Interests
My interest in technology extends beyond the workplace.
In my free time I run a small fleet of retired desktops as servers in my homelab.
What started off as a fun hobby tinkering with Docker and self-hosted applications,
suddenly became production-ready services that my friends and family depended on for entertainment and communication.
I've learned all about video codecs and Blu-ray transcoding techniques to digitize our extensive movie collection.
I've taught myself high availability and maximum uptime to run a Matrix messaging server for my friends and family.
I manage reverse proxies and data migration between premise servers and cloud VPSes and measured performance and response time
to determine where applications should be deployed for maximum efficiency.
All of this has resulted in a relentless onslaught of education and learning as I throw myself into each new challenge.
When it becomes time to take a break from the screens, I enjoy being out in nature.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I fell in love with the mountains, rivers, and trees of our natural areas.
My family would go camping in the woods almost every weekend of summer growing up.
I built a kayak with my dad from nothing but a blueprint and a dream,
which we've taken out to explore the rivers and lakes of Oregon for many years.
I've summitted almost every peak in Oregon, and explored many of the National Forests and campgrounds in the area.
But when the weather discourages being outdoors, I also enjoy playing videogames.
With well over a thousand hours documented on Steam (and countless more playing from CDs on my childhood computer),
the Sid Meier's Civilization franchise is probably my favorite games to play.
Scratching the engineering itch to optimize everything, I enjoy building (and sometimes destroying) empires throughout history.
I enjoy all kinds of simulation and 4X strategy games, including Rimworld, Transport Fever, and Cities: Skylines,
along with all-time classics such as Baldur's Gate 3, Terraria, the Portal games, and (yes, I'll admit it) Cookie Clicker.