Way back in 1983...
I was born no less that 5 miles from the banks of the mighty Mississippi River in the sleepy city of Dyersburg, Tennessee where cotton is king. Although I no longer reside there, I still possess the patience and humility that living in a small town will teach you. For instance, I still love watching fireflies at dusk during the summer and I find nothing more relaxing than listening to the sounds of crickets and katydids chirp on humid July nights.
I grew up the youngest child in a humble family, in a moderate house that showed all the signs of young boys being present. There were GI Joes lining the deck rails, broken siding on the house from baseball "fielding practice" and even a nice climbing sized Dogwood tree bound to be at the center of every double dog dare. My older brother is my only sibling and he made sure I knew it. Things always change though, and eventually we would go from being scornful enemies to cherished allies. Only being four years younger, I wanted to tag along where ever my brother went and be just like him. Lucky for me, he always let me tag along even though I had to sit in the trunk a time or two. Regardless, he has always been a great influence on me and he still is to this day.
My brother and I received our first computer as a present when I was probably 11 or so, one of the advantages of having a technology savvy father. It was a dull, bulky machine that booted from DOS and had a dot matrix printer to match. My brother and I both took a quick interest to the computer. We were fortunate to get a computer at such an early age as the "personal computer" was still pretty rare in households. However, this wasn't my first experience with computers. You see, I had actually been a programmer since I was about about 7. My grandmother had an old computer with a 5 1/2 inch floppy in her attic. So during our week long summer visits, I'd sit and bang on the keyboard. I would sit and type for hours until either frustration or heat exhaustion set in, just hoping that "$fHs@FGH@%@SRY%" might the right combination to unlock that black screen with white text. At the time, I thought I was Indiana Jones, unlocking a mystery, what I didn't know then was that I was a programmer!
As I grew older, technology changed and I always stayed up to date with it. I remember getting my first T1 connection in college and installing a NIC card for the first time. I thought I was a computer expert!
Oh, how time flies ...
I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 2005 with a degree in Music Business. I had been a drummer since the age of 11 and loved playing and recording music. The business aspect of music, intrigued me enough to choose the field as my college major. Once I graduated, I ran into several problems during my job search. The Music Business field was very overcrowded with three Music Business schools being in Nashville and most of the executives in the business seemed to roll their eyes at my degree. I found that executives had learned about the business from being involved with it for much of their whole lives, not from an actual college. They looked at me as a young graduate who thought he knew everything, when actually I was eager to learn everything they had to offer!
After doing a small bit of touring with a Celtic band and also touring with my own band, I decided to make a big change in my life. I sold my drums and enrolled in graduate school. When deciding on a major, I carefully reviewed everything from my passions, my skills, my interests and even job markets. If I was going to make such a move, I wanted to make sure it was the right one for myself. I kept coming back to Computer Information Systems. A degree in CIS would allow me to use my pre-existing business knowledge and combine that with my love of computers.
As of today, I am currently working towards my Master's of Science in Computer Information Systems at Middle Tennessee State University. I also work full time for one of the nations top LMS companies. I currently live in Nashville, TN with my beautiful girlfriend and 2 1/2 lab mix, Zissou. I enjoy spending time around the house "tinkering", swimming, gardening, cooking, watching baseball and repeatedly playing fetch with Zissou. Most nights you will find me in my so called Cub's Man Cave chomping away at programs and working on problems.