More About Me

If you've come from the about page then you already know a little about me, but I wanted a place where I could really get into things without overwhelming the people that just want the highlights. 

I have a wide range of interests, and as such this blog while ostensibly about my company will have a variety of post types. While there will certainly be the typical announcements of new apps or updates to existing projects I'll also be highlighting my other projects and interests. Some of which may eventually make their way into official projects for the company. 

I originally founded Rose & Poppie, LLC to build a specific (web)app for aviation. In the time it has taken me to get everything in order another company has more or beaten me to market. There's still aspects to my version that are beyond what they're doing, but it's probably not enough to make it the break out star I was hoping for. The project has been essentially shelved for the time being. In stead I've been focused on some test applications for both iOS and android and working towards my first foray into physical goods. Hints of which have been making their way into the R&P social media feeds. I'm both excited and terrified at the prospects. Dealing with physical goods is such a departure from the services based industry I'm used to. We'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing shapes up. 

Beyond the obvious interest in computers and computing that one would assume of a self proclaimed nerd/geek who owns his own business creating software I've got a pretty wide range of interests. I original got my start in computing focused on security and my dream job was as a pen tester. I original got into programming to actually help solve security related challenges from various websites that were popular at the time. On the plus side, that means I always approach my code from the mind set of security, instead of as so often happens, an after thought (if we're lucky enough to get any thought at all). I still deeply enjoy security and networking. I probably have even more fun orchestrating my AWS network running this site than I do working on it. 

I've got several different electronics/hacking boards and the great electronics kits from Make. I've also been a subscriber of the raspberry Pi magazine since its first issue and want to explore more projects using that specific platform. Some of these experiments may make it into some future products from R&P! 

One of my other passions is food. My father retired out of the military as an SSC (Subsistence Specialist, Chief) and cooking has always been something I've enjoyed. My first "real" job was at a restaurant (no longer in business) starting as a dishwasher and eventually moving on to Prep Cook where I had a great time. It was fun talking to others about food and about shows such as the original Iron Chef and Good Eats back when it was a relatively new show. Good Eats, in particular one episode (Three Chips for Sister Marsha) that I consider my turning point in approaching food/cooking. I had always favored the STEM classes in school and that episode really solidified, for me, the relationship of science and gastronomy. Food, and food experiments will be a frequent topic in this blog. 

In addition to the cooking of the food I'm also interested in everything surrounding food. My wife and I just bought a house and I'm very much looking forward to doing some gardening again, plus there are 4 apple trees on the property and I'm a big fan of apples (snack, desert, ciders sweet and hard). I was a backer of the flow hive and while it probably won't get set up next year, I'm looking forward to delving into apiculture and adding my own honey to my personal collection (over 30 varieties currently!)

When I was younger I did a lot of biking and took Songahm Taekwondo at the local ATA chapter. Unfortunately where I live now my options for joining some sort of martial arts are basically non existent (the closes option is just about an hour away). Biking, on the other hand, is always an option and I'm looking forward to doing more of that again. I'm also a fan of electric bicycles (I'm on my second already) and other electronic "last mile" modes of transportation. I very much want to get my hands on the onewheel, but that'll have to wait. 

I've been an amateur magician for around 25 years now. I'm still very much an amateur, but I'm getting better and have been putting more effort into the craft the last couple years. My card collection has also exploded in the past couple years. I blame kickstarter and the Whispering Imps deck, in particular for this. That was the first custom deck I backed on the site (after a tweet from Teller) and it has kind of snowballed since. 

When your father is in the military you get used to moving, so travel has essentially always been a part of my life, and I absolutely love it. My family was on the poorer side growing up, but we always managed to get in a few car trips. I've never been one of those "are we there yet" kids - I simply enjoy the aspect of being on the move and seeing new things. I've had a few trips into Canada (one of the most memorable being a long planned ride on the Algoma w/ the company's namesakes), otherwise all my travels have been within the US, and I have seen quite a bit of it. My dream trip though is to Italy. I tried learning Italy back when I was probably 8 or 9 (from a record set a friend of my mother's let us borrow that my dad then transferred to tapes for me). I never made it very far, but I've since tried again using the Duolingo and Memrise apps and have made much better progress. In High School I had a map of Italy from National Geographic over my bed and would imagine trips throughout the country. I've always said my ideal life would be to own a vineyard on the Mediterranean coast in Tuscany. That will probably never happen, but I will, eventually, get to visit. 

No proper geek can escape the love of the written word, in all its many formats. I love to read, though I'm not a fast reader. I have over 800 physical books (over 200 digital), subscriptions to more than a dozen magazines and over 2000 comics. My love for comics is another thing I inherited from my father who introduced me to the medium. I still remember it vividly. We were in California and went shopping and there was some kind of tent sale going on and I got my first two comics: X-Men #21 (a series I still collect to this day) and Hawkman #4. I read a lot of both fiction (classics, fantasy, and Sci-Fi) and non-fiction (computers, food, aviation, and history/archaeology particularly greco-roman, see also: love of Italy). One of the very first websites I built was to manage my personal collections (now in it 4th iteration). 

The last, though of course, not least, of my personal interests would be aviation. As previously mentioned the entire company was originally founded for an aviation related project. I was not one of the typical aviation kids. I didn't hang out at airports and never made a airplane model. It was actually fishing that originally sparked my interest in flying. I would read In-Fisherman as kid, and one of my favorite articles was the story on the last page called "North with Doc." The stories were about a group of fishermen who would take trips up into Canada to a lake/cabin that could only be reached via float plane. Poppie and I would go fishing a lot, and some of my fondest memories of him involve the sport. We talked about one day taking one of those trips, and I through it would be the absolute best if I could actually fly the plane. Sadly he passed before that ever happened, and I started taking flying lessons in his memory. Time and money have thus far colluded to prevent me from ever finishing my private pilot certificate, but I will...

While expansive I haven't actually managed to cover all my interests, but that should give you a good idea of the big things that define me, and just as importantly, what you can expect to see in this blog. I look forward to sharing my passions with all of you!