Personal Five
“You throw balls at me? I throw balls at you!”
People throw tags at me and — I know! — I’m too slow to play game. There’s a book I would like writing about (that’s another, old, old tag), but for now I’ll try and put together a list of five things.
3 glorious things you might have not known about me
1. At 18 I was a programmer, writing (among other things) communication protocols for Z80/8080 processors. Telepat, my first application written in C, was an inter-platform (8080 CP/M machines to Z80 ZX Spectrum home computers) communication software. A man needed to program his I/O ports at the lowest level, using assembly, in those times. In spite of the fact that I was drawing on every flat surface in my ecosystem, I had absolutely no plans to pursue a career in design: I could only picture myself as a programmer. In America.
2. I am more and more of a vegetarian. I gave up red meat and I eat a lot of fish instead. I still eat chicken, but slowly-slowly I’ll get rid of that, too. And — God! — I was a mean, mean carnivore only a couple of years ago. People change. This things happen as a couple of friends dear to me are de-vegetarianizing in order to pursue the decadent delights of mici and sarmale (heavy, meat-rich Romanian food specialties).
3. I never smoked. My parents were smoking so I regarded it as something terribly uncool as a kid. Funny dynamics these things have — how the intergenerational conflict can sometimes work for the better. Rather rarely, but still…
Plus 2 embarrassing things you might have not known about me
4. I do not play any instrument. Not one. That sucks big time, of course — I wish I could play something: a posh piano, a heroic guitar, a cool trumpet. Hey, even playing a [insert profanity] triangle is far better than nothing. I bet it feels more academic than howling in the shower. No? Maybe not.
5. I hate trains. A gazillion rides in overcrowded trains back when I was a student got me totally fed up. Having no money for better tickets (if any) I was usually traveling standing in the aisle. And yes, it has to do with a touch of agoraphobia that I may have. That and an absolute state of terror inflicted by train toilets — all traces of bowel torment and microbes the size of small chihuahua dogs.
Here, that’s all. In fact — I just realized now — the post is completely unneeded. I could simply post a link to the About section.
Despite my initial intentions, illustrated by the sub-headline quote1, I won’t throw this tag further: it seems that everybody answered already, anyway. But if you share the same or similar “tragic flows” (train-haters? triangle players?) hit the comments: I’d love to know that I’m not alone.
1 Is quoted Bob played by Roberto Benigni in Down by Law, a 1986 film by Jim Jarmusch.
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AdiP:
So you started as a programmer; that’s very interesting. I am a software developer too but I am addicted to everything related to design. Maybe a little bit too addicted. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not but I found that this “passion” or interest really helps me in my development work. Perhaps, because a piece of software is a product too, you can enjoy it’s elegance and “aesthetics” (and I don’t mean only user interface) as for any other product design.
Anyway, I always enjoyed your (and Brandient’s) work and I fell…well…proud that one can find such a quality and professionalism here, in Romania.