Well I’ve just been blog-tagged by Jeff, so I’m going to play along. I believe I’m supposed to list 5 things about me that not a lot of people know, and not geek stuff. Hmm…

1. I am a total, complete chocoholic. I love the stuff. And not the cheap, waxy, mass-market, consumer chocolate. I gotta have the good stuff…imported. I eat at least some chocolate every day. I’d probably go on a killer rampage if I didn’t have it. I also love a good marzipan from time to time, especially the Bissingers fruit-shaped ones when they are fresh. Oh yeah, and sunflower seeds. My wife was just complaining about the shells around my living room chair this morning.

2. Most people who know me know I like jazz, especially NYC style (i.e. bebop, hard bop, modal jazz) of the late 50s and 60s. But fewer know I love Renaissance music, especially 16th century Italian Madrigals, and the occasional Burgundian motet or mass. In fact, there’s a lot of medieval music I like as well, such as the songs and motets of Guillaume Dufay and Guillaume de Machaut. I have a record collection of some 3000 LPs, and probably 200-300 (at least) are of music dating before 1685 (when J.S. Bach was born), and some date back to the earliest days of Gregorian chant (ca. 1000 or so). Most are late-Medieval and Renaissance period (14th-16th centuries). I even have a speculative recording of music of ancient Greece.

3. Before I was a software engineer, I was a music typesetter, and one of the first professionals to use micro-computer based typesetting software for prepress. I started using Coda Finale 1.0.0 on a Macintosh SE the day the software came out, and I paid the full $1000 they were asking for it. But for may years I was one of the best Finale users, and am the recipient of seven “Paul Revere Award for Graphic Excellence” prizes, which are presented by the Music Publishers Association annually in NYC. You can see an example of my work here. Some of my more famous clients include Lalo Schifrin and Bruce Broughton, via their publishers.

4. I hate mushrooms. It’s not the taste, it’s the texture. I can eat a mushroom sauce OK, as long as there are no fibrous chunks in it. I don’t care for green peas either, but I can eat them if they’re on my plate. Mushrooms tend to get pushed aside (or secretly moved to my wife’s plate).

5. I love good science fiction shows/movies. I’m a fan and regular viewer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Altantis (I have all the available DVDs). My favorite Star Trek series was Deep Space Nine (I have all the DVDs of this too), and I think it was far superior to any of the others. It was darker, more dramatic, edgier, and had more interesting story lines. Where else could you get a full-blown Klingon civil war. I never did see all episodes of Star Trek Voyager. After the first 3 seasons or so, the local TV stations stopped carrying it, and when it returned I lost interest. I’m currently catching all the episodes of Star Trek Enterprise in HD on the HDNet station. I like it, but it’s no DS9. Babylon Five was one of my favorites too. I can remember looking forward to new episodes when it ran. But I don’t have the DVDs. On the Universal HD station is Firefly in high definition reruns. I’ve been enjoying this a lot. It’s original, quirky, and engaging. I remember seeing an episode or two on Fox when it was originally aired. I just didn’t get into it at the time, so now I can savor it for the first time in HD. I have the DVD movie and enjoyed it, so now I look forward to seeing it again after I’ve viewed the 14 episodes of the orginal show. I’m embarrassed to say I have not been following the new Battlestar Gallactica series. Many consider this the best of the best when it comes to science fiction television series. I’ve seen several episodes, and enjoyed them, but I got distracted from watching the series. I probably need to get the DVDs and just watch them from episode 1.

OK, those are my five things about me. I’m tagging Weiqi, Brian, and Brad.