Personal information

I was born at Williamson Memorial Hospital 
in Williamson, WV in Mingo County on August
25, 1973. I have lived in Chattaroy, WV
(right outside of Williamson) for the 
better part of my life. I have lived in 
North Carolina and Ohio as well, but I 
don't want to get ahead of myself. We'll 
get to that later. As a kid I had a 
vivid imagination and LOVED comic books,
cartoons, and toys. However, upon reaching
my teen years, I stopped reading comics 
and playing with toys, and I started playing
video games. This ulimately led to something
productive believe it or not. But we'll
get to that later too.  Anyway, those things
are still pretty much what I do for fun. I 
like various forms of music, movies, games 
and so forth. For more info on my hobbies 
and interests, see hobbies and interests.

For my school history, see school info. 

Two days after I graduated high school,
my family and I moved to North Carolina.
This was in the summer of 1991. I liked
Winston-Salem in some ways, but not in 
others. I got my first job there with 
Kroger Co. at a small shopping center. 
It was your typical minimum wage job. I
worked there until October. The reason 
for the short duration of that job is
that my family and I weren't crazy about 
the "city life" of Winston-Salem, so we 
all decided to move back to the same place 
we came from. Chattaroy. This was in late
November, 1991. We lived in NC for less 
than 6 months. My mom resumed her position 
with Appalachian Regional Hospital across 
the river in South Williamson, KY (she 
was a Register Nurse).

Remember how I mentioned that playing 
video games actually led to something 
productive? Well at the start of 1992,
I started college. Basically because 
I was becoming interested in technology,
and had a little familiarity with some 
computer terms (due to techie articles in 
game magazines), I decided I wanted to 
pursue a career in the "computer field." 
So this is what I chose to study in 
college. Of course, my original intention
was to be a game programmer. That didn't
happen. Instead I studied to become a 
business application developer, which
started with Southern West Virginia 
Community College's "Computer Information 
Systems" program. For more details see 
school info.

I worked at a restaurant called the Brass
Tree in Williamson during my last semester
of community college. I left that job in 
the spring of 1994, due to an "incident"
not of my making. Quite honestly, I had 
become frustrated with the job anyway <G>.

Of course I graduated from community 
college in May of 1994, and that summer
I taught an elementary science course 
(oddly enough) to 10-12 year olds for 
a summer school/camp program sponsored 
by West Virginia University. It was a 
true learning experience to say the 
least.  After that things got more 
interesting. I made some friends over 
local computer Bulletin Board Systems. 
One of which was a guy by the name of 
Eddie Harris. He was able to arrange an
interview with the manager of the local
RadioShack in South Williamson, KY. South
Williamson is across the river from 
Williamson, WV. I got the job in August 
of 1995, dispite some hesitation on the
part of the district manager. He wasn't 
sure if I was outgoing enough to be an 
effective salesperson, but he gave me 
the benefit of the doubt (thanks to a 
nudge from our store manager, Woody).

I did really well the first year I was 
there. I was outselling most of the other
sales associates, including senior members.
After about a year though, I discovered 
retail was not my cup of tea. I went 
through a period of "burn-out." I worked 
there roughly another 8 or 9 months. I quit
in May of 1997 to return to college. It 
was apparent at that point that I needed 
to get away from "dead-in" jobs. I knew I 
needed to attend a reputable state 
university and get my Bachelor's Degree in 
either Computer Science or Management 
Information Systems.  I originally entered 
Marshall University's Computer Science 
program. However, I became a Management
Information Systems major. For the details
see school info.

Update:
In December of 1999 I graduated from Marshall
University with a Bachelor's Degree in
Management Information Systems (MIS). I moved
to Columbus, Ohio in January and landed a
position as a systems programmer for a scale
distribution and service company called Cintron
Scales, Inc. Believe it or not even scales
are high-tech now! It's an interesting job,
and I'm learning and gaining experience that
will be valuable in the future, regardless
of where I end up. Well, that's it for now.
I'll see you later. Bye.

Update:
Well it's December 2000 and I've accepted a
position with Grange Insurance here in the
Columbus area. I will be their new Information
Services Programmer. This is a big company
with lots of benefits, better salary, and 
other perks. The building, which is located
in the German Village area of downtown
Columbus, is really nice as well. They have
their own parking garage, "on-site wellness
facility" (translation: a fitness room),
and a nice cafeteria. I'm really looking 
forward to this opportunity! More to come!
L8r. 8)

Update:
Well it's July 2001 and I've changed jobs
AGAIN already. <G>  Ok honestly, this was
NOT planned. :-)  Anyhoot, I've been with a
company called Columbia Gas Transmission
in Charleston, WV for a month now.  It's 
going well.  I'm glad to be back in good
ole' West "By God" Virginia.  I'm close
to all my family and friends now, which
is really nice.  I'll admit that I'm not
crazy about living in Charleston, but I'll
manage...or I'll pull a Michael Douglas
from "Falling Down" on 'em. };-P  Seriously
though, I'll take the laid-back West Virginia
life over Columbus city life any day!  I do
miss Best Buy though. <G>  Anyway, I don't 
plan to live in Charleston for long.  I'll 
find a place a little farther out in the
country as soon as possible.  L8r all.  8)

Update:
BTW, have you clicked the "Chattaroy, WV" link
in the first paragraph up there?  Neat huh?!
Where did I get that?  Try TerraServer.

Update: (April 7th, 2002)
Well I've been with Columbia for 10 months now,
and everything seems to be cool.  There was
some organizational restructuring, but I was
fortunately not affected.  Things have settled
down now, and we are moving forward.  Speaking
of looking foward, I'm very excited about Star
Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones.  My 
friends and I are going to Star Wars Celebration
II in Indianapolis the first weekend of May.
We are totally stoked about it.  It's only 3 1/2
weeks away!!!  I have a new mini-DV camcorder,
so I plan to shoot plenty of video.  Stay tuned...

Update: (May 25th, 2002)
I'm pretty busy lately, so I'm going to make 
this brief.  Celebration II was AWESOME!!!
Episode II is VERY cool, and it's ALOT better 
than Episode I.  I haven't had time to catch
my breath since I got back from Indianapolis.  
I've got video and pix from Celebration II, 
some video of us in line for Episode II, and 
clips of us from FOX 11 News.  I'll try to 
process all of it within the next month.

On a totally seperate note, I've decided to 
start a BLOG (geek-speak for a Web Log).  I'm
planning to update it regularly, but we'll 
see what happens. :-)  I'll keep you posted.
(...Nevermind...don't have time. - 9/14/02)