No, I'm not a child prodigy who can create a webpage at 5 months old - this is just an old photo. Over a quarter of a century has passed since the photo was taken, and I have grown somewhat.
Auckland has a population of approximately 1.3 million people; New Zealand's population has just passed 4 million. Those of you who live "down under" should already know that; for those of you who don't, here is a map. The arrow points to Auckland - the rest of the country is unimportant and not worth mentioning :-)
I also tutored undergraduate courses in the Department of Philosophy between 1999 and 2003. These were in Metaphysics & Theories of Knowledge (four times), Philosophy of Religion (twice), Ethics, Theories of Human Nature, and Chinese Philosophy. In addition, I marked first year logic tests and invigilated numerous philosophy tests.
According to the latest (2002/04) Philosophical Gourmet Report, the University of Auckland Department of Philosophy is ranked 3= in Australasia - behind Australian National University and the University of Melbourne, and equal with Monash University (the University of Sydney comes in fifth). It comes in at 51st equal (with 4 others), for English-speaking philosophy departments in the world. This is based on staff academic reputations perceived by top English-speaking (mainly US) philosophers. In certain speciality areas, such as Applied Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy, Ethics, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Art, Philosophy of Action, and Logic, it does even better.
I enjoy all sports - playing, not watching. I used to compete in athletics up until a few years ago - sprinting and jumping especially - but injuries have forced me into an early retirement :-( Prior to that I had competed in New Zealand and Australia, had been nationally ranked in New Zealand, and had gained a number of national championship medals. I found a couple of webpages listing some of my performances:
- 1998 Sky Tower Run
- I came 192nd. - 1997 Robin Tait Classic
- I competed in the men's long jump (8th), triple jump (8th), and 100m (5th div III). And this meeting has sentimental value, because, even though my performances were not great, it was my last serious competition I entered.
I enjoy travelling, and I try to get away whenever I have the time and money. My most challenging and rewarding travelling experience to date was when I backpacked around South America for three months in 1997/98. Part of the time I travelled with friends, and part of the time I travelled on my own. I wrote a bit about it here. More recently, I spent a bit of time in Taiwan. I was there for five weeks in 2000, and again for another five weeks in 2002/03. Both times I stayed with friends in Kaohsiung. I used that as a base to make day and weekend trips to most of the rest of the country. In addition, I've visited Australia numerous times, and I lived there for a year in 1980. I've also briefly visited Fiji and Malaysia. Of course, I've also done a lot of travelling around New Zealand.
Once in a while I help my brother-in-law maintain the website of a travel company. It is Jetage Marketing.
To make ends meet, between 1995 and 2000 I was a piece of background scenery on a number of television and movie productions. These included a few episodes on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Young Hercules, a bit on the movie What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (the sequel to Once Were Warriors ), a sketch comedy programme, and a couple of advertisements (one for NZ Post, and the "Kelly Browne" AMI Insurance ad). It was an interesting experience, and I enjoyed not only watching how the shooting is done, but also getting paid for sitting around, sleeping and reading most of the days. Running around in a miniskirt waving a sword had its moments, too. But I certainly don't miss it, and I don't envy these people who have to do it for a living - it is just extremely long hours doing incredibly boring, repetitive, mindless work.
In the past I was subscribed to, and fairly active on, numerous mailing lists. These were mainly at ONElist (which became eGroups, which in turn became Yahoo Groups), and also at SmartGroups and other sites. But as they say, there is often more noise than content, and for the most part I have lost interest in contributing to either. But I still occasionally get involved when the mood strikes, and the conversations are interesting.
I am one of those weird people who is slightly synaesthetic. If you are interested, check out Richard Cytowic's page on synaesthesia.
I am a bright. What is a bright?, you may ask. Well check out www.the-brights.net.
Glenn Riseborough, 6/3/2004