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About Me
AboutMe
This page is all about me. Well, mostly anyway. I pretty much hate writing cheesy “bios,” but I’m giving it a shot here. If you would like to know more, just shoot me an email.
short bio
I ‘m sort of a country boy living in the city. I spend most of my "growing up" years living on a Quarter Horse ranch. I now work in technology and live in the "Big D". I have had profiles on MySpace and Friendster, but found them really annoying, so I decided to build my own site that truly is “my space”.
I have been employed in just about every industry there is. I have worked as a welder for a chair company, a shipping and receiving specialist at Pier 1 Imports, a produce guy, a copy boy, a horse trainer, a ranch hand, a graphic artist, a web designer and as a gas station attendant for about two weeks. I also worked in a feed store, in the oil fields, and a sort of strange job emasculating cotton plants. Most recently, I was a cop – a Deputy Sheriff to be more precise. It was then that I started getting into technology. I now work as a Technical Analyst for a Fortune 50 company. For privacy reasons, I'd rather not mention the name, but it's one you would recognize.
I am a Christian and a political conservative. I believe Billy Graham, George W Bush and Rush Limbaugh are American heroes. If you disagree, that's fine. I can get along with most anyone. If you’re a militant liberal who can’t accept that there are actually intelligent people who don’t think like you do, then go ahead and stop reading now; we will probably never be friends.
That's about all I have to say about myself, or at least all that I am willing to disclose to total strangers on my web site. You may notice that you can't "message" me or "add" me like at those other sites, but feel free to email me.
My Hobbies
I seem to have an awful lot of hobbies these days. Here is a list of the things that take up the bulk of my spare time and a little information about them. If you want to talk shop about any of these, just shoot me an email.
Going to church
- I go to Prestonwood Baptist Church. If you are from the Dallas area, you have likely heard of it. It's huge. A lot of people think that you will just get "lost in the shuffle" at a church this size. I used to thing that, but I was pleasantly surprised. I attend an adult singles class and have made a lot of friends there. Check out PBC on the web.
Photography of all kinds
- I love taking pictures. I switched to digital several years ago and have never looked back. It is mainly a hobby, but I do get a freelance gig here and there. I shoot anything from corporate events to outdoor portraits to sports to nature and pretty much everything in between. I don't shoot weddings; please don't ask.
- I shoot Canon cameras and lenses. Currently I'm shooting a 20D. I have a variety of lenses, but I mainly stick to my two L lenses: 24-70mm 2.8 L and 70-200mm 2.8 L IS.
Art, mostly digital
- I do quite a bit of graphic design on a freelance basis. Everything from image retouching to logo design to typesetting a newsletter.
- When I have time, I also like to create digital fine art. I have sold a few pieces but I'm just not inspired enough to spend more time at it.
Playing golf
- I suck at golf. But I still love to play. I swear I'm going to sell my clubs on eBay after every round, but somehow I keep convincing myself to get back out there.
Mountain Biking
- I love mountain biking! I probably spend as much time on my bike as I do sleeping. Dallas is an awesome place for mountain biking. Although there are no "actual" mountains, there are a lot of awesome singletrack trails. You can see some videos of a few of the Dallas trails on my videos page.
- DORBA (Dallas Off Road Biking Association) is the largest of its kind. They build and maintain trails throughout the entire Metroplex. Check out their website.
- I ride a silver Trek 4300 hardtail. I hope to see you on the trails.
Smoking good Cigars
Shooting my handguns at the range
- I have several handguns, but my favorite is my Colt M1991A1 Compact Model .45 ACP.
Going to sporting events
- Dallas is a great place to see sporting events. I still have not gone to a Cowboys game yet, but I have been to several Stars, Mavs and Ranger games.
Going out and seeing live music
About this site
Everything you are looking at here is home grown. I didn't use a template or one of those cheesy "Website Builder" consumer applications. I wrote pretty much every line of code by hand using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. All of the graphics were done in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS3. The site uses ASP.NET 2.0 framework and is written in Visual Basic. The ASP code compiles to valid XHTML and the entire site is heavily controlled by valid CSS (no tables!). My databases are running on a MS SQL Server 2005 server.
I'm really more of a graphics guy than a web programmer. This is the second iteration of this site and it is the first project where I really delve deep into web application programming. Hope you like it.