Getting to know Anand in 8 Easy steps.

In the spirit of the "tagging" post by Justice I will cave and give my readers some insight into the world ala Anand...some of which you may or may not know.

1. I recently got married (count'em) >3 mos ago to an amazing women. Thankfully she said yes and puts up with me. Since we are still on our honeymoon things are [as tony the tiger says] grrr-eat!

2. I am a big fan of science fiction including star wars, star trek and lord of the rings, matrix and back to the future. etc. I have dvd's and mpegs of all shows/movies and watch them all the time. Since there isn't anything to watch on tv anymore (re: death of tv) this is all I watch. I just threw back to the future in there because I saw it about 100 times during one summer holiday and used to know the lines to the entire movie...I know...butthead.

3. I play the Tabla. An 'east?' Indian drum and have played it for about 15 years. I've been to many concerts locally and actually got the chance to meet and talk to one of the greatest players in the world - Zakir Hussein. My main opportunity to play comes during our weekly spirtual gatherings here in the city.

4. I Love Ketchup. It's that simple. I put it on everything. I have probably eaten at least 1 bottle a month since the age of 2. (no seriously!) I think I should be in the guiness book of world records. Heinz, No name, Ketchup...catsup! Pronounce it any way you want...Just make sure it ends up on my food. One time my parents had to bring packets from mcdonalds on our vacation to their home country because I wouldn't eat food without it!

5. My parents are from Fiji Islands....so I'm partly 'from there' [which people keep reminding me of] even though I was born in Canada...Go Figure! Better yet my great grandfather was from India and our entire culture is Indian! I have never understood it..so I don't expect you to. With that said Fiji is a nice place to visit and one day I might go and visit again.

6. My first computing experiences was with the Apple II in elementary programming Logo. Then I moved to my first PC and the basic language on a 286. I liked programming but during school I always had a fascination with how computers worked internally. I was so interested in electronics that I ended up tearing apart anything I had to see how they worked. computers, stereos, microwaves, walkman, calculators....thus I ended up with a great deal of non working electronic junk!

7. During university I received an NSERC grant. It is a science grant given to undergraduate students to pursue research of their interest. Of course my interest lay in computing and the stars. I was researching Artificial Intelligence and a way to autonomously locate stars on star charts. It was a summer project so I never really developed anything substantial but it was an interesting exercise in understanding how to do research. This was supposed to segway to my masters program which I was pursuing...unfortunately I wasn't accepted. Competing with a bunch of 9'ers from parts unknown is tough! However I am glad it didn't work out since I wouldn't have met my wife ;-)

8. I am a big time hetero! Woohoo!

OK....JWerx...you had better get on it!