I grew up in the Grand Rapids area in western Michigan, graduating from a small town
high school called Wayland High School. We moved around alot since my father
was in construction and we lived a number of years in a smaller town called Dorr, Michigan.
Kids from Wayland, Dorr, and Moline all attended the same middle and high school.
I went to college at Eastern Michigan University and spent many years working as a bartender
and a few years as a server. I believe those years were very important to my character
development as the places I had worked were very customer service oriented. I believe that
there are customers of all kinds from client/customers, to co-workers, so it's important to
provide co-workers what they need to get the job done as it serves the company infrastructure
and client/customers as well. I worked for many service industry locations such
as Chili's (Server/Trainer), Copeland's of New Orleans (Server/Trainer), Bombay Bicycle Club (Bartender),
Friday's (Server/Bartender), and the Cooker (Bartender). I also learned that if there is
one thing you don't do, is mess up people's food experience. It's never a pretty sight.
I've been involved with the computer industry since I was 10 years old with my first computer
being a Timex Sinclair. I also had a Commodore 64, TRS-80, and an Apple IIe before growing up PC.
I have always had a computer or some sort of computer interaction, and had learned
the VMS operating system before even learning Windows (Windows was a pipe dream then). I have a passion for computer based
systems that still resonates to this day but am really more interested in technology applications in a business envrionment
while creating teams for successful production of applications or good technical workflow.
I enjoy reading books on history, philosophy, current events, social issues, computer books spanning
a broad range of subjects from process oriented architectures to more technical books on
either network engineering, programming, and/or databases.
I was involved with martial arts for many years and lately have found myself getting back into
fitness. I love the P90X workout system and have also branched to the 1 on 1 with Tony Horton
videos. I've lost a huge number of pounds and have found that being in shape has become
a very important part of my life.
