About

I am a native of Northern Virginia, grew up there, and worked most of my life there. I had all advantages that come with the area including a good school system and a relatively resilient economy.

After attending George Mason University and facing a recession, I maneuvered my way into the Fairfax County Fire Department. I had a wonderful 25 year career with the Fire Service and built strong friendships with many good people. I had the opportunity to serve in many capacities while with the Fire Department. I continued attending college, studying a variety of subjects, one of which turned out to be my second career and passion - computers.

This journey of passion led me to become a UNIX system administrator and to my good fortune I worked for several great mentors. I worked with Blair Miller several times after my initial employment with him where he gave me my first chance to learn the skills to be a productive system administrator and he taught me invaluable lessons in all areas related to the IT world.

Many projects later, having worked with other great people, I had a healthy set of skills that allowed me to work with large corporations where I was challenged with challenging build outs designed to handle huge volumes of dynamic delivery content.

Teaching and coaching have always played a role in my career. There is a reward for me in developing the knowledge base and skills of others.

I am blessed with a beautiful wife and a loving family. I enjoy coding, building automation tools, guitar, sailing, reading, history, science, astronomy, theology, philosophy, finance, and a good craft beer or a glass of tannin rich red wine. Yes, the list on interests is long but ADHD has no limits. :)

I enjoy learning new skills and look forward to continuing to teach/coach others along the way.

or the less serious description:

I am but a poor itinerant circus performer and part time empty beer glass philosopher seeking the meaning of life and the ultimate truth. I continue to work on finding the singular unifying theory to quantum physics while solving all the anomalies of the universe. On the weekend, I like to relax with friends, enjoy an adult beverage, code, read about black holes, enjoy great guitarists. Would love to crew on a America’s Cup contender and paint a masterpiece but that may have to wait for my next life. I have an insatiable appetite for learning which sometimes finds eating and sleeping an obstruction to satisfying that desire.