Who am I? I am was an IT Manager/database developer/application developer/analyst/programmer/project manager/tester/tech support person for a small firm (business services [PEO]) in downtown Chicago, which I have stayed with for 9 years. I have all these positions because Corporate IT is nothing more that another spline in a larger cog. We have no end product, no revenue stream, we build software for the good of the company to hopefully retain and attract customers.

In my own time, I play with my two sons, drive my wife insane and try to enjoy whatever I can. I am an avid PC gamer, spending many more hours with a computer then I need to. My current games are EVE Online and Planetside (which I hope Sony doesn’t destroy).

Haven’t spent as much time gaming lately, for the past year and one half I have been hitting the books and learning and playing with code again; and I am loving it.  I never spent much time digging in to web UI design.  Sure, I have built a lot of website, but usually shied away form UI design, mostly just hacking on other peoples stuff.  So now I am spending time learning CSS and Javascript seeing how this stuff is done. Much of it makes sense to me now and I am comfortable using it, and besides the browser bullshit, really enjoy it.  Tools like jquery are just cool and make it easy to accomplish neat stuff.

My latest big thing is ASP.NET MVC.  I have never learned a pattern which seems so natural to me then the MVC (Model View Controller) pattern.  It just clicks in my head, and the separation of roles is so distinct and clear.  It will be interesting to learn how other languages are utilizing this pattern, like Ruby.  From what I understand, this is how Ruby on Rails does things.

IT Slug? Sure, just look at my duties at work. I often just feel like a slug, being slapshoted from one department to the next.

Bare with me as I spew all over these pages. Hopefully along the way we will learn something and I can, “Do something with out doing anything at all.“

This is my new blog home, after using blogger (old sites 1 2 3) for the last couple of years, I was looking for features I see in other blogs. WordPress.com is free(!) and meets many of my wishes. Of course I am making this up as I go along, so it should pretty interesting to see where it goes over time.

A view from IT out… Okay, I really don’t have an idea what it means, it just sounded accurate. I am sure the meaning will surface in time.
(I still don’t get it)

It is what it is Just as dumb as the last one, but it seems to fit much of my life right now and what happens around it.

It’s a moral imperative Well it is, isn’t it? A line from an all-time favorite of mine.

It doesn’t really get busier any given day, just more stuff doesn’t get done. Nothing is closer to the truth in my corporate IT experience.  Less people, less resources and more work; you can’t be any busier, as your working full-bore as it is, so more stuff doesn’t get done.

Last Update: March 19th, 2009