I have been working in tech and media in one sense or the other since high school. My first exposure to computers came in roughly 1990 when my family purchased our first home computer, an Epson 286, a PC that nearly matched my weight at the time. I may have been only roughly five at the time but I started learning basic DOS commands and learning how to navigate to Windows 3.1 and to get where I wanted to get. Fast forward a few years and I was accelerating on a path like so many others, learning the PC as a means to an end, games and media. I remember when I was roughly ten starting a download of a basic combat flight simulator, it was then I learned about download speed; no one could touch the phone the rest of the night as out paltry AOL connection struggled to complete the feat of maybe 250MB. Over time my learning the computer and networking "ropes" was pushed by my other passions flying and digital media. Flight simulators kept me pushing each and every computer I owned; "what can I get to work decently on this machine?" or "If I dared to load a sim on here, I wonder if I could get 20 fps and it would be flyable at all?" This only got worse as I started flying in the real world, then my addiction went all out with simulators and tools for bettering my hand and mind at my craft.
In addition to flight simulators, I also had a passion for video production. When I was in middle school there was one class always on my schedule from my first to last semester; video production. It was in this environment I learned the basics of film and then later the basics of the production environment. Unfortunately for me, at the time PCs capable of editing video were monster machines way beyond what was available to me so I was stuck with linear deck-to-deck editing. But through relationships at church I was able to get connected with others and eventually ended up at a local production shop as a production assistant, then graphic artist (as I had started to hone that craft as well), and then finally an editor. We were a small shop just the boss and I, but we were constantly busy with everything from 8/16mm film transfers for those in the community, to projects for local government and non-profit organizations, to local commercial work, and even work for international recording artists from the area. We did a bit of everything, and took pride in all our work.
At the same time, this work also went hand in hand with volunteer media work I was doing for my church. Over time I was put in charge of that ministry and built a small team to help run the equipment each Sunday. Eventually this led to a video system overhaul in 2014 and I engineered a full 4k video system with routing throughout the campus as well as live streaming and playback on the website.
As all this video and media work was taking place I was also growing my IT skills as it seemed to always be coming up. For instance at the media house we constantly struggled with sharing files so while I couldn't get the owner to spring for a dedicated Windows Server, I did what I could and setup a basic file and printer sharing network and designated one machine (internally at least) as the server role. At the same time I was becoming somewhat the goto IT guy for my church, I knew the people and knew the flow and operations so I was an obvious first call. This also allowed me to learn more of the soft skills of technology, learning how to speak in a language that the other person will understand while at the same giving them the actionable data they need to make a decision.
In my late twenties one of my good friends called me up one day and said that he was now leading the IT charge at his family's agricultural business. I started to congratulate him and then he asked if I would come on and help. The job started at part-time but almost immediately became full-time and more. It was in those first few weeks that I learned a lot about running a company's IT department, we inherited a bit of a mess with near zero documentation. Today no matter how busy I am I always make a point of documenting everything sufficiently so should I be "hit by a bus" the flow of projects can continue (right after my funeral). In the decade that followed I was promoted to IT Manger and have worked on projects ranging from normal IT work to robotics and plenty of media and AV operations.
Due to all this work inside I also crave the outdoors and getting outside. Some of those activities I enjoy are flying as mentioned above, hiking/backpacking, any sort of shooting sport, fishing, rock climbing, outdoor photography and videography, etc. If it's outside I probably like it.
