Random Facts About Me | Seán Reiser

Hi, I'm Seán Reiser

Here is an ever increasing list of random facts about me.

I'm red/green colorblind. When I tell people this I usually get a number of questions, let me try and answer them for you:
- Can you drive? With traffic lights, the red light is the one on top or on the left. I don't drive these days but this isn't the reason (I'm sure that fact will come up on this list). I still don't know what to do at blinking green lights.
- What color do you see when something is red or green? I don't know what color I see since I've never seen the other one. I have no frame of reference.
- How do you work in computers if you can't see colors? All those years ago, when I started in computers, there were 2 colors, On (green, amber or white) and Off (black).
- But you build websites? Yup but I don't design them. I'm always working from an existing color pallet. A designer puts together the design which I implement.
- And you do photography? Yes, nature is giving me the colors, I'm not coloring things in. I do think that my editing sometimes goes towards more vivid color scenes because I'm compensating.
- What other problems do you have? I spent 6 months dating an alien with green hair and red eyes and I never noticed.
As I said above, I haven't driven in years. I moved to Queens in 2002, 5 years later it was time to renew my license and it occurred to me that I hadn't driven in 5 years. It occurred to me that if I renewed, I would be an unsafe driver.
I was Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year and so were you.
I took piano lessons staring at 8 years old. I was OK, but, unfortunately I have small fingers and I can't stretch my hand to a full octave. I took lessons for 7 or 8 years but as I found it less enjoyable I moved on to other things.
When I was about 11, I was in a Drum and Bugle Corps playing brass (mellophone) and I was in band in High School.
I shouldn't sing. I attended Catholic Grammar School and the nuns would encourage students to sing. "Singing is like praying 7 times", they'd say. The nuns would tell me to lip-sync. I do sing in Church, I figured if God gave me this voice, I might as well make Him listen to it. If I knew my bible then I would've pointed out that Psalm 98 says I should make a "Joyful Noise unto the Lord" and my singing is noise.
I'm really not a morning person. I've seen more sunrises because I was up all night then one's I've seen after waking up. This is so common in my field that I wonder if there's a genetic component to it.
I am an Eagle Scout, which I earned in 1987. (Please excuse the campfire icon, Font Awesome doesn't provide an Icon that I feel is more appropriate).
When I turned 45, I dropped all my online handles and aliases. This began a project where I merged all my websites into one site, under one domain, seanreiser.com. It was partially a branding decision.
I don't like coffee. When I was growing up, my grandparents lived in my house with us. My Grandmother used to make a pot of Sanka for my Grandfather at 5AM before he went to work. It would sit in the pot all day and they'd have it with their dinner. After dinner my brothers and I could drink it. Whenever I smell coffee, I am reminded of that horrible bitter tasting coffee and can't drink it.
I do however, enjoy a nice cup of tea. It should be brewed in a pot, not the cup. I take it with cream (preferably half and half) and 2 lumps of sugar.
On very cold days, especially when it's snowing, I'll have a nice mug of hot chocolate, made with milk, not water. Marshmallows, please.
I used to be be a huge consumer of Coke-a-Cola. Over the last year, I've transitioned to home brewed iced tea with sugar. Im still sweetening it and mostly wanted less chemicals in my body.
Last fact about beverages. I don't drink adult beverages very often. I do like a nice bourbon from time to time. Either on the rocks or in a Mint Julep.
The only times I've lied about my age was to add to it. I don't understand people how take years off. I'd rather someone think, "wow he looks good for 55" than "45, huh? You must've lived a tough life".
I purchased my first computer in 1984. I had worked for a while to buy it, using a discount that my father got through his work. In retrospect, I'm sure I didn't earn enough money to purchase the machine, but either way I learned to work for what I wanted. The machine was an Apple //e, complete with a 1Mhz Processor, a whopping 64KB of Ram and 2 (count them 2) 5 1/4" floppy drives.
In 1985 I purchased my first modem and started hopping on BBSs.
I first got on the internet in 1992 logging in through MindVox.
I owe so much to that machine. I learned not just languages (BASIC, Pascal, Assembler) but also how to think like a computer. Every penny I've earned as an adult can be traced back to those days in my bedroom hacking.
My first "job" was cleaning my Church parking lot every Friday for $5.00. I was 12 at the time.
I had a Pennysaver paper route. The Pennysaver was a free circular with advertisements for local businesses.
I've worked in fast food both at Roy Rogers and Jack's (New York's version of Jack-In-The-Box). After a 10 hour shift its impossible to get the smell of burger grease out of your hair.
I spent a summer working in the public works department of my home town: mowing lawns and digging ditches.
I was a sales clerk in Macy's electronics department.
My first tech job was at Computer Associates, in their computer operations department operating printers. I moved through operations, into a number of support positions. Finally providing support for Clipper, a dBase compiler, on their CompuServe forums.
This led to the next 15 years of so of doing programing in Clipper, FoxPro and dBase for DOS and Windows. I spent most of this time working for large financial firms. Eventually I transitioned into Web Development and have spent the last 16 years building web apps.
I've never really liked gaming. When I'm in front of my computer, I want to explore and experiment, pointing and shooting holds little interest to me.
I find it hard to eat fish.I am allergic to shellfish, so shrimp, crab, lobster, etc are out. When I was young, my mom was making fried flounder, and (doing the parents do to encourage children to expand their pallets) told me it was a chicken cutlet. One sniff and bite and I knew 2 thing That was not chicken and I'd never eat it again.