Personal details

Work

I am fortunate enough to work at one of the greatest companies in the world -- Microsoft.  I am currently a developer on Visual Studio.  Before that I was a development manager on the Windows team working in the base operating system.  Before that I was a development lead on the Windows User Experience team (see pictures of my office).  Before that I was the  development manager for the MSN Explorer client team.  Before that I was a development lead on Internet Explorer.

Prior to working for Microsoft, I worked on all kinds of other interesting stuff:

Music

I play guitar and bass.  I used to play in hard rock bands.  Since I'm a computer geek, I also have synthesizers and keyboards.  I can't play a keyboard very well (in fact, I suck) -- that's what the computer is for.

My musical tastes

My deserted island song list

Hot Wheels

I got started on this when my wife had me going to stores to try and find particular cars to complete sets for my eldest son.  Little did she know what this was going to turn into :) -- visit my Hot Wheels site.  Now I'm a full fledged collector myself.  I have thousands of these little cars.  Periodically I take my extra cars to a toy show or a swap meet and buy, sell, trade with other collectors (and scalpers).

Update:  I sold 99.999% of my Hot Wheels collection so this isn't particularly relevant anymore.

Speed Racer

I really liked Speed Racer as a kid.  So when I saw that Johnny Lightning made some little diecast cars of the Mach 5, Shooting Star, GRX, etc. I picked them up.  This led to picking up a video or two.  This led to my youngest son being totally obsessed with Speed Racer.  Now we have all 52 of the original episodes on video tape, 1/18th scale Mach 5, action figures, comics, etc. (you get the idea).  Now I must regularly troll eBay for Speed Racer stuff.

Model Trains

I collect Märklin trains -- H0 and Z guage primarily but I also have some I and Maxi stuff as well.  Since I started with Hot Wheels a couple years ago I haven't spent much time with the trains unfortunately.

I started with hobby many years ago when I got a Märklin train set for Christmas one year.  I had a small layout with houses, people, etc.  I suppose I grew out of it and the stuff sat in boxes until one Christmas season we wanted to setup a train for my young niece.  It was only a matter of a few weeks before I was totally hooked and buying all kinds of stuff to add to my collection.

Star Wars

I'm not a fanatic but I really dig it.  I love the movies.  And unlike most of you, I really enjoyed Episode I.  I've read most of the follow on books.  I also sort of collect some Star Wars toys -- mostly the action figures. 

When I was younger I really liked the original Star Trek.  Now, I find it quite painful to watch.  Almost as bad as the Brady Bunch: bad haircuts, bad acting, and go-go boots.  Even the newer Star Trek series' (TNG, DS9, Voyager) are little too melodramatic for my tastes at times.  They're too much like daytime soap operas.