Biography

Im 28 years old and from Ireland. I have a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering. I am working as a Software Testing Consultant and have worked in several different industries. I have been training in Judo for the last 12 years and am a Judo coach in the local club. I used to play Rugby for the local team. I spent 5 years in Civil Defence learning everything from First Aid to Rescue Techniques to Fire Training and 3 years in the Reserve Defence Forces and trained to the rank of Corporal.

College

I attended Blanchardstown IT, Dublin and I completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from 1999-2005. The course varied alot from software programming to hardward programming, hardware design and manufacturing, testing, quality systems. I am experienced in web design and web networking, as can be seen from my own domain here, which including the installing, setup, and running of many different types of scripts available.

Work

During college I spent 11 months working in a call centre supporting the UK ISP BTOpenworld doing technical support. After my degree I then spent 9 months working with PayPal International. I enjoyed my time there. Next on the schedule was to spend a year in Australia to "widen my variety of life and spend time before i have to get a job and a woman and a house and all that stuff !". I am back now and am working for a Software Consultancy firm who are a pureplay Software Testing Company. I have been working for Meteor Communications since May 2008.
For more info add me onto Linked @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfolan

Sports

I spent about 7 years playing for the local Rugby Club which i left due to college and work and sleep purposes. I played prop forward for most of the time. I've spent about 10 years in the local Judo Club working my way up to a coach in the club.

Civil Defence

I was a member of Irish Civil Defence for 5 years where i ended up as an assistant unit leader for the local branch. We were trained in First Aid, Rescue Techniques, Crowd Control, and my local Branch was a Fire Unit so i was trained as a Fireman. I even was invited to apply for the local part-time fire brigade but i was not working close enough at the time to be able to do it.

Reserve Defence Forces

I spent three years in the RDF training as an infantry solider. I was fully trained as a Corporal. I liked the training that i recieved in that and have benifited from it.

Games

I have been caught up in an online role-playing game called Travian. Bascially you are in charge of building up a village and you have resouce fields that the bigger you build them the more you will be able to grow. I just finished my first game which has gone on for the past 10 months i think.
I moved onto a game called BattleField 2142 which is like CSS below but was released about 4 years later so much better graphics !
I used to quite like Counter Strike: Source, and Earth: 2025.
The Counter Strike: Source(css) is an FPS action game based on the Half Life 2 gaming engine(for the geeks out there :)). You are either a terrorist of a counter-terrorist and round starts and bascially: if your a terrorist you either plant the bomb, or guard prisoners you have; and if you are counter-terrorist bascially you stop the bomb being planted or defuse it, or resuce the hostages. Single head shots from a nice deagle are always for the win(ftw!). I was in a UK-based gaming clan called British Armed Forces (and thats another website i designed and maintained)
Earth 2025 is a text-based web-based game. You are in charge of a country and the round lasts for either one month or two months, and is spread out. You get a new turn every 30min(depending on the game) and you decide what you want to do with those turns, whether to build or to explore or to attack or what not.

Car

My first car out of college was an Alfa Romeo 156 1.8l. I liked that car. When i went to Australia i sold it. Check out the photos of it here.
I am now driving a gorgeous 2003 Lexus IS200 2l. I have pictures here up on Bebo. Havn't bothered uploading any here yet.

Australia

As of Sunday 18 Feb 2007 im back in Ireland. I spent 6 months in Brisbane, Australia. I added several albums of photos for different places that i visited over there. My only regret is that i didnt visit more of the country. I stayed in the one place, got an apartment, and a job and didnt really move around. I visited several places. I did enjoy my trip, got a new perspective of a new country, now i know that there are places that arent 5 deg c all the time! I met a beautiful woman and fell in love. I would have a photo up but of course she is photo shy !
Back now and have debts to sort out, need to get a job[DONE] to get the cash to buy a car[DONE] which i need to get to the job.

Airsoft

Airsoft is a combat tag along a similar vein to paintball, except that the projectiles leave no actual mark upon impact. Airsoft devices or replicas are 1:1 scale models of real world firearms and players will often also invest in a similar BDU(Battle Dress Uniform) to the armies which use their chosen replica style ie: M4 with an American style BDU, AK-series with Russian, G36 with German.

Check out more info @ Irish Airsoft Association.