About Me 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.