Career-wise, I started in Information Security and have slowly drifted over the years into a Full Stack DevOps engineer (did I hit all the buzzword bingo squares yet?) I'm a regular expressions enthusiast that "grew up" on Perl, but have spent most of my recent years in Python. I think I'm pretty good at fighting technical fires. Code is my duct tape. Tim Gunn is my spiritual advisor.
I spent a considerable amount of the first half of my career analyzing threats, writing countermeasures, and data mining. I migrated from a front-line analyst role to a development-leaning position in research. Reversing is fun, but static analysis isn't my forte.
The second half of my career has been heavily focused on development work (front-end and back-end), as well as some database administration. Lately I've taken an interest in machine learning and have been exploring that path.
Outside of work, code-wise, I just like to tinker and make a lot of random things.
Besides geeky things, I'm an amateur woodworker and a car guy. I collect whiskey, blend whiskey, and barrel finish whiskey. Also, I'm kind of obsessed with finding new music to listen to. I might have a problem with podcast addiction. I'm into weird movies as much as I'm into weird music. I have too many video games (thanks, Humble Bundle).
If you'd told me in my early twenties that I'd eventually come to enjoy trashy reality shows or Broadway musicals, I would have called you a liar. But here we are. Change isn't so bad.I grew up in Southwest Ohio suburbs. Went to School in Rochester, New York. Decided I was tired of the cold, so I took a job in Myrtle Beach for a couple years after I graduated. Moved up to Chicago where I lived for several years and I met my wife, Bree, there. Our first date was at Goose Island in Wrigelyville (RIP) and we got married at Petterino's. Eventually moved to Ohio and still miss Chicago a lot, but we visit often (pre-COVID, anyway). If you're eating at a deep dish Chicago place that starts with the letter "G", you're doing it wrong.
Bree is the best and also smarter than I am. Our kid, Miles, is basically mini-Bree 2.0 and I love it. He's so fun.