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My Story
Although I was born in southern California, I spent most of my childhood in the Meridian and Boise Idaho area. My father moved here in the mid 70’s when I was very young due to all the construction activity going on here.
I went to grade school in Meridian, ID, and I went to Fairmont Jr. High after we moved to west Boise. After that I was home-schooled, and got a high school diploma through a correspondence school.
I had a lot of free time being home-schooled, and I was extremely interested in electronics and computers. I learned everything I could about both subjects by reading everything I could find at the Boise library, where I spent a lot of my youth.
So by the time I was about 16, I got a sort of internship job at a small computer repair shop, where I learned more and more.
I worked at several companies from there, in different capacities, always centered on IT and software. Feeling we needed to try and expand our horizons, my wife and I left Boise in 1998 for Ann Arbor, MI, where I worked on the video game Descent 3. After almost two years we really were not enjoying life in the midwest and felt we needed to be closer to some family. My wife’s parents had left Boise for Tucson, AZ, so we moved there.
I worked at a couple different places while in Tucson. In 2006, an opportunity allowed me to move back to Boise and work as a telecommuting consultant. After 8+ years away from Boise, we really appreciated it more and realized it really was the best place to live (by now we had two boys to raise).
So I’ve been working as a consultant on a government project in a far away state, travelling there as needed. It’s a good gig, and an interesting project. I know that this project won’t last forever though. And while I enjoy consulting, my real desire is to make software products, and build a company around them.
So I’m using my consulting contacts and experience to work on a couple of products in my ‘own’ time that I hope will turn into something big. In the meantime, the consulting is paying the bills, so I have to give that my full attention. And, since I don’t know how long it will take to build a company around software that is only now being designed, I need to keep the consulting pipeline primed.
You may have noticed from my little bio that I didn’t go to college after high school. At the time I thought: who needs college, I have a good job. And while that’s true, I have come to appreciate a good education, and that I missed out on a lot by skipping college. So for the past several years I’ve been working on a degree in my ’spare’ time. I started at a community college and now I’m taking as many credits as I can manage at BSU.
How does all of this relate to my blog? Well, I had grand plans of reconnecting with all my past aquaintances when I moved back to Boise. The reality has been that old friends are often busy, I haven’t made it a priority, and I have spent too much of the past two years in Boise working in isolation in my office. I need to get more involved in this community, and I need to expand my base of friends. Working alone in my office where my only interaction with people is over a telephone isn’t good for me or my business ambitions.
And, I have a lot of ideas, questions, worries, etc. I need someone to talk to about them. I’m hoping this blog makes it a bit easier to do.
My intent with this blog is to be all about other people giving advice. I’ll link to articles and blogs I see that I think will be interesting to like minded people, and I hope to get to know others better in the process. So thanks for reading, and please come back!
