Tagged! 5 Things

I’ve been tagged by Alan Pelz-Sharpe. Here are five things about me that I probably would never have told you.

1. The first rock concert I ever attended was the Beatles appearing in Atlantic City in 1964. I was terrified and loved every minute. Years later, my parents couldn’t remember why they let me (8 years old) and my sister (10 years old) go with their friends’ teenage daughter.

2. I was one of many people who saw a UFO above Sedona, AZ in 1981. Not saying it was alien-made, but it wasn’t headed for Sky Harbor Airport, either. The local news covered it at the time. Today, it’s referenced here (”plane-like UFOs”). I’m still conflicted about not being beamed up.

3. I’m one of the culprits behind the term “legacy system“. I was doing analyst relations in the mid/late 80s, and needed to discourage analysts and reporters from refering to mainframe computers and software as “dinosaurs”. Gartner consultants working under a NDA contract to my company, were playing around with the term “legacy systems”. I used it in every fax and phone call with every hardware and software analyst on the planet (a few hundred) at the time. It was everywhere within a few months. Some Gartnerites were not amused.

4. Both thumbs are “double-jointed” at the second thumb joint. So, if you’re squeamish, think twice about asking me for a high-5… my sense of humor is a little loosely jointed, too.

5. All four grandparents emigrated from Scotland to the United States. In fact, one bypassed immigrant screening by literally jumping ship in Canada, on his very first outting as crew. We’ve been a sweat-equity-loving clan ever since.

Alan tagged me to bring the game into AR waters. Let’s keep it here: David Rossiter, Jay Anderson, John Sun. A little light, but I don’t know many of the AR bloggers all that well.