I am a technologist at heart, I love all things technology related.  I always knew what i wanted to do when i got older.  I wanted to take pictures, listen to music and playing on computers all day long.

So, I have been a software engineer since 1998, I've done photography since 2006,  and I've done sound and lighting since 2016.   I started volunteer working at an annual haunted attraction 2006, and have learned and taught myself so much.  It was my gateway into purchasing better sound and lighting equipment.

It's been a long journey, but I've enjoyed it all.

The Past

It probably started with the Big Track which I received for Christmas in 1979 as a 7 year old child.  I loved that toy!  You could program it to perform up to 16 different commands.  I would play with it all day log on the weekends and during school vacations.  I used to love taking various electronics apart and seeing what made them tick.

When I was 9, I had my first introduction to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A.  I loved playin the text adventure games that we had and had many enjoyable hours doing that.   I quickly discovered that you could write your own programs in BASIC.  I spent some time learning BASIC and writing simple programs.  While fun, it became clear that this BASIC was not as powerful as I wanted it to be.  Within a year I had acquired the necessary components to begin writing assembly language.   This kept me content for a few years.

By the time I was 13, I had acquired a Commodore 64 and was well on my way to learning BASIC programs and assembly language.  This is a love affair I continue to this day, looking back fondly on those times with this computer.  Many sleepless nights were spent typing in machine code from Compute! magazine, and countless hours looking for the one or two errors typed in.  I would love to look at the assembly instructions afterwards to understand what it did, and how it did it.

Although I never owned an Apple, my junior high school did.  This also led my to spending long hours in the classroom tinkering with the Apple IIe's that they owned, learning how to writing Applesoft BASIC and assembly on it.  Many lunch periods and after school time was spent here.  The teacher was actually a P.E. teacher and didnt know anything about computers.  I used to help him a lot, along with other class members.  In high school, i took the only "computer" class they had, which was mostly learning to use Word.  I discovered our local library had a computer that you could use, so i would sign up to use it after school and on weekends.  It was also an Apple.

I still love the 6502 microprocessors to this day.

When I was 14 I got the Amiga 500.  I loved this computer and spent way too much time on it also.   It was my first introduction to a graphical windowed desktop environment.  It took a lot of getting used to, and I kept wanting to get back to the Commodore and Apples, entering commands at a command line.  It served my well for years.  It was during this time that I countless hours in libraries and bookstores reading different books on electronics, computers, and programming languages.

I eventually got my first windows PC when i was 18.  it was a  i386.   It probably weighed about as much as me.  

Things have certainly changed from those days.   I've learned many different languages and seen technology evolve.  It's fascinating.

Now

My first experience with single board computers started with the Raspberry Pi 3B in 2016.  I fell in love with the promise of this unit.  Over the years I have accumulating dozens of different Raspbery Pis,  I use them for home automation, and as well as audio/video devices in the haunted house I am a part of.  as well as tinkering with various robotics and AI technologies, and object detection.

I got into microcontrollers in 2020 just before the pandemic started and have since amassed dozens.  I use these in home and haunt automations, as well as robotics.  Like a lot of people, i have a special love for the size and capabilities of the ESP32 line of controllers.  I've wired up and written software for lighting controllers, motion sensors, speakers and more using them. 

My recent experience is with the Raspberry Pico, where i am planning to use several in a new robot design I'm working.  

It's because of these technologies that i got my first 3D printer in 2018, a Davinci.  it was horrible.  the bed fell out of alignment all the time, even in the middle of prints.  But i still loved the idea of it.  i loved designing stuff in Fusion 360 and spent the better part of the pandemic making 3D models.  Even though I tried to print many times, the printer just never want to work correctly,  I finally got rid of the printer and got a Creality K1 in 2024.  The bed had some heating problems with the first several weeks, so I was able to exchange it under warranty for a K1C.  I LOVED that printer!  2 years later and I now have a K2 (just the base model, not the pro) with a CFS attachment.  It too is pretty cool so far!  these Creality printers brought the joy of printing back to me.  no more spending HOURS manually leveling the bed only to have it fail mid printer and become un-leveled.  No more waiting 24 hours for a simple box to print (and fail !). 

2025 marked the year I got into laser engraving also.  that's been a fun ride so far.  

The Future

so yeah.  i love technology. i love creating.  i love doing them together.   Who knows what will be the next chapter.