Well, let's start at the basics.

I was born and raised in a wonderful small-ish town called Griffin, GA. Left Griffin in 1995 bound for UGA in Athens, GA. Had a wonderful time there. That is also where I met my wife Brandi (she rules!!!). We were married on July 8, 2000! Moved to Atlanta two months before getting married for a job.

My main interests these days are computers and picking my mandolin and my banjo. I currently own a Fender FB-54 Banjo, a Fender Acoustic/Electric FM 52 E. Also, I am pretty pumped about this, I just bought my first hand build mandolin. It is a Howard Morris, check out the pictures

As for computers, I love everything about them. There are so many different areas of computers that you could spend a lifetime studying and never master. Maybe that is why I am drawn to them. What I have decided to concentrate on at this point is large scale distributed systems. More specifically Java and J2EE type apps and Application Servers. One of the best Application servers right now is the Open Source JBoss project.

Also a note on coding and how it ties in with learning: I am a big proponent of coding. Code as much as you can, when ever you can! Also, read somebody elses code that you know is good! Only until you have had to think of a concept enough to implement it, is only when you will truly understand it. I really can not stress this enough. And also only through code will you truly learn how to design software and systems! Ok, enough of that soap box ;)

My other area of love in computers is Linux (in case you could not tell from the pictures of Tux the linux penguin on the front page!). I could go on for a page or two about the power of Open Source programming, but I truly feel that this method of programming is going to bring us the foundation of the next generation of infrastructure. Maybe one day Sun will open source Java, one can only hope ;)

Well, anyway, this is a pretty good start....