Paul Woods

Finally I can officially say I have friends in the Blogosphere!  Alistair has been kind enough to line me up for the “5 things you don’t know about me” meme.  Here goes:

1. Despite my deceiving Australian accent, I grew up in Invercargill, New Zealand.  Home of the worlds most southern Subway Restaurant.  People only know about Invercargill after watching The Worlds Fastest Indian.  In fact they were filming it when I was there with my brand spanking new wife on our honeymoon a few years back.  You should go get it out at the video store, you might see me in it.  No I am not playing the lead character, that is Anthony Hopkins (easy mistake to make).
2. Even though Alistair threw me in the ‘non-technical’ bucket for this meme, I have played with technology from time to time.  In fact before I started working for Microsoft and Data#3, I was a Unix Administrator for the Queensland Government.  Luckily I managed to get out of the Unix game before depression set in, changed religions, and moved to a great Technology/Marketing role at Microsoft.  After my resignation, there were a number of other Unix administrators who would no longer talk to me… apparently to them I had started worshipping the devil.
3. During my days at university (when not frequenting the Campus Club) I spent all my spare money on flying lessons.  I hold a Private Pilots License with about 130 hrs in my log book.  Once I graduated Uni and got married, flying lessons (and flying in general) came to a flying halt.  Apparently I could not justify spending $250 a week when we should be saving for a house.  One day I will start flying again, but for now, this will have to do.

   My two favourite memories from my flying days include:

• doing a touch and go landing at Brisbane International Airport in a Cessna 172. Because it is such a slow plane (approach speed is around 60-70 knots), I managed to hold up four international departures (and two domestic ones).  That’s about 1000 passengers in planes queued up to take off watching a 4 seat light aircraft hold up their holidays!
• the other is during Aerobatic training in a Super Decathlon somewhere over Beaudesert, just south of Brisbane.  I tried to complete a Reverse Half Cuban, but managed to pull back on the stick a little too fast during the loop back to level flight, and forgot to tense up my legs to stop the blood rushing away.  After holding just under 5g’s for about 4-5 seconds, I lost my vision.  Has to be the weirdest feeling I have ever had.  Luckily I managed to realise my mistake before I lost consciousness, but I felt a bit groggy for the next minute or two.  My Aerobatics instructor (who happened to be the Australian Basic Aero Champion at the time) thought it was hilarious. 
4. I am an award winning film maker!  In grade 11 I got a few mates together to make a very stupid low budget film for a Queensland wide short film festival – The Courier Mail Short Cuts Film Fest (open to professionals, and people way older than 15!).  The total budget of the 4 1/2 minute blockbuster ”An Episode of Pure Madness” which followed the life of a guy in serious need of a mental hospital was $6.  We were stoked to find out we had made the final 12 out of about 200 entries.  That meant we were to have our film screened at the finals in the Brunswick Street Mall.  Then they actually awarded us third place.  I still can’t believe how we managed to pull that off… but we were more than happy with the prize, 5 annual passes to MovieWorld.  During that year, I can safely say I went on the Lethal Weapon Roller Coaster at least 150 times. 
5. I once (accidentally) drank sulphuric acid on a school excursion to the CSIRO.  It did not taste too good.  That might explain a lot of things.

Hmm who can I pass the baton on to?  Nope, I think I might be the last one!

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