So I got tagged in a meme that circulated the web back at the beginning of the year. It of course went completely over my head and I didn't realise I'd been tagged, even as I watched it pass from site to site thinking "Hey that looks like fun!". Chris Wilson over at
Fresh Peel is the culprit, he and I got talking on LinkedIn one day, amazing how these things start. Chris, thanks for the tip!
Without further ado, the much-belated eight facts about me that weren't common knowledge:
1. The first game I produced was an ice skating game called
Barbie's Sparkling Ice Show. Obvious drug/bling references aside, it did quite well, and was a great lesson in brand management and dealing with third-party IP.
2. I grew up in Hong Kong before a short stint in the US rendered my well-spoken Queen's English accent marred with rolled Rs and "mom" replaced "mum". It's much softer these days, though I still don't sound remotely Australian.
3. Basketball was the only sport I was ever any good at, but I was quite good at that. I once single-handedly scored more points on my own than the opposing team did in the entire game. It would end at that if there was a legend to be made; sadly the other team only managed 13 points, so a Herculean-effort it was not.
4. My first guitar teacher refused to teach me on account of being left-handed. I subsequently stopped learning guitar with him...
5. The first song I ever performed live was The Doors' Roadhouse Blues. I bought a harmonica the day before to play the solo in it. That was 13 years ago, I am a marginally better harmonica player than I was that day (suffice to say I'm crap).
6. My first girlfriend's name was Clare Darby. To the best of my knowledge I cannot remember holding hands or even speaking to her one on one. We were five of course, so I think a little slack can be cut. Funnily enough I never went through a stage where I was bothered by girl germs, though girls seem to remain bothered by mine. Hello to Clare if she is playing at home.
7. In Hong Kong all the grass had signs saying "Please keep off". To this day I have never been camping and have absolutely no desire to. I'm as big a tree hugger as the next guy (unless the next guy is one of the ones that boarded the Japanese whaling ship, in which case I look like a carbon-positive, nature-hating, tree-felling, seal-clubbing, ice-cap-melting capitalist), but to quote Minnie Driver in Grosse Point Blank,
I say leave your live stock alone.
8. British GQ is my favourite magazine on the planet. I wish it was something like The Economist, but it isn't. I love fashion even if I can afford none of it, the writers it has are extraordinary, the whole thing is endlessly entertaining. Unlike Australian GQ, which is fucking awful. If you're reading Grant, call me - 0404078686, I can save your terrible, terrible magazine.
So, I now have to tag 8 others in this wee game. I am keeping it very close to home and hitting up
Stuart McPhee (the best music writer I know),
Scott Drummond (the most insightful person I know),
Alysha Sandow (the best dressed person I know, she's a pretty good graphic designer too!),
Simon Chen (he's at the Web 2.0 conference right now, so won't reply; odds are he wouldn't anyway),
Andrew Cafourek (smart and unafraid of getting his hands dirty in addition to being an incredibly nice guy),
Iain Tait (who no doubt got tagged several times with this while he was in India),
Laurel Papworth (I've only had limited interaction with Laurel but I like the cut of her jib...whatever that means *Update* Laurel has already done this, hers can be found
here) and
Skelliewag who I don't know at all but I really like what he does, and so he deserves more of your time and attention (because I say so).
