I am going to break my #1 rule to keep this blog strictly professional [breaking the rules actually feels pretty good!], and join a silly game of [1] Blog Tag. The goal of this game is to share eight things you may not know about me and tag other Oracle bloggers to spread this movement. So, here we go:

• I was born and raised in [2] Slovakia when it was still a part of Czechoslovakia. Like most Slovaks, I don’t like to be referred to as Czech. Not that there is anything wrong with it
• My favorite places in the world include Seattle, Prague, and Ziarska Dolina (Ziarska Valley in the [3] Tatra Mountains), Crater Lake, Oregon Coast, Achorage, Scottsdale, New Orleans, Greenwich (England), Whistler, Austin, Bratislava, Salt Lake City and many other places in between. As you might have guessed, I love to travel.
• During college, I once bought a Greyhound student ticket and traveled by bus from Worchester, MA to Eugene, OR to “see the country”. It was an eye opening experience but, needless to say, there is no risk of repeating the trip anytime soon.
• My wife and I have been married for 15 years. We have two wonderful children [boy and girl]. Our son’s favorite game when he was little was putting his toys in boxes, which tells you we moved a lot back then.
• I try to be a very engaged parent. I love spending time with my family and our weekends are always very active and busy. I found being involved the only way to make it work and compensate for my frequent business travels.
• I enjoy any sport activities which include “cheating” the gravity - swimming, skiing, ice skating, windsurfing. However, my main ‘fix” is hiking up a mountain with a 360 degree view from the top.
• I regret I never learned to play any musical instrument [at least not yet]. My mother signed me up for piano lessons when I was ten, however, I secretly went to hockey practices instead… She was not very pleased when she found out. I played youth hockey for about ten years, and more recently, I coached hockey teams my son played on.
• I joined Oracle in 1994 as a translator. My job was to translate the meetings, documentation and software from English to Slovak. It was a major Oracle Financials and Manufacturing 10.4 implementation project in Bratislava, Slovakia with a very diverse international team. Within a couple of months of the project, I was offered a consultant position, and I never really did anything else since. In 1997, I got transferred to the US and moved my family to Seattle where we live now.

I now tag [4] Michael Amstrong Smith, [5] Jo Davis, [6] Jason Howlett, [7] Martin Millmore, [8] Neeraj Garg, and [9] Bob Anderson. The show must go on!