/). Twitter is an amazing 'micro-blogging' services that lets you express yourself and interact with persons , of course in 140 word or less per tweet. Twitter has opened my eyes to the amazing experience that is social networking. I would recommend twittering to anyone for both social and work related networking.

Secondly, I was encouraged by several bloggers I regularly follow. Specifically, the Coffeewallah blog "Reflections from a Caffeine hyped point of view" http://coffeewallah.blogspot.com/ . Specifically as a fellow Trinidadian blogger of similar mind and ilk, I feel very inspired by the Coffee's writings and ability to express and even entertain. She actually dubbed me "Coffeedude" when after I commented on her blog several times. I fell so storngly about it, that I dedicate this debut post to the Coffeewallah.

I don't know exactly where this blog is going. My intentions are to play it by ear and just be myself. Twittering and reading blogs has taught me that most of the prolific (and seemingly content) social broadcasters do just this.

Welcome, enjoy and I look forward to your comments and interactions.