Welcome to my little corner of the Internet. I reside near Charlotte, NC with my beautiful wife, Brandy. We were high school sweethearts! We have a second year law student at the University of Souch Carolina, a recent college grad (UNC Charlotte) who is working full time and preparing for grad school, and a freshman in high school who loves dance.
First and foremost, I'm a Jesus follower. I love history (in fact, I have a BA in History), but professionally, I've been working in cyber security since 2005. I hold a PCI ISA certification, as well a CISM certification. These days I eat, sleep and breathe PCI DSS.
I consider myself to be an all-around tech enthusiast, but I also appreciate the analog stuff. I'm adamant about using a paper notebook for organization. I'm really a minimalist where this stuff is concerned, and I'm a proponent of what I like to call, “good enough computing”, meaning that I'm a big believer that one does not always need to buy the latest and greatest tech to be happy. My iPhone (which is now two generations old) is really my most used computer, and if I could use that one device for everything, I probably would. (I'm pretty close to doing that as it stands, but come on, Apple, give Samsung Dex-like capability to the iPhone.)
I've been a Linux user in varying capacities since 2004, and there was a long stretch where I was an Android guy. While I consider myself to be somewhat of a Linux enthusiast, I'm not one of those holier-than-thou, gatekeeping type of Linux enthusiasts. In fact, I don't dislike Windows, and my laptop is a hand-me-down Surface Laptop 3 running Windows 11 (with WSL2 enabled). When I'm asked to give people tech advice about which products to use, my general philosophy is that they should use what best meets their needs.
I love the game of basketball and still play a pick up game or two anytime the opportunity presents itself. I also consider myself to be a car guy, and while I love most anything automotive, I have an affinity for Japanese and European cars. My philosophy is that cars are meant to be driven, and so one should enjoy their daily driver and not worry so much about how many miles they are putting on it. That said, I do have a tendency to get bored with what I'm driving, and I have been known to switch cars quite frequently. My philosphy on cars also extends to sneakers. I love Air Jordans, and I wear all mine quite a bit. While I try take good care of them, there is nothing wrong with a little patina from being worn.
I used to have an “Art Directed Journal”, and like my former site, the premise of this blog is still “art directing” each post. Although art directed blog posts are not as trendy as they once were, I'm mainly using this site as an excuse to practice HTML and CSS, as well as hone my writing skills. Additionally, I find this blogging format to be quite enjoyable because it scratches my itch to design.
Topics will include whatever strikes my interest, but mainly I like to stick with topics related to my personal life, technology and productivity. I also frequently update my Now page.
Disclaimer: Any opinions I express on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. There is no AI generated content on this site.
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