five things
Oh joy. The first day in the new year, and Dannie sees fit to tag me with the “5 things you didn’t know about me” meme.
I was very introverted As a kid and youth, I was extremely introverted. I played with Lego, read a ton of books and couldn’t bear to talk with other people. Luckily this has changed in the last 20 years and I find it easy to talk in front of people (actually, I really like giving presentations). However, when I meet a lot of new people, I have a hard time getting to know a lot of them. I have enough after two or three. (People like Laurent, Henriette and Dannie make up in quality for the missing quantity)
I spent four years in Denmark as a kid My mother is danish and when the financial situation in Switzerland detorriated in the late 70s, we moved to Denmark. I spent four years in the danish-german St. Petri School, learnt danish, learnt that there is a different way of living, than the one I was used to in Switzerland. I also think, that helped me overcome the introversion. During last year’s holiday in Denmark, I learned that due to the circumstances, I’m in fact also a danish citizen. I have filed the necessary papers, and hope to get the proof sometime this year.
I get seasick Even though the danish part of my family was and is seafaring (up to the Admiral level), I get seasick. Unfortunately, my then not-yet-wife found out the hard way, when I invited her to a cruise (which itself is a long story how I got that), and I told her to prepare for seasickness. One day on the cruise, we sailed with a sail-boat from the cruise-ship to Mustique, a two hour sail tour. I was lying down most of the time, green and feeling very very bad. The moments on Mustique were quite nice though (private beaches are fun if you are fresh in love) and the trip back went a lot better. (Another participant on that trip chartered a plane to get back to the cruise ship, so there was at least someone who felt even worse than I did)
I was a sandwich man One of the temporary jobs I held, was as a sandwich man. I jobbed for a temporary-job company which had no job for me, so I was tasked with carrying their company name and logo through town. Probably the best job for a shy, introverted 16 or 17 year old. But I got used to people making fun of me, something that helped me, not to take myself to seriously either. I learnt to laugh at myself… See nr 1 above ;-)
I got my first computer in 1980 A Sharp 1211 - I saved long for this wonderful piece of technology, and used and abused it alot. It still sits somewhere in a drawer - and last time I looked, it still worked. Also: I got my first pay for programming, by writing programs for the 1211 successor. I still shudder at the thought of THAT program - peace to the person who had to maintain it (If there ever was one). After that, I went through an ORIC 1, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 and finally on the Atari ST/TT. PC’s came after the demise of Atari, I had a job at a swiss company that sold Atari Hard and Software. I don’t want to talk about the PC’s, but I’m on my third Apple now (Mac Mini, PowerBook, MacBook Pro). My love for computers still holds (much to the chagrin of my wife)
Let’s see, who is going to be on the receiving end of this?