So you want to know more about the face behind this site do you?
Well let me start from where I think is probably the most interesting point and go from there.
When I was young say 8-9 my older brother Joe had a Macintosh laptop, this laptop always intrigued me for some reason. Maybe it was because until then I had not had much experience with computers, however this computer became the center of my attention and my brother’s constant attempts to prevent me from using it made me want to use it all that much more. About 2-3 days of fooling around with it I guessed his password and logged in, experiencing for the first time a graphically driven computer operating system. Sure there was Windows 3.1 sitting on my dad”s desktop but it never interested me like this did.
I guess you could mark this as the point at which I started becoming a computer guy. Over the years i got better and better at computers and Macs in particular. However as fate would have it this was also the time I was diagnosed as having Dyslexia (or at least the point at which i got help with it) and was sent to a special school that excelled in teaching learning disabled people.
Eventually, many years later I had to give up the mac and move to a windows based PC due to 2 huge factors, 1) the rising cost of macs and 2) the school I was at now used PC computers. During this time I spent less time on the computer and began to look for physically challenging things i would be good at but would help me get in shape, Enter my high school Christ Church.
At Christ Church I met a teacher that would ultimately end up introducing me to the sport , the only sport I have ever enjoyed doing, Crew! Now I was not what I would call good at it, as a matter of fact those that were there might call me horrible at it :). However for some reason this sport was relaxing and challenging at the same time forcing me to both use mental and physical energy to achieve my goal. The one thing that experience taught me that I find to be useful is the value of team work.
If you have ever watched the Olympics and seen the rowing events you can see how easy they make it look, It is far from easy but what it does is make all 4 (or more) of those team members work in unison to achieve a task that otherwise might be impossible. While i could give you some funny scenarios regarding the boat i was on I will spare myself the grief and get to the point.
Through team work you can achieve otherwise daunting tasks, achieve a since of purpose and have fun doing it. While my boat never ever and I mean Ever won any race period, I never felt better then when I was on that watter even with a short Irishman yelling at you from a boat telling you to row faster. Tim O’Keffe if your reading this, You my friend did the impossible you got my lazy but in shape and taught me the power of team work.
What does this have to do with me?
The only thing other then my good times i have to show for it is that now I know what it means to be part of a team. If I am working for a company that values tackling things from a team approach i can look back and say that I Honestly know the value of hard work and the benefit of a team.
Sadly I have not been as active in physical activities since then but perhaps it is time, perhaps i need to re-think my views on what is important. While computers will always be a part of who I am I think it is now time for me to branch out and see what else there is out there.
Does this mean i am giving up computers?
Don”t count on it! It just means i am going to try to balance physical activity with family and computer stuff now instead of some variation of that.