8 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Me

My sincere apologies to Bryan Person for taking absolutely FOREVER before responding to the Eight Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me meme that he had tagged me with last month.

I hope late is better than never, because here goes:

1. College Major. While I was in high school, my dad came home one day with a brand-new Apple computer and I immediately loved it. I decided soon after to major in Computer Engineering and was accepted at the university of my choice when it came time to go to college. Last minute parental intervention caused me to change my major just prior to enrollment, and I ended up with a Computer Science degree instead. I have zero regrets.
2. Games. I love the old Infocom text-based interactive fiction games; games like the Collossal Cave Adventure, Zork, and Wishbringer. Soon after, I got hooked on RPGs like Wizardry, The Bard's Tale, and Ultima. (Anyone remember: "Lie with passion and be forever damned?") These days, my tastes run towards Real-Time Strategy games like Emperor and Age of Empires. I almost always lose with RTS games, but I still enjoy them.
   
3. Star Trek and Star Wars. I love nearly every incarnation of Star Trek except the original series. I know that statement borders on blasphemy for most Trek fans, but there it is. And if you think that's strange, here's something stranger: I haven't seen any of the Star Wars movies, and I don't feel any urgent need to watch them either.
   
4. Cooking. I love watching cooking shows but I don't cook. I prefer doing the dishes by hand to cooking, which works out well when there's a need to divvy-up chores since most people seem to prefer cooking to doing the dishes. If I were left to my own devices, I'd most probably subsist on canned corned beef (I never seem to tire of the stuff).
   
5. Money. I'm a cheapskate. Case in point: I've been thinking of replacing my computer for over 8 months, and I've so far managed to put it off because I can't bring myself to spend unless I really need to. Natural corollary: I usually don't enjoy shopping, with the exception of books.
6. Junk Food. When I'm in the right mood, I can eat an entire full-size can of Pringles potato chips in one sitting. Come to think of it, I can polish off entire bags of practically any salty snack food in one sitting: Cheetos, Tortilla Chips, BBQ-flavored popcorn... well, you get the idea.
7. Travel. I just turned down a free vacation in Macau because I'm currently so sick of travel. I hope to one day regain that bit of wanderlust that I've somehow inexplicably lost.
8. Faith. I'm an evangelical Christian.
   

Whew. That was harder than I thought it would be. Which is why I'm going to have to take some time to think of who to tag before I pass this on...

My Week in Media

Just got tagged by UK-based technology PR consultant Drew Benvie to participate in a My Week in Media meme, where we all talk about what we read, watch, listen to, and surf.

I noticed that all four of the categories talk about our consumption of media, but none really deal with our participation as media creators. So I've added a 5th category which (for lack of a better term), I'm calling 'Where I Participate.'

Where I Surf

• Twitter. I usually start the day by catching up on overnight tweets. Due to the number of people I follow (currently 628), it's impractical for me to keep up via SMS, so I usually leave my computer logged in to Gmail overnight and it collects the tweets via Twitter IM. I skim that in the morning, and make a note of links I want to visit later.
  
• Inquirer.net. One of our many local news sites. I track the headlines via Philnews on Twitter, and I click through to read the full article when a headline catches my eye.

What I’ve Watched

Strangely enough, I rarely watch news on TV. And lately I've not been watching TV shows on their original airdates. Instead, I've been catching up via DVDs, and recent viewings have included Dexter, Commander-in-Chief, and Heroes.

Have also been trying, but not quite succeeding, to catch more movies in the theaters (my favorite movie-mate recently gave birth).

Online, I've started watching more videos on the web now that my home internet connection has gotten a bit more stable. Recent viewings include videos from Le Web 3 and TED.com. Have also taken to watching Seesmic videos, but haven't had as much time to do this as I would like.

What I Listen To

On my daily commute, I listen to podcasts. I can't read since I get dizzy if I read in a moving vehicle. There's also the fact that I drive to work. hehe!

The podcasts that I consistently listen to (in no particular order):

• Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
• IT Conversations (which is part of the Conversations Network)
• Marketing Over Coffee with Christopher Penn and John Wall
• New Comm Road by Bryan Person (though it's been a while since his last episode)
• On Point, with Tom Ashbrook because they intelligently cover things I know so little about
• PRobecast from Topaz Partners
  
• Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation podcast
• This Week in Tech by Leo Laporte
  

Lately, though, my podcast listening has fallen a bit behind because I've been using my commute time to listen to lectures I've downloaded from Open Yale Courses.

When I'm online and I don't feel like listening to anything long, I log in to Utterz and catch up on what people have been talking about. (I've placed this under the 'Listen' category because I haven't created an utter of my own yet).

What I Read

I'm dependent on Google Reader and have also described in detail how I use it. And while I'm hopelessly behind on my feed-reading, I don't let that fact bother me so much.

I also have a bad habit of subscribing to every interesting online email newsletter I can think of, so I find a lot of reading material that way.

Offline, I subscribe to and consistently read Fortune Magazine. I've got a multi-year subscription, and I find it to be a great way to balance out all the Web 2.0, new media, social media content that I imbibe via the web.

For general enjoyment, I read a lot of fantasy, science-fiction, and chick-lit.

I also read a number of trade journals that are specific to my work (which I won't go into here since they're too targeted for general consumption anyway).

Where I Participate

Aside from the obvious (Twitter), I post photos on Flickr, use Facebook mainly to play Scrabulous, and have lately been answering questions on Get Satisfaction.

Who's Next

And now, the hard part. Who do I tag to continue this meme?

How about: online acquaintances Manuel Viloria, Chette Soriano (sorry, Chette!), and Connie Reece.

Hardy Har Arrrrrr!

Got today's biggest laugh when I saw Flickr's new language selection: "Arrr!"

That's a really clever bit of marketing. Not only does it showcase Flickr's multi-language support while celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day... it also prompts people like me to talk about the site!


Click on the image for a larger view of Flickr's Arrr!

Hat tip to Picocool for pointing out that you switch languages in the footer of Flickr's page.