Five things about me

I have to say, this latest meme strikes me as an unpleasantly narcissistic version of a chain letter. But, I have been "tagged" by three people now -- Mark Fletcher, Rich Skrenta, and Jeremy Zawodny -- so I will play along.

Here are five things that you probably do not know about me:

I was a lifeguard at Rinconada Pool in Palo Alto when I was a teenager. No, not very geeky, but it was a long time ago. I assure you that any coolness I once had is now gone.

I occasionally brew beer, but I am not very good at it. I once tried to brew a batch of Russian Imperial Stout, a very heavy beer, and bottled too early. 44 of 50 bottles exploded with enough force to embed shards of glass in a nearby wall.

As an undergrad, I had an odd double major in Computer Science and Political Science. Geeking out on political economy and game theory is great, but there is precious little overlap between that and computers, so I spent most of college with my nose buried in books.

I used to mess around with artificial life. It was more fun than useful, but I did help develop two simulations that were used in undergrad classrooms, the LEE Project and an iterated prisoner's dilemma simulation (PDF).

When I was a grad student, I got a black lab and named her Pavlova. If you think that is funny, you, like me, probably are a geek.

And now, I am supposed to share the love. How about Andrej Gregov, Steve Yegge, Brian Dennis, Scott Gatz, and John Battelle? You folks want to play?