While I've worked in the industry for about 20 years, it’s not only my profession but also my passion. As an ’80s kid, I realized I had a passion for technology at an early age. I was that child who, at about 6 years old, would take his remote-controlled cars apart to see how they worked and then put them back together. My imagination for computers, robotics, and mechanics was fueled by cartoons like Voltron and Transformers and movies like Star Wars, Short Circuit, and Terminator. I was fascinated by robotics and artificial intelligence. This eventually led me to computers. As a young child, I wasn’t very interested in computers because they appeared to be electric typewriters or oversized calculators. But that changed when I was given the opportunity to play the Lord of the Rings computer game for the first time. Keep in mind, this game was text-based; you were given descriptions of your surroundings and issued commands to move about within the game, almost like an interactive book. I was hooked. I then wanted to understand everything I could about how a computer worked. This was kind of difficult considering the internet didn’t exist yet—at least not commercially—and the only access to a computer I had was at school, while my local libraries didn’t have many books on the topic. So, I wasn’t able to meddle much with how it worked at that time.
Fast forward a handful of years to the early/mid ’90s. My mother surprised me with an IBM 8008 running DOS that she had found at a yard sale. It was old, and she wasn’t sure if it worked, but I was still excited to finally have my own computer—something I could tinker with like every other piece of technology I had ever gotten my hands on. Surprisingly, the computer worked just fine. That was the beginning of me learning every aspect of a computer I could find. I taught myself DOS and BASIC, tore down that computer multiple times, and learned absolutely everything I could from that machine. The rest of my teenage years were spent working summer jobs to earn money for newer (used) computers, upgrades, etc. I quickly became known as one of the local kids who was a computer wiz—someone who could fix your computer if it had issues or if you wanted to upgrade it. By the time I was in high school, the Computer Science teacher treated me almost like his equal. He would routinely pull me out of class to help him repair computers at the school, sometimes surprising him by fixing them in ways he hadn’t thought of or repairing ones he thought were unfixable. It was during this time that I also taught myself how to use Linux. Upon graduation, he wrote one of the most precious letters of recommendation I have ever received—and still have it to this day, nearly 25 years later.
After high school, I almost immediately went to work at a local computer store as a PC technician. The pay was horrible, but I didn’t care—I loved what I did. Then, after a year or so, the owner of the store came up with an idea to start her own ISP. However, she had a problem: she knew how to run a computer sales and repair business but didn’t know anything about operating an ISP. She approached me and asked if I thought I was capable of operating a local dial-up ISP if she funded it and ran the business side while I handled everything on the technical side. I explained that I had no experience with that type of equipment, but it couldn’t be that hard. She made me a partner in the venture, and we started an ISP. After understanding exactly what services we needed from the telco, getting those provisioned, and ordering equipment, I then went into a deep dive, learning everything I could about T1’s, PRI lines, dial-up concentrators, etc., and within about 2 weeks we were up and running. Although it was at a bare minimum—with me administrating the accounts locally on the dial-up concentrator and without any AAA logging, centralized account management, etc.—over time, on a shoestring budget, I put together systems to handle AAA, billing, and automating mundane tasks such as sending bills, tracking accounts, and shutting off non-paying customers, all using open-source software.
After a couple of years of operating the ISP, my partner experienced a family tragedy. This eventually resulted in her losing interest in maintaining the business, and she decided she wanted out. She gave me her share of the ISP because she didn’t want to see it just disappear after I had put in so much work, and I became the sole owner of the ISP. She also closed the computer sales/repair side of her business. I went on to expand the ISP from just a local dial-up service to a regional, and eventually national, provider, while also expanding into DSL and fixed wireless internet. I eventually absorbed another local computer sales/repair shop, had television commercials advertising my services, and continued to grow little by little over time. I wasn’t rich, but the business was successful.
After about 8 years of running the ISP and shop, I was approached by the local police chief and asked if I would be interested in becoming a police officer. After thinking long and hard about it, I decided to apply, thinking I’d have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually getting the position—but I thought if I didn’t try, I would eventually regret it. Long story short, I ended up getting the position and sold my business.
After about 4 years of not working in IT, I decided I wanted to go back and began applying for jobs. Regardless of the experience I had, not having a degree made getting a job offer difficult. So, I chose to go back to school and get the Associate’s degree I should have earned years earlier. After graduating, I landed a position within the IT department of a major international Fortune 500 plastics manufacturer. While there, I decided to pursue my BA. During that time, I also worked for another company as a Splunk SME/Architect until I graduated. I’ve now been back working in the IT industry for a little more than 8 years, and I’m currently employed as a Lead Systems Engineer focusing on AWS infrastructure for another Fortune 500 company.
If you’re still here reading, you must be REALLY bored. lol.
As for my current projects and interests, these include:
If these are things you might be interested in, congratulations—you’re a nerd like me. Maybe I can help you get a little farther in your quest to do some of these things in your own home lab.