rickweiss.ca

Hi, I’m Rick. I work in Corporate Communications for the Government of Canada, and have done so since March 2008. I’m also a seasoned tech and video game nerd.

I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

At work I do the full range of PR & Corp Comm stuff. I write for internal and external audiences, respond to inquiries from citizens and media, manage events – for staff, clients, and ministerial announcements.

In my personal time, I’m a martial artist and a gamer.

As a child, I tried a few different arts. First judo, than in my early teens I learned some karate and jujitsu. I began training kung fu in 2003 at McMaster University and continue to do so. I also blog about it.

I also began playing video games early in life. When I was just 6 years old my father bought a brand new computer – with an Intel 80286 processor, 640kb of RAM and 10 Mb of hard drive space! It read the old 5.25″ floppy disks and played some great games. (Like Police Quest 1, Centipede, and Frogger). This was 1987.

From that day I was hooked. As video games evolved from their simple beginnings, I grew and evolved as well. Then the internet came to the scene… The rest is history.

In February 2009 I joined the ranks of Mac users when I bought a shiny new MacBook. Though I still game on Windows.

PR & Corp. Comm. captured my attention because I love working with people, I enjoy being in the know and sharing information. I get excited by strategy. A more recent discovery is that I really enjoy social media. Though it should have been an obvious fit; I wrote my first “blog” (it didn’t include commenting) 10 years ago.

A few other random facts about me:

• I studied civil engineering for two years at McMaster before changing my major to psychology.
• I was a competitive swimmer from ages 8 to 18.
• Orange is one of my favorite colours.
• I enjoy dry humour and dry martinis – preferably gin.