Why Start?
I created this site about 8 years too late. I've always said I was going to start a blog but I always find an excuse not to ... until this one. As many of us do, I love watching movies because most of us introverts will gladly admit, we rather prefer the company of well thought out scenes and clever writing, to mindlessly walking around downtown spending $18 a cocktail just thinking about which extension to install next on VS code. So why start a blog? I have come to a point where the number of reasons to do so have far surpassed the number of reasons not.
In the movie "Shall We Dance" in the scene where Susan Sarandon and Richard Jenkins walk into a bar, they exchange an interesting back and forth where moments later Jenkins's character whimsically admits to being unfaithful to his wife, where Susan Sarandon's character replies ... "All these promises that we make and break, why is it that you think that people get married?".
Jenkins immediately responds "Passion".
But Sarandon almost as quickly rebuttals and gives her take on the matter ...
"Because we need a witness to our lives", she replies.
"There's a billion people on the planet, I mean what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things, all of it every time, every day. You're saying your life will not go un-noticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness".
That was one heck of a line.
Extracting that concept and putting it into context, I think it's easy to find that documenting a learning process, and then building upon that with ideas and a portfolio to match, working on things both privately and professionally, puts depth into the time we spend doing awesome things. This for me is that. For me to share my curiosities, abilities, and projects for all to bare witness. Including myself.
About Me
I studied Audio and Network engineering from 2010 to 2012 at Full Sail University. In 2012, to pay my bills as a recent graduate I had the opportunity to design and installs kitchens and bathrooms with The Home Depot. I installed cabinets, then designed the projects, and a year later I became a Project Manager. I have managed over 500+ installs. I am grateful for that opportunity because I was able to work with extremely competent people and managed very complex projects that were all customer facing. It helped me deal with a tremendous amount of pressure when project budgets were quite high. I attribute my "cool under fire" personality to many situations that seemed like they were irreconcilable. Problems breed opportunities, and a good project manager not only communicates purposefully and navigates the waters, but also has one hell of a toolbox.
I was always interested in tech, specifically networks and hardware. My first computer was a Compaq Presario 5000 5WV232 that my mom paid way too much money for. I took that thing apart no less than 10 times and had a stack of floppy disks with all my music I was ripping off of Napster (we all did it!). I learned HTML around that period and have been hooked on tech ever since.
Fast forward a few years and I realized that my passion has always been Software Architecture. Had I been more attentive in 2010 I would have rode the AWS and Azure train, and maybe be a Senior Cloud Architect by now, who knows. It's funny because at Full Sail when buzz words like the Cloud, Oculus, and Bitcoin were thrown around, I was non the wiser.
So now I spend my time playing catch-up. Brushing up on my networking, reading veraciously on everything I can get my hands on. I spend more of my time on AWS Skill-builder and the Azure Learning Center than anything else. Can't forget net Cisco academy either, they've done a great job there.
That is me in a nutshell
How to use this site
This site will serve 3 purposes.
1 - To showcase projects
2 - Personalized learning for me. Ever sit through a 70 hour course? Talk about eating an elephant. Selfishly, blogging and documenting concepts, projects, etc. will only help me retain what it is that I'm learning, so as to not spend 70 hours on a course only to forget everything I learned a month later. I would say it's a self teaching method, because my wife simply cannot take me explaining how things work any longer. Her loss.
3 - To share. I use stories and analogies to get points across because I think they stick better. My hope is that I can lure some of those pros I message on linkedin to look into what it is I'm doing and spark some conversations. (I wish I was kidding but I'm not)
Feel free to comment, debate, message, ask, and contribute!
