About Me

How It All Started

I caught the computer craze a bit late. Sure, I had opportunities to play with Apple II and Macintosh in computer class, but I didn’t dive into it as a hobby until early adulthood. Around 2003, I got my hands on a used computer running Windows 98. Eager to understand the inner workings, I learned how to reformat the disk and reinstall Windows. Shortly after, I discovered Linux and hauled my computer, fat CRT and all, to a local Linux Install Fest. It was an exhilarating time—people passing around Debian and Fedora discs, geeking out over new distributions and hardware. I worked with a Gentoo Linux master to get Suse Linux installed on my old Dell Inspiron. I was hooked. That’s when I decided I wanted to be a computer professional and work with Linux and Open-Source Software for the rest of my life.

The Career Journey

Getting into the career path of a Linux Systems Administrator and eventually, DevOps and Cloud Engineering, wasn’t straightforward. I was a family man working construction while tinkering with computers in my free time. My first step was a help desk support job for consumer printers, followed by a contractor role doing help desk support for the military. I never gave up. I continued to study, tinker, and take courses on Red Hat Linux. With this company, I showcased my skills and passion for computers, eventually reaching my goal of becoming a Linux Systems Administrator. When Docker and the cloud became the buzz, I realized I should transition to the growing field of DevOps.

This path expanded my skill set to include cloud administration, building secure networks, managing DNS, creating highly available systems, and much more. I also gained a love of software development. Creating automations with Python, building CI/CD pipelines, scripting tools with bash, and defining infrastructure as code using Terraform or CloudFormation have all taken my passion for computers to the next level.

While college wasn’t my path to a career, I embarked on an unorthodox journey of self-learning. It’s been a great adventure, and has allowed me to approach the field from a different perspective. Perhaps one day, I’ll endeavor to obtain a college degree, but I’ve built a successful career by seeking answers to problems organically.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Throughout my career, I’ve developed a philosophy. Much like the UNIX Philosophy, “Do one thing and do it well,” I believe we’re most successful when we keep things simple and do them well. Clean coding principles echo this sentiment. Our jobs become easier when we focus on simplicity.

However, this field is so multi-faceted that sometimes the simplest answer isn’t always the best. This leads to the second part of my philosophy: remain teachable and keep learning and contributing. If we continuously seek to learn, lessons will come from all around—in troubleshooting errors, peer programming, and teaching. Viewing our environment as a classroom will help us gain priceless knowledge that will guide us as we continue our journey to create innovative solutions to interesting problems.