5-things

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Since Aaron tagged me, here are five things you probably didn't know about me:

  1. I started programming when I was 12 on a TRS-80 Model III. I had wanted an Apple ][ but my Dad didn't want me to waste my time playing games. "If you want to play computer games," he said "you'll have to write them yourself." So I taught myself BASIC and when that didn't have enough horsepower I taught myself Z80 assembly language and used a macro assembler my older brother bought for me to patch the BASIC interpreter. I was a big fan of Turbo Pascal 3.0 through 5.5 (object Pascal), but when I was introduced to C++ I didn't look back.
  2. I'm a Desert Storm veteran having served aboard the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) as an intelligence officer for a tactical electronic warfare squadron (VAQ-140). The Navy paid for my education at U.Va. and I probably would have stayed in if they had offered me Naval Postgraduate School. While serving I had the opportunity to fly (as a passenger) in the EA-6B Prowler, A-6 Intruder, H-3 Sea King, SH-60 Seahawk, E-2 Hawkeye, and P-3 Orion. I wish for a swift end to hostilities in Iraq and the safe return of the men and women serving there.
  3. My wife and I appear in an episode of HGTV's Designing for the Sexes and I helped Michael Payne's son get an internship at Symantec where I was an architect at the time. It was a great experience and we really enjoyed working with Michael although shooting the scenes for the show was more tedious than we expected. Despite the way we're portrayed for the benefit of the show, we actually get along famously and have very similar tastes.
  4. I am a (somewhat) reformed car nut and, prior to joining Microsoft, I sold a heavily modified santorin blue Audi S4 wagon to a Microsoftee in Redmond. Apparently, it was used as the basis for an S4 that appeared in Project Gotham Racing 2. I've also participated in organized track events at the Spring Mountain Advanced Driving School, Sebring International Raceway, and Roebling Road Raceway. Please remember that the left lane is for passing only.
  5. I am the youngest son of an artist and a civil engineer and they deserve most of the credit for how I turned out.

To keep this going, I'll tag Cameron Skinner, Sachin Rekhi, Adam Singer, Noah Coad, and Sam Guckenheimer.