First Post!

bobby    Personal     General

Well, after much goading and prodding, I have finally set up my first blog!  I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I’m going to give it my best.  So, as a bit of an introduction and a preview of things to come, a bit about myself:

Me

I grew up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina (yes, the place where they made that movie, amongst others) in a house on the river, at the end of a dirt road, in the middle of the woods.  I didn’t have a huge family, or heating, or A/C, but we made-by with what we had and each other.  I had a fairly standard childhood, all-in-all.  Eventually it was time to move on and I made my way to college.  After paying my way through school as a contract software developer, I graduated into one of the largest economic down-turns to-date.  I went full-time with one of my contracts and from there moved on to bigger things.  At the moment, I am a full-time software developer/architect with VC3, Inc.  I build solutions ranging from specialized e-commerce sites to large-scale, multi-state enterprise solutions.

Interests

I love technology.  I wrote my first program when I was six; competed at the regional, state, and national level in computer programming competitions; and championed best-practices in the realms of software development, database management, ALM, and enterprise architecture.  Lately, I have been very interested in personal and professional growth and development as well as developing a solid community of IT professionals in the Midlands of South Carolina.

I love to travel.  I have been to many very interesting locations in North America and Southeast Asia.  I try to take advantage of every opportunity to travel to new locales.  Sometimes this means a trip to a new store, and other times to small towns in Guangdong, China.  There truly is no thrill quite like total immersion in a completely foreign culture.  From language, to food, to simple day-to-day life – this world is like no other!

I love my family.  I have a beautiful wife and son.  We live in a small suburb of Columbia, South Carolina where we focus on enjoying and learning something new every day.

Goals

This is something I am constantly developing and refining.  In the grand-scheme of things, I just want to have fun and be happy.  I try to make my love of what I do and how I do it as infectious as possible in sharing these things with my family, friends, and innocent by-standers.

This Blog

Finally, I plan on this blog being a combination of things:

1. A collection of notes, articles, and interesting bits that I have run across or discovered in the course of my day-to-day work.
2. A platform for sharing interesting news and things that I believe to be of interest to the community in general.
3. A means of outreach to those that I have not yet had an opportunity to meet.  There are a lot of great people out there – both in this industry and in others.
4. Fun

So, expect things to evolve, devolve, and revolve as life changes and we grow.  It’s a trip that we’re all on together, so hold on and buckle-up, this is going to be an interesting ride!