Me on the summit of Mt. Washington NH, March 2009
Brief Introduction
I am currently a computer science student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester MA. Â I am originally from Denver, CO and enjoy the outdoors and I am still heavily involved in the Boy Scouts of America. Â I dabble in everything computer-y from graphic design, to game development, to development of programming tools and development of software for mobile devices.
Programming Experience
I have been programming since my Sophomore year of high school at the Denver School of Science and Technology. I started working in C#.NET with both web and Windows Forms applications. For my Junior internship at DSST, I designed and built a basic blogging system in ASP.NET 2.0 which I have since lost. I also began my career with HTML and JavaScript at DSST working on a few websites of Geocities quality. Senior year I moved on to Java for the AP Computer Science course, which was an easy switch from C#.
I began my programming career at WPI with PLT Scheme, a derivative of Common LISP, and despised it thoroughly as most CS majors do. It is not enough like LISP to work well, and the parenthetical functional syntax is just a pain when you don’t have the flexibility built into LISP. I then moved up to the basic Object-Oriented design course in Java and was able to pass easily due to my prior experience with OO languages and concepts. This year I began with Systems Programming in C, which was my first experience with C and C++. In systems, we also worked with C++ and I developed enough knowledge to use C/C++ competently. During this period I also taught myself Perl and Python, and I am now working on PHP.
IT Experience
For the last two years, I have worked at the WPI Helpdesk as a Helpdesk Specialist answering calls, providing email support, and working with people who come down to the window with problems. I also worked with a similar program at DSST for a couple years before the club disbanded. I have also tinkered with setting up my own Windows domain and various other servers, and I am still working through the whole server management learning experience.
Graphic Design
I have tinkered with graphic design since I started doing web design back in high school. I began with Fireworks 8 since we had it on the school computers, and taught myself how to do just about anything with it from vector graphics to image touchups to full on altering. I eventually deiced to teach myself Adobe Illustrator on the one school machine which had it, and failed miserably. I eventually learned Illustrator CS3 working at WPI, and I am now a very competent vector graphic artist with it. I am also working on learning Adobe Photoshop which has a totally different set of tools. I have also been messing with Flash for as long as I have been doing other graphic design stuff. I graduated from keyframing everything, to doing script generated content, and basic game programming.
Outdoors Experience
I have been involved with Boy Scouting programs since I joined the Tiger Cubs way back in 1st grade. I worked my way through Cub Scouts to earn my Arrow of Light and all 21 of my Weblos pins. It took me four more years to earn my Eagle Scout rank, but I eventually got it. For my project I built bat boxes from a design I modified and posted them around a local nature preserve.
Between Scouts and my Dad, I was introduced to rock climbing, backpacking, winter camping, skiing (alpine, telemark, and nordic), ropes courses, and a number of things I can’t remember. I eventually began to work at the local Scout camp and moved up to the High Adventure base leading treks, being a rock climbing and ropes instructor, and doing facilities maintenance for the camp.
I am also an USA Archery certified archery instructor, and NRA certified Assistant Shotgun instructor and have extensive experience in teaching shooting sports though my work with the Scouts. I am an avid archer and would like someday to compete at a high level if I can.