Who IS that guy?

What I do for a living:

Short answer:

I'm a software engineer and application architect . When it comes to platforms and languages, I'm an agnostic, really. I've been developing in .NET (C#, specifically) since convincing my previous employer to go in that direction, though I also use Perl (aka cacharbe on perl monks ) and C++ in the majority, and can use Java, VB (pre .NET), php, etc (give me a book and a goal, and it's all about Syntax).

I was hired at the beginning of April 2005 to work for Avanade as a solutions developer in their .NET practice. I'm based out of their central region (officed in Chicago) but still work from home.

Long Answer:

My specialty is developing end-to-end systems that deal with b2e integration, knowledge management and enterprise business practice retooling. I've helped a brewer rethink it's marketing and sales strategies management, a bank redesign it's lending applications and a major retail chain consolidate how they deliver and service their products to the customer.

I'm a problem solver. My job is to identify business hurdles and their root causes, then to architect solutions that solve them and integrate a user base and content into an organization using architected code, off-the shelf solutions or (usually) a combination of both.

The hardest part of my job is usually the change management that goes along with changing a long standing business practice. There is a HUGE pride of ownership when it comes to these practices, even if the practice is OBVIOUSLY detrimental to a group or business. My training in improvisation has helped me considerably when it comes to identifying patterns, their problems and strengths, and communicating those patterns as well as possible solutions and integration points to the customer and the rest of my engineering team.

What I do for fun:

Improvisational Theatre. I've trained all over, including Chicago at the Improv Olympic, and I've performed internationally, including the US, Canada and Japan.

Who I do it With:

My wife and partner, Sara. She is my rock, my foil, my giggles, my laughter, my joy and my heart. And my daughter, Rachel, who is growing more beautiful with each passing minute, and already has her daddy wrapped tightly around her beautifully long fingers. They truly are the only people I need, and I miss them every day that I am not at home, playing on the floor.

Word Cloud for the site.

Word Cloud for the site.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog

Good Lord, if you haven’t watched the first two episode’s…well, just go watch them, then we can talk.

Criticizing the President

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

(Source: Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Society, ultimately via the Kansas City Star, 7 May 1918.)

Cicadas

Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die

—-Basho