The bio as written below is, as you may notice, rather severely out of date. At the time of writing I was completing my undergraduate degree at JMU. That was approaching five years ago (Wow!).
I spent a couple of years working as the network admin for Mary Baldwin College before moving on to start work on a graduate degree at GMU. I will complete my coursework requirements at the end of the semester, leaving only the Masters project to complete. That said, I may stay one more semester to take a few extra classes. For course details, click here.
I was born in the city of Staunton, Virginia. Not a terribly exciting place, but a nice place to grow up. I'll skip over most of the truly early years. Among other reasons, many of my memories from that far back are somewhat vague. Suffice it to say that I had a reasonably normal childhood, went to school, and so forth. Now, on to something I can actually remember...
I was one of those people in high school who was involved in just about everything. I was a member of the band for all four years, starting at the bottom of the trumpet section my freshman year, and moving up to second chair at my high school and a member of the Virginia all-state band my senior year. I played in quintets, Concert and Symphonic Bands, the Jazz Band, and any other places that I had a chance.
I also attended the Central Shenandoah Valley Regional Governor's School. Basically, I went there in the mornings of my junior and senior year, and then went back to my high school for the rest of the day. The Governor's School approach was to teach science, math, and technology, each in the context of the others. It didn't always work, but it did give me a chance to play with some 'toys' that wouldn't have otherwise been available.
I was a member of the Pop Quiz (aka Quiz Bowl, aka any number of other names) team for all four years of high school, and was a team captain as a senior. In different years I was a member of the Drama Club, a member of the school newspaper staff, and an officer of the Latin Club. Once I became a senior, I was also a member of the National Honor Society. I finally graduated in 1996 with an Advanced Studies Diploma and Governor's Seal. Whew!
Toward the end of high school, I was forced to make a difficult choice - where would I go to college? It wasn't an easy decision, but ultimately I accepted a National Merit Scholarship to attend the Florida State University. It was the wrong choice for a lot of reasons. After my first year, I transferred to James Madison University, where I probably should have gone in the first place.
I entered college with a double major in computer science and music. Eventually, I reduced my music major to a minor. I still have a lot of regrets about that, but it was probably the right choice.
I have spent somewhat less time on school-related organizations in college than I did in high school. I am a member of the JMU trumpet studio and International Trumpet Guild. I am also an active member of the Unix User's Group, and of the Association for Computing Machinery (national and JMU chapter). I am also the system administrator for the JMU ACM.
I will finally be graduating from college in December of this year. I will have spent 4.5 years in college, but will graduate with a double concentration in computer science as well as my music minor, with somewhere in the ballpark of 160 credit hours total. I am in the process of talking to potential employers and trying to see where I will be living and what I will be doing six months from now.
In 1985 (I was seven at the time), my parents brought home a new toy - an IBM PC. They tended to use it for things like word processing. I had other ideas. Since seven-year-olds actually have free time, I taught myself how to use the machine, how to get around in DOS, and how to program in BASIC. Over the years the machines changed, I moved on to other languages and other operating systems. I connected to BBSes and later the Internet. I went from using computers and networks to administering them. A lot has changed, but a few things still remain constant. I still play with as many new 'toys' as I can get my hands on, and I still try to break them, take them apart, and fix them in order to understand how they work.
When your mother teaches Acting and your father teaches Shakespeare, you inherit it automatically. I was on stage soon after I was born, and often wound up playing the child roles that became available. As I got older, I moved offstage. (The ability to learn lines quickly was something I did NOT inherit.) During recent years, I have worked mostly with stage lighting and, more recently, with lighting design. I have worked on at least 3 shows (out of a 5 show season) every summer for the last eight years.