Hi, I’m Gautam.
I build software for a living and travel to stay sane. Most people call me
Googie. That’s spelled with an i and not an l, and yes, it predates the
search engine. If you ply me with a sufficient quantity of beer, I might even
tell you how I got that nickname.
Here’s some other random trivia about me.
The Professional Computerer
- I’ve spent twenty years in Vim, mostly because it took me that long to figure out how to exit. I’m not leaving now for your editor.
- My browser has had over a hundred open tabs for years. I’ll probably never read them, but I have an irrational fear of losing them all.
- I have a tendency to fall down Wikipedia rabbit holes regularly. I go in for refactoring techniques and come out three hours later an expert on the Emu War of 1932.
Domestic-ishness
- I went from burning toast to actually impressing dinner guests. Growth is possible, even if it took me years to identify the “simmer” setting.
- I don’t own a television. I think that both amazes and disappoints my parents in equal measure.
- I can out-eat most people at a buffet. Somehow my metabolism hasn’t caught on to my age yet, and I intend to keep it in the dark for as long as possible.
- I enjoy cutting out pictures in magazines to make collages. I wish my kids liked it too, so I could make them do the manual labor and take all the credit at the end.
Midlife-Sportery
- I learned to inline skate at 40 because childhood me never got the chance. Turns out gravity hits harder at 40, and stopping on skates is roughly as difficult as exiting Vim.
- I’m currently learning to swim properly - because they told me ‘not drowning’ isn’t a valid swimming stroke.
- I really like to ski. You’ll find me on the bunny slopes, where the 5-year-olds enjoy having someone they can finally beat.
- I play football (the real kind) and I’m a decent defender - which mostly just means I’m good at getting in the way.
Quirktastic-etc
- I can’t see a dog-eared book without fixing it. It’s a compulsion. I’m a benevolent librarian at heart.
- I used to invent games as a bored kid in the pre-internet era. It was that or stare at the wall. The wall was a tough opponent.
- I genuinely enjoy public speaking, which apparently makes me a statistical anomaly. I’m usually the quiet one in the room, but give me a podium and I’ll talk until they drag me off the stage.