Wow, lil' ol' me? Oh well, Erik Lane tagged me, so here goes...
- I played drums from the time I was 12 to about 19. Played in my church growing up, in my high school concert, jazz and marching bands (no marching band jokes, please... :). I mainly focused on playing snare in marching band and besides the horrible story line, the movie DrumLine has some very familiar scenes in it for me. I haven't picked up a pair of sticks in almost 10 years, that is until recently. I've been wanting to get my "chops" back in shape, so my wife just so happened to buy me a pair of 2B's and a practice pad for Christmas this year, so that's how I relax now from a day full of coding. :)
- I'm completely self-taught, although I don't completely like how that sounds since I have learned a ton from others in the IT community as a whole; self-taught as in no college degree. Took Apple Basic and Pascal in high school, but opted to start working in IT right out of high school instead of going to college. (Honestly, in most ways, I'm still glad I did). I started out on the hardware/networking side of things and spent a good 10 years at Iron Mountain (8 in hardware/networking and 2 in software development). Then I left for TCSC, where I'm currently employed.
- I used to really be into case modding back in the 2001-2002 timeframe. That is, back before I married my wonderful wife and had a daughter... :) My handy dremel tool was my friend. Hacking up cases left and right, putting windows in along with neon/cold cathode lights and, of course, lots of fans rigged up to a fanbus. Even got into a little bit of circuit building by building my own baybuses with switches and LEDs for controlling case fans and lights. Now it seems like every young hardware geek out there is doing case modding. (Miss ya Yoshi...)
- I mentioned my family briefly, but I married my lovely wife, Stephanie, on June 1, 2002 and God blessed us with a daughter named Madeline on December 12, 2003. And, in about a month, we're going to be blessed once again with a son (yet to have a name, but when our family asks us, we just tell them Theopholis... :).
- My favorite (and sadly, probably only) non-techie hobby is golf. Kind of an expensive hobby, but I really like playing, even though I'm not any good. Something about teeing off as the sun rises on a beautiful golf course is just very relaxing. I like to tell folks that I'm just doing this "programming thing" until I get my Tour Card (which of course will be never). :P
Ok, so I guess I'll tag my former co-workers, Dan Collier and Patrick Creehan, my current co-worker Paul Laudeman, and...umm... who else hasn't been tagged?!?