Where do I start?
I have always found it weird to write about myself in third person, so I will keep this as casual as possible.
I was born and raised in a small town just south of Akron, Ohio. Like most people, I found myself looking for purpose in my teens and decided the military was where I belonged. The recruiter had an “are you sure?” look on his face when I pointed to “11B – Infantryman” on the sheet of paper as my job choice. He tried to talk me into a few other jobs, but the thought of sitting behind a computer while serving in the military was not appealing at the time. I was more of a John Rambo kind of kid.
I spent four years in the active-duty Army, deployed twice to the Middle East, graduated from USASS at Fort Benning, and eventually faced the reality of being a new parent while having one of the coolest jobs on the planet. I decided to forgo the E6 board, pack my bags, and begin life as a new father, husband, and civilian.
After leaving the Army, I took a job at a web development firm near Cleveland, where I began my professional career. I had always been into computers, and even more into SubZero and RATs. The 90s era of the internet and computers was golden when it came to finding your next digital playground for an evening. I eventually started building my own software, websites, and custom computer hardware. They were cool party tricks that never amounted to much, but they provided enough proof for me to confidently repeat the line, “My kung fu is strong.”
Once I had my foot in the door, I decided to take Uncle Sam up on his offer and go to college. It started with basic computer science, but it eventually turned into a search for something more. While sitting in lectures about quantum mechanics, the history of discrete mathematics, and the early days of code breaking, I started to think I might need a change in my career path. I finished my two-year degree in computer science and started a new company.
I chose to create software that helped developers connect, communicate, authenticate, and authorize mobile applications and users against existing databases. The tool cut weeks, if not months, of development time and cost from projects, and it was as simple as drag and drop. The company became a huge success. Government agencies started adopting it, and colleges began licensing it for their curriculum. It was helping others, but eventually, all good things come to an end. I sold the software and moved on.
That path eventually led me to where I am today, working in one of the coolest fields I could have ever asked for. As an avid hunter and conservationist, I am blessed with the opportunity to work at the intersection of two things I care deeply about: the outdoors and technology. More specifically, I work with cellular IoT devices that monitor wilderness areas around the United States.
When I am not tracking down bugs, fixing strange issues like a browser crashing because someone held down the “W” key too long in a text field, I am usually building something. I become the kid I once was in the 90s, tinkering with custom hardware and software in the evenings to scratch the itch of possibility and wonder. Sometimes there is a purpose. Sometimes I build something just to see if my kung fu is still strong.