So… this seems to be the game of this New Year (not really sure when it started, though)… Doug tagged me, so I’m now supposed to tell you 5 things you don’t know about me… here we are:
- I come from a completely different background: I studied Organ and Composition at the conservatory of Parma; do you know the “Ham of Parma“, or the “Parmigiano Reggiano” cheese, the “Parmalat” (sadly known for a huge financial disaster 3-4 years ago, as the “Italian Enron”) or Giuseppe Verdi? Well… I come from that land (an by the way, the native house and village of Verdi is just 5 minutes from the house where I grown up and lived for about 28 years… maybe that is what influenced my choice). Speaking of my favorite music, I’m an ancient guy (meaning I most like the Renaissance, Baroque and Classic eras, from W.A.Mozart backward), but of course I also don’t dislike some melodic “modern” songs… for sure I don’t like Heavy Metal and Techno Music (the latter can be really called “music”? C’mon… that’s just noise!)
- Computers where one of my other passions (together with painting, photograph, reading, movies and studying foreign languages), so towards the end of the ’90’s when I had the opportunity to join an IT Company giving consulting services for a big banking group (big at least in Italy), I’ve been happy to take the opportunity and I started this journey. But I had a clear idea since the beginning: I wanted to be a developer. Writing software is a bit like composing a song or writing a novel: developers can create, something the IT folks can’t do (well… they simplyput together bits created by someone else… is a bit like build a puzzle… it’s not the same in my opinion)
- I like to play billiards, and we’re lucky enough to have a billiard table at the office (in our recreative room), so almost every day after lunch we usually play goriziana and, well… with not so bad results…
- I grow up in the country, with lots of animals, but my favorite puppy if an Alaskan Malamute brought up named Jorg; well… “puppy” maybe it’s not the most appropriate word for a 50 kilograms (110 Lbs) snow dog used for heavy work…
- I mentioned that I like reading (quite common hobby, I think), but I also like to write my own stories (thrillers and horrors in particular, my favorite writers are Stephen King, John Grisham, Michael Chrichton, Jeffery Deaver…). I won a few small writing contests some years ago, but I’ve never really tried to change this “hobby” in something more serious… but who knows, maybe in the near future…
I think that’s it, now it’s my turn to tag 5 people, so here they are: Mark, Andreas, Todd, Jerry and David; now it’s your turn! 
Cheers
Carlo