I was born in 1966 at Mather AFB in Sacramento, CA. When I was 9 months old dad got stationed at Elmendorf AFB up in Anchorage, AK where some of my earliest memories are from. Dad’s last duty station was up in the mountain at NORAD in Colorado Springs.

After dad retired from the Air Force in 1975 when we moved to a town called Pekin, Il, where I went to 3rd and 4th grade with a little girl name Lori who some 40 years later would become my wife.

In1977 the company dad was working for moved him to St. Louis, which is where I did most of my growing up.

I graduated from high school in 1985 and immediately enlisted in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. I would eventually be stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, and later in San Diego on board USS Belleau Wood, LHA-3.

When I left the Navy, I continued in the medical profession as a paramedic until 1992 found me in Charlotte, NC where I got licensed to ride ambulances, but was not able to find work, and eventually wound up working as a temp in a data center. This was the beginning of a 30+ year in IT doing things that are mostly centered around support one way or another.

I’m the youngest of 5 children. I have two sisters and two brothers. My big brothers are heroes to me and are the greatest brothers I could ask for.

I don’t care for flying commercial anymore if I can avoid it. (I don’t care for traveling at all if it’s avoidable!) but being stuck in a big metal tube, breathing the same air as everyone else just kind of creeps me out these days. I’d much rather travel by car if the car is big enough. With cars and airplanes, I’m at opposite ends of the spectrum. With cars, the bigger they are, the better I like them. With airplanes I like them much smaller. Stick me in a Cessna 172 any day. A Cessna 195 is even better! I don’t have any idea why, but I’m enraptured by tail draggers like the Cessna 195, the F4-U Corsair, and what I think of as King Tail Dragger, the DC-3. There’s just something really cool about these planes.

Musically, I’m kind of all over the place, but my mainstay is classic rock. I’m a big Springsteen fan, and love guys like Jackson Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Bad Company, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Seager, Boston, and that still in the Bs in my iTunes library!

I’ve worked in technology for more than 30 years mostly doing support work of one kind or another. These days the technology I enjoy most is mobile or portable at least, but mobile is better. I’m a huge fan of and advocate for iOS devices like iPads, that’s really where I plant my flag technologically. I currently work at Iowa State University and support professors who are in and out of classrooms and offices all day. They’re kind of the epitome of mobile users to me. And wherever they are, they need to be able to do whatever they do, so I endeavor to stay on top of technology that I believe will help them do that.

Let’s see… What else? Dad is from Kansas, born and raised. When I was growing up, we were not that close to his side of the family. Mom comes from Newfoundland. We weren’t all that close with her side of the family either really although I know much more about my Canadian heritage than I do about the Jayhawk in me.

I really, really, really hate conflict and confrontation. In fact, for the past many years, I’ve claimed the line from Jimmy’s “The Wino and I know” as a kind of model for my life if I can say it like that:

I’m just trying to get by, being quiet and shy in a world full of pushing and shoving.

That’s really where my heart is these days. I just don’t have the fire in me for confrontation that I did when I was a young man. LOL.