It all started decades ago in the great PNW That's the Pacific NorthWest for you I-like-to-see-the-sun-occasionally-and-be-dry-and-I've-never-stepped-on-a-banana-slug-in-bare-feet-before people.
Seattle was a happy time, but things change. In 1987, my family moved to Centerville, Ut. so my dad could take a much nicer job. I decided to go with them. I was a little shaken though when, on the first day at my new house, I saw a tumbleweed blow/roll down the street. "Why," I thought, "had I been taken from the beautiful Garden-of-Eden-esque Seattle to the middle of a friggin' desert?" Well, it has taken a while to change this attitude, but Utah has some very nice features and is overall a pretty good place to live, as long as you don't like to drive fast. See, since there's very little crime here, all the cops (and there's a lot of them) congregate on the roads to issue traffic tickets. However, I think it's a great place to raise a family, and if I had one, I could second that thought. I think though, that if I could choose anywhere to live, it would be in San Luis Obispo, Ca. It's absolutely beautiful down there.
But this is supposed to be about me. So I went to Utah during the sixth grade and have pretty much lived here since, except for a two year stint I did as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York City, speaking Spanish. That was a difficult but rewarding experience; I'm glad I went. I've worked quite a bit also, being such things as a paper-boy, produce-picker, dishwasher, busser, and cook in a Mexican restaurant, electrician, painter, grounds-keeper, slave, odd-jobsman, media services guy (don't know how else to phrase that), UNIX administrator, computer lab guy, and some other things as well.
Well, anyway, I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Brigham Young University in Provo, Ut. In '99, I received some good job offers and started going to school part-time, taking an occasional general elective class, thus explaining the very long time to graduate. But hey, "lots of people take 8 years to graduate. Yeah, they're called doctors" (Tommy Boy). What's important is that it's finally over. So, anyway, the first of these full-time experiences was at Novell, which, though it gets a lot of criticism, is a great place to work. However, in 2000, I got sucked away with a nice offer from Linux Networx where I did all sorts of different jobs. Finally in October of 2001, I made the decision to leave work and go back to school in order to finish my degree. That wasn't an easy decision, especially since they offered me a lot of $$ in December to stay on as a Sales Engineer.
But I quit work at the end of 2001 and started school full-time again with a doozy of a schedule. Hard work paid off though and I got a decent GPA for that semester. In the Spring, I had hoped to get an engineering internship somewhere, but alas, the economy stunk and no jobs were to be found. Linux Networx wanted me back as a Sales Engineer, so I joined them again for the Summer at an hourly wage (very significantly less than what they had offered me to be a Sales Engineer in December of '01), but it was a good job. I hadn't really planned on working in the Fall, but they wanted me to keep working, so I worked out a nice schedule that let me telecommute three days a week. That was nice since I lived 40 minutes from work.
So, in the Fall, I worked and just had 3 classes, one of them being a golf class, though the two hard EE classes sure kept me busy. While I was pretty nervous about passing one of the classes (and thus nervous about actually graduating), I ended up doing fine in the class, and now I'm a free man except that I have no time due to work. I accepted an offer from Linux Networx as a Systems Engineer where I do a lot of different things. Probably the main duty is architecting the very large clusters sold. I'm often the go-to guy for lots of technical things for the Sales department. I've done a bit of CAD work and maintainance, but probably not any more. I'm a little sad about that, since it actually took my degree into consideration. But hey, that's life.
Oh, as I mentioned earlier, I was a Sales Engineer for a little bit, but I've sort of taken on many of the same duties in my present position. For a system we recently sold to Los Alamos National Labs, I was the technical lead, so I was asked to go down there for some negotiations we had with them to secure and finalize the deal. I was told it would be good experience to sit and see how things are done. When the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) was to give the big technical presentation describing our offer, I would actually get to open my mouth and provide any needed details about the system. Well, I had made up some slides for the CTO to use when talking about the system, and when I told him he needed to look at them (so he'd know what he was talking about), he told me I was going to give the presentation! I was a little surprised, but when the time came, I did it. Afterwards, the COO (Chief Operating Officer) started lavishing praise on me, but I figured it was just to try to get back on my good side, since we had a bit of a falling out last winter. But apparently he told others too, and so they sent me to Korea and Taiwan also. That was a cool experience. So anyway, that was a long way to say that I do some Sales Engineering stuff too, like giving presentations to customers. Most recently, I've been on the road nearly every week with the occasional weekend vacation to my home in Utah. Besides just a brief log of my life, I'll mention a couple other things. I like the outdoors a lot, though I never seem to get to enjoy them as much as I'd like. I would attribute this to either not having the time, or not having anyone to go with. Marriage has both pros and cons, but I think a major pro is the fact that you always have somebody to do stuff with. But I also like computers; in fact it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say my life revolves around them. Yet I desire to be considered a well-rounded fellow rather than a pure geek. I took a geek quiz recently and scored very poorly, so that gives me some hope that I'm not a complete loss to society. In my attempt to achieve the status of not-a-complete-geek, I try to promote my zeal for current events. I love the news and international affairs. I subscribe to Time and The Economist. Time is a great magazine for a well rounded review of what's going on in the US. However, The Economist is an excellent source for unbiased professional writing on the international scene. One of the things I like about it best is that it is not an American magazine and therefore views the US as just another country, albeit a powerful one. It isn't afraid to offer a little criticism or praise on different issues. It's interesting to see what other countries think about us Yanks. I also read the New York Times which generally has good writing, but with an obvious left slant to much of it. Basically, the regular Op-Ed writers criticize everything President Bush does, and that gets quite tiresome to me.
But besides all the current events stuff, I like other things. I love food, especially ice cream (Breyers is the best) and my grandmothers lasagna. I very much like being a guy and I like cars and tools. I started a nifty tool collection in my last apartment, complete with a big 'ol Craftsman tool chest. It all sat in my bedroom, as I had no garage to put it in. I also like water sports and cruising around in boats, though I have to admit I'm really bad at those sports. And of course, I like girls.
So, now you know a little bit about me. There's more too, but I've already rambled enough, so you'll just have to get that info the old fashioned way -- getting to know me.