Carl Backstrom's Blog

Yup I guess it's my turn this blogtagging thing seems to have taken off, I figured it would get to me at some point , thanks John you know we have some deadlines here right ;).

1. I have a 15 year old daughter and I am 34 years , so if you do the math I started pretty young, fortunately she's much smarter and prettier than her old man, hand codes her HTML , uses the GIMP for artwork , is a cheerleader , snowboards very well, and is savvy enough to IM or call me for all her homework research needs. And if your reading this kid you better be done with your homework!!!

2. I'm a snowboarding fanatic but growing up in Southern California we didn't have that nice soft powdery snow or huge scenic bowls to people seem to like so much. What we had was big jumps and an awesome snowboard park so you'll find me doing 50/50's on the rails and getting big grabs on the table tops. Nowadays I wear a helmet but still seem to get concussed about once a season, so if you see me 5 feet in the air upside down with snowboard on my feet, just keep watching or grab a camera something bad/funny is about to happen.

3. From the age of 8-13 I lived in a windowless shack , as in windows with no glass, on the back acre of a 5 acre farm, well I got windows in when I was 10 ,happy times! The rest of my family lived in a very nice two story house but I had three sisters and they got the rooms in the house. So the answer to 'Were you born in a barn?" or "What did you live in a barn growing up?" the answer is pretty much "Yup".

4. I have a degree in Geography from San Francisco State University, and specialized in GIS and Remote Sensing. I worked for several environmental consulting firms and did things like work on the Presidio Rehabilitation , South Bay Salt Ponds, saving the California Tiger Salamander, and killing Egeria densa in the Bay Delta. I was actually a CS major for most of university and only had a 17 units to go but they were all math classes and I loath math, maybe someday I'll go back just to finish up.

5. After high school I went straight to the construction industry and was planning on doing that for a career. After a couple years on a very hot day (115 f) doing roofing in Lake Elsinore, Ca I decided ,right then and there, to go back to school. Was a waiter for 20 minutes once as well, suffice to say I don't have the temperament for it.

6. I polevaulted all through high school and college, yeah people actually hold on to a stick run full speed put the stick in a hole in the ground and hang on. Hopefully though you land in the pit (the landing pads), and not in box (the cement and metal hole you put the stick in), otherwise you'll end up with torn tendons and ankles that ache in cold weather.

7. You can tell a lot about a person by their favorite quotes....

'The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...''

-- Isaac Asimov

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He had that rare weird electricity about him -- that extremely wild and heavy presence that you only see in a person who has abandoned all hope of ever behaving "normally."

-- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing '72"

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Godzilla hates infrastructure.

-- Unknown

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We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us.

-- Maurice Maeterlinck

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The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

-- Shakespeare, "Henry VI", Part IV

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"Everything in moderation -- including moderation."

-- Harvey Steiman.

8. Every internet / web development job I've ever had in some shape or form has been from craigslist. Oracle actually hired me directly from a craigslist posting, go figure.


And there you go 8 random and hopefully interesting and educating facts about me. So looking around at some people I should tag and haven't at least posted that they have been tagged, So I have 6

Kris Rice , Tyler Muth , Sergio Leunissen, Marc Sewtz , Christian Shay , Kuassi Mensah


EDIT:

There has been a bit of a backlash on the blogtagging thing and truthfully it's not fully out of place, sometimes these things get a life of there own and get out of hand.

http://www.dizwell.net/prod/archives/57

But truthfully I like putting a personal face on things, sometimes I think we all forget there is a person/people on then end of that blog or developing/selling/marketing/researching that product and a bit of lightheartedness , especially in the beginning of the new year is not a bad thing. Sure if this happens everyday i think we will all have a big problem with it. But just once , or even once a year I think helps everybody.

My 2 cents.
Carl