James Carr

Today I noticed a little feature in Google Reader that I hadn’t noticed before, “Recommendations.” It’s a simple green box in the top right corner of the page that lists some recommended blogs and boy, is it right on the money!

• PragDave was listed, which was really no surprise as I already read Dave’s blog… I just hadn’t subscribed to it.
• Likewise, SpringSource Team Blog also came as no surprise due to my latest interest in Spring (Stay tuned for an in progress tutorial I’m working on that describes how to use SpringBatch for batch processing).
• you’ve been HAACKED is a blog I hadn’t heard of, but a quick glimpse of it looks like it’s very TDD oriented, so it’s added. ;

There’s several more, with many of the recommendations being blogs that I already read, I’ve just been to lazy to add it to reader. One thing’s certain… I don’t know whether I should praise Google for a job well done or feel a but frightened that their software can figure out my interests so easily.

I woke this morning to discover that sly devil Cory Foy had blog tagged me. I’d never heard of it before, but after a quick search discovered it’s a fun blogging game to get other bloggers to confess five interesting things about themselves that not a lot of people know about.

So, without further ado, here’s my five things.

1. I was quite the hot head in high school… I think I got in fights just about all the time. Kind of funny reflecting back on that, considering I can hardly remember the last time I raised my temper (or voice) at someone.
2. Just like Cory, I was a geek since I as little, programming BASIC on my Tandy Color Computer 3 when I was 8, but wasn’t going to select it as a career. Although I dreamed of being am astronaut when I was little (even attending Space Camp in Florida), I’ve held a large variety of jobs, and before college was planning to either go to culinary school to become a chef or go for a business degree and open a restaurant there after (I still do!). Luckily, I decided to go with what I liked and went for a Computer Science degree.
3. 
   I’m a caffeine freak… whether it’s a can of Red Bull, a quad shot mocha, or even some green tea, I always have my caffeine fix in hand so I’m ready to be on the move. The only downside is my tolerance has built up so high I don’t quite get the rush I used to anymore.
4. 
   My music tastes are wide and cover a large variety of different genres. I like rock. I like alternative. I like music by artists such as Dave Matthews or Jack Johnson. I even like rap. Sometimes I sill listen to 2pac or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on the way to work… or I might listen to The Doors, or Smashing Pumpkins.
5. 
   My father is a 60 year old hippy who still thinks the 1960s haven’t ended. This always makes for fun and interesting visits, and I look forward to seeing him when I go to visit in California, even though I always feel like the adult when I’m with him.

Well, I suppose that’s it… hopefully not as dull as I thought it was, and congrats for making it this far. Now it’s my turn to tag!

Next up are Brian Button, Mario Aquino, Jeff Brown, Jeff Langr, and Chris Wheeler.