Anyone reading Microsoft/asp.net blogs recently is sure to have seen the 5 things meme , where you post 5 things that most people don't know about you. I've been tagged a few times on my other blogs, and seeing as I've been writing mostly dry, technical posts here recently, I thought I'd cross-post my 5 over here.
1. I nearly quit my undergrad Computer Science degree in final year as I'd only attended 7 hours of lectures (out of about 300 hours). Amongst other reasons my girlfriend became agoraphobic . In the end, it was her who talked me into staying and doing the exams, which I passed thankfully.
2. Both my parents are Irish, but met in London. My family moved back from England to Northern Ireland when I was young, during the middle of the time that Northern Ireland people euphemistically refer to as the troubles . We lived in a small town about 20 miles from Belfast, so I managed to avoid most of the nasty stuff. However, I did pass a building that was blown up a few seconds later, nearly tripped up a running gunman being chased by the army, and once had to wear a bulletproof vest in the bar I worked in.
3. My father actually started out training as a catholic priest, and spent a number of years at Maynooth , but shortly before being ordained had a crisis in faith and left the seminary (lucky for me, otherwise I wouldn't be here)
4. As part of my degree I had to do a year long industrial placement, and I was lucky enough to be selected to work for a firm in Vienna. The first day I arrived it turned out that they requested someone fluent in German. At the time the only German words I spoke were 'bitte' and 'bier'. Thankfully a lot of study and a night-course got me by for what turned out to be one of the best years of my life.
5. I suffer from a phobia of haircuts and hairdressers. I have to clip my nails before i get a haircut otherwise I will dig them into my palms during the process. Oddly enough I don't mind cutting my own hair so used to use a electric razor and had a shaved head for a year or two at college.
And the 5 I'd like to tag (if they're brave/stupid enough to respond 
) are Joe, Scott W , Charles , Nik and Shaun .