You are you?
I'm just a guy who is enthusiastic about computers. I don't have a job in any computer related profession. I've done fast food, gas station attendant, dish washer at an Italian restaurant, toured the pacific ocean while a member of the Navy, and worked for a major telephone company as a contractor and installer of countless OC3's, OC48's, OC192's and Titan's.
When I was a child, I had an affinity for making artwork and building with blocks (of all kinds). When I became a teenager in Junior High I took to computers, like fish to water. I really don't know why I took a computer class as an elective in Junior High, but I excelled at it and aced the class which was not something I did in any other electives. I took metal shop, wood shop, and piano and passed, but only just.
For some reason the Commodore PET and I just clicked.
As I grew up to be a young adult, my time was increasingly spent on computer related activities. I purchased multiple Commodore 64's, 128's, hard drives, monitors, printers, and even a mouse. What a novel idea! I even wrote what would be considered commercial grade custom software for a security company using a Commodore 64 for a visual display of building layouts showing alarm locations in real time. This was a cool idea because a custom wall board showing the same thing, and costing a lot of money, did not have to be constructed, saving the client and the security company both time and money.
While I know a great deal about computers through life experience and research, I do not hold any degree's and have very little college time under my belt. So, to correct that, I have become a full time student working on about 18 credits per semester with the idea of taking my life experience and putting it into documentation. By doing this I hope to open a lot of doors which have been closed to me in the past. You may or not be amazed to learn that life experience and knowledge doesn't go far for you in the business world without it being documented and acknowledged by an academic institution. I might be able to teach some of the classes I am taking, but that doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the real world. Amazing what can change in a hundred years.
So that's me! What about you?
-John