I have a lot of diverse interests, hopefully you’ll see some on this site.  I was raised in a small town called Birdsboro, PA.  I grew up on what was considered at the time the “wrong side of the tracks” to an under-achieving wickedly smart and talented father and to an amazingly strong, smart, and super intelligent mother who was a lot more grounded than my father.  My dad barely graduated high school, and was high on life.  My mother, through a lot of determination, graduated college when me and my brother were young and went on to become a CPA.  Not surprisingly, my parents split up when I was 16….and thus my dad ended up more or less living in a van down by the river and touring in a local shit band on the weekends.

My dad was the inspiration for a lot of the curiosities in my life, and my mom’s hard work, ethics, and strength led to the man I became to fulfill a lot of my aspirations.  We didn’t eat the healthiest, and a lot of those habits stuck with me later in life…which I’m trying to break for my son so perhaps I may post a few items on cooking more healthy or natural.

So, you know where I came from…mostly…and I’m keeping the rest of the family out of this mess of a page for privacy purposes.  I’m sure my wife agrees on this method to my madness.

Where did I go?  I wanted to be a cop or go into the FBI…then sometime in college I realized they get shot at for little pay and I just don’t like bad people, and I certainly don’t want to spend my day around them.  So I graduated with a B.S. in computer shit.  I later got an M.S. in cyber security, and I’m a few months from finishing my MBA.  I’d like to think I’m doing my family proud…

I have run across some people in my life who became somewhat famous.  One of my friends in high school (to be fair, we shared a close friend) ended up inventing YouTube and another ended up becoming a judge on a TV show for special effects for like the last 6 years or so.  I think every one of us have people in our lives that can inspire us, show us the impossible is just not that, and to show us a path to follow to succeed.  Or, in my dad’s case, provided us a path definitely not to follow.   So, to my dad for being my best friend and inspiring my curiosity in a million things, thank you…to my mom who has shown me what real strength in the face of adversity is, thank you….and to the rest of you who are the jock strap of my life, thank you as well.

Games/puzzles…

My dad always played games with me, much to the horrible consequences to my brother.  As a little boy, you vie for your parents’ affection.  I was a highly, highly competitive young person, and each time I felt I won a round….came around later in life to provide a lot of guilt for winning.   My dad was my best friend, but was certainly not a poster child for how to be a good dad – but he was damn good at a lot of things and taught me:

  • pool (billiards)
  • building model cars
  • fishing and tying my own flies
  • baseball
  • card games
  • math
  • computers (my first college class I was 11 in BASIC programming)
  • music  – I played trumpet all through college and some grad school
  • chess – as an 8th grader, helped my high school team win the counties and I think our team got 3rd in states that year.