Welcome

Welcome

Hi all, and welcome to my site. This is my first post of what I hope to be many. This site is something I’ve been meaning to get to for a while and will serve as a place for me to document the things that I am currently interested in and working on. The posts I make here could range from all sorts of things like the latest programming projects I’m working on to whatever video game I’m playing at the moment. Hopefully, there will be a good mix of things here.

A Little About Myself

If you stick around to see the posts that I eventually make, here’s a bit about myself. I started working in the programming field about 4 years ago, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering. Once I graduated, I began to work at the school I graduated from, Pensacola Christian College, where I have very much enjoyed my time so far and learned what feels like an immeasurable amount about IT and programming work.

When I began there, I started on the QA Team where my role was focused on pioneering performance tests and reports. As I learned more in this field and realized that this QA department had much more programming to do than I initially thought, I was able to take on more responsibility. After about a year, the most senior employee in the QA department moved on to other things, leaving me and a student worker as the only two QA members, with the student leaving QA after the next semester. So after about a year and a half of “coached” experience, I began to assume the responsibilities of the other two former QA members, and my role shifted from a performance-based role to that of ownership in the QA department. Flash forward to today, where I am still currently the sole and lead member of our QA department, where I believe I have made great strides in my few years of leading it to improvement. Being the only member here has allowed me tremendous freedom in what I learn and implement.

Some of the things that I manage currently include an internal web-based dashboard to visualize and make issues actionable, a database schema containing several tables and PL/SQL packages, and lastly a host of custom scripts that run to gather and process issues found in the websites owned by my organization.

Personal Interests

Work has shaped even my personal interests either directly or indirectly. So a little about my personal interests; I enjoy learning new things usually in a technical capacity, although not always. I have a 3D printer, and a laser engraver that I have enjoyed applying technical knowledge to achieve the things I’d like. One thing I may write about in the future as I haven’t yet taken on the challenge is to learn how to use a 3D CAD modeling software to make my own 3D printable designs.

In addition to these maker devices, I also have a home lab where I get to tinker and practice IT related things. I have TP-Link’s Omada networking equipment which I wired ethernet through the house and set up myself; this setup consists of two wireless access points for a mesh network, two network switches with POE capable ports for flexibility in hardwired and wireless devices, one dedicated router, and one dedicated cloud controller devices to connect and manage all of these devices. Plugged into all of this networking equipment, I repurposed an old gaming machine to be an internal personal server running UnRaid as the OS hosting several internal applications for myself.

Lastly, the least techy of my hobbies would include gaming, really gaming of any sort. I dabble in PC gaming either on the desktop or on my steam deck, I also have a custom modified Nintendo Switch where I enjoy playing several Nintendo games not the least of them including Pokémon. I have played for about a year now here and there in the competitive side of the game using the VGC rule set. I love competition and this gives me a good way to compete online or in person in a game of strategy having evolved from just the short fun times I had in this series as a kid on my Game Boy.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a good summary of what I do and the things I enjoy. Going forward I may write about several of these different things and the learning experiences I have along the way. Some of these may be helpful to others while some may just be for my own personal historical documentation.