After being “tagged” by Rob and Ciaran I thought that it was time that I responded.. It’s taken a fair bit of time to think of 7 interesting facts about me (I’m quite boring in reality!) but hopefully they’ll help you get a further understanding of the ins and outs of my world. Watch out to see if you’ve been tagged at the end of the post..
Interesting Fact 1: I was once attacked by a wild ape.
I used to work for an online gaming provider whose head office was in Gibraltar. This meant a few trips across and on one of them I was taken up on the “rock” by some of the locals who worked in our office. Despite a few warnings from them, I decided to attempt to touch / stroke one of the wild apes and it turned towards me and tried to attack me – luckily it didn’t get much further than scratching my jacket before it found something better to do, but I know to listen to advice next time!
Interesting Fact 2: I class myself as a professional dancer after winning a Michael Jackson dance competition.
Am sure I’ve mentioned this before, but all the same it’s one of my proudest moments so why not do so again? In my first year attending the fantastic AffiliateFuture Barbados trip I managed to get myself entered in a Michael Jackson dance contest at one of the popular bars on the Island. The concept was simple enough – 5 or 6 people got on the stage in front of a rather large crowd and danced to Michael Jackson – the winner was the person who got the most cheers & gets a £200 bar tab and bottle of fizzy wine as their prize.
On stage I managed to push at least one fellow contestant out the way (they were showing off with some good moves) and also stripped half naked, throwing my sweat soaked t-shirt to the adoring fans by the stage. My last move was a rock knee dive towards the crowd and realistically I was the only dancer who got any kind of applause – and what an applause it was. I’m almost shedding a tear of joy just writing about it so that’s enough for now.
Interesting Fact 3 : I’ve blagged lots of freebies.
I’ve created websites in the past just to get some free stuff, the best of which was for a site I put together called “MusicBytes” (get it?). I’d had the domain for a while before seeing that 3 Doors Down, one of the great bands to come out of the USA in recent times, were performing in London for the first time.
I was quite happy with this and ordered myself a ticket (I actually ordered two tickets, but the other person didn’t turn up on the night). Not content with just seeing them I wondered how I would be able to meet the band and came up with MusicBytes becoming a new online magazine.. this was very early web days, probably back to at least 2001. So I went ahead and phoned up their record label in the US, found the details of their agent and very easily managed to arrange an interview on the night of the gig. Not only did I turn up for the interview but I purchased a fresh copy of their album and got it signed at the same time too! I’ve blagged other free stuff in the past (such as a Tony Parsons book to review before it’s release) but I’ve not done it in the past few years as I felt a little guilty about not telling the truth!
Interesting Fact 4: I was almost fired for phoning up sick with a hangover that I didn’t have.
This is a strange one. Back when I was 18, around 9 moths into my 5 years at One.Tel, I had a bad migraine and called in work ill. It’s not very often that I take off time sick (one of my pet hates these days infact) so I was a little worried about calling in to let the boss know that I wasn’t going to be able to make it, especially as I was still relatively new to the web development role.
I called up early in the morning, left a voicemail, closed all the curtains and went back to sleep. When I got up, I noticed I had around 10 missed calls from one of my colleagues. Worried, I immediately phoned her to see what was wrong and was informed that I had left a message to the boss saying I won’t be in due to a hangover. Apparently the boss was livid and ready to fire me the next day (she’s Australian, perhaps that will help explain this reaction).
I still to this day have no idea why I said this – I had not been drinking the night but perhaps I was worried when calling it that it would be perceived that this was the case (as I drank a fair bit back then, so a logical explanation).
In the end, I got my dad to phone up my boss to convince her that I had been at home all night and not out and about.. I got a little warning about it when I came back into work the next day but other than that it was dripped and I think she believed me, but a scary few days none the less!
Interesting Fact 5: I have my name by deep-poll because Facebook wouldn’t let me change it.
You may not realise this, but it’s actually exceptionally easy to change your name by deed-poll. There are no meetings, no court orders, just a piece of paper that you can order online to officially renounce your old name and announce your new one to the world.
After a conversion in the pub the night before I decided that it would be a good idea to change my name from James Little to J Lil, my street dancing name that was given to me by Rob Berrisford.
So I found a site online, paid £5 and got an instant document where I just needed to fill in my old names and new names, got it signed by a witness and, officially, my name was changed. I didn’t go to the expense of changing the bank documents, passport and various other forms and it went no further than putting the document somewhere safe (so safe I can’t find it!) but I did manage to scan it in to send to Facebook and finally get them to accept to my name change request.
Obviously I’m still really James Little, but I’ve make sure that enough people know my “real” street name that it’s now recognisable to me!
Interesting Fact 6: I used to be an internet addict
The reason that my twitter (and previous blog url) is exwebjunkie is because for a long period of time my life pretty much revolved around the internet. I used to be a chat “addict”, probably because when I came out of school I had very few friends (was heavily bullied) and the online world that I was propelled into gave me the opportunity to almost start afresh.
There were some great times – I used to attend meets where the general theme was to have a few drinks and make friends. Not only did I make some fantastic friends who I am still very close with today, but I was also introduced to my now-wife through one of the close friends that I had made. There were also a lot of young attractive women that I shared some wonderful experiences with – chat wasn’t just for geeks!!!
I’ve probably been online now for a very long time – being the early adapter that I am my first internet provider was Compuserve, who at the time only gave the facility to email other members, rather than the wider internet. I was probably about 10 so a good 17 years ago.
Interesting Fact 7: My goals in life
The last fact is far less interesting and a bit of a cop out, but I’m finding it difficult to find anything else to write about.
I have a few interlinked goals in life that I made a few years ago. I decided that after watching some of the passengers on the train with me every morning into London that I don’t want to be doing the rat-race thing for too long. My overall goal is to semi-retire when I am 45 (so 18 years away) and move away from London, ideally towards the coast somewhere and work in some kind of local shop, having saved enough to not have to worry about living out the rest of my life in luxury.
There is still a long way to go on these! My savings account sits there with around £0.60 in it however I’m pretty adamant that it will happen.
And that’s pretty much the end of my post. The aim was to write a line for each and get it over and done with however it’s ended up almost as long as an essay and if you’ve read this far then not only am I impressed that you didn’t give up half way down but I’m also hopeful that you will now know a little more about my life and some of the experiences I’ve had.
Time for my tags now, so here goes:
Pete, Ste, Gav & Jonty
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