In this post, I’m going to venture into my back story a bit. Being forty-five years old and working to transition into what is often considered a young man’s game may seem a little crazy. Knowing how I’ve grown up with technology and lived a tech-centric life will help fill in the holes a bit.

I grew up in rural interior Alaska in a small town of less than 400 people. From some of my earliest memories, I was exposed to computers. The first was an Apple Macintosh IIe and I got to play Oregon Trail. When I was in 4th or 5th grade, our school started getting the Apple Macintosh Plus and Macintosh SE computers. Our school was so small, we got to check out a computer on the weekends and take it home. I did that until my parents got us a computer of our own.

As I approached middle school, my parents started looking into getting a computer of our own at home. They asked around and discovered that most businesses recommended IBM personal computers. I adamantly opposed anything that didn’t have a half-eaten fruit logo on the front, but being a teenager, my opinion didn’t hold much weight. Little did I know at the time, it would be one of the best decisions my parents could have ever made for me. We soon had a brand-new IBM (I don’t remember the brand) personal computer at home. I brought myself up to speed with the MS-DOS operating system and was flying around it with ease within weeks. Shortly after we got it, Windows 3.0 came out and I was back to a true GUI, though not the Apple GUI, I picked it up without issue.

Throughout middle and high school, I took as many computer classes as I could, which wasn’t many. But I found ways to get more time on computers taking Yearbook, drafting, and AutoCAD. I had free hours in my Junior and Senior years, so I took office aide hours. As an office aide, I ended up installing my first-ever token-ring network and my first ethernet network. By my senior year, I was installing a new faculty network and getting them set up on a new school management software. I even got to sit in on some of the vendor-provided training once it was up and running.

After high school, I went to work doing the furthest thing from computers you could possibly think of – road construction and maintenance. On the upside, it was seasonal and gave me the opportunity to work remotely for a web solutions provider in Iowa. For them, I did web application development and worked with database backends. I became their go-to guy, doing remote server administration and helping to develop a niche online community site. I look back now pondering if what I was working on there wasn’t in some small part the birthplace of social media.

Taking a step back, when I was 17, I was a founding member of our small town’s volunteer fire department. I went from being a firefighter to a firefighter/EMT-I, Assistant Chief, and finally the Chief. I also volunteered for and was a board member of an Iditarod qualifying sled dog race. For them, I developed and ran their web presence, a 24 hour a day job for one week a year. In 2005 I moved to the Mat-Su Valley and began working as an EMT-III with the Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services. I became a BLS instructor and was a preceptor for new EMTs and Paramedics coming into the Borough. Four years later, I found myself off to the North Slope.

On the North Slope, I worked an off-shore contract for 7 years before coming back on-shore for the last 5+ years. Primary job duties were Security Officer/EMT. But on the Slope, you often wear many hats. Mine have included travel, logistics, safety, wildlife hazing, compliance, and aviation security. With every single job I’ve had, I have also become the unofficial IT guy. Ranging from desktops and printers to proprietary AWOS systems and enterprise hybrid cloud, I have done a little of a lot.

With the recent downturn in the oil industry, I’ve started getting back to technology. Within 18 months, and completely through self-study, I obtained both the CompTIA A+ and Cisco CCNA-R&S certifications. I have also built a home lab, originally intended for my CCNA studies, it has since evolved. It now includes a couple of servers, VOIP phones, and a home-built router. I use it to practice everything from Active Directory administration to virtualization.

It is around that home lab, a continued quest to learn more, earn more certifications, and one day land a full-time job in IT, that this blog centers.

This is one of my first ventures into blogging, so feel free to comment and let me know how I’m doing. You can also contact me with comments, suggestions, or if there is anything you’d like me to consider covering.