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This area is undergoing some changes. The lame Java menu I had here before was pretty klunky and took forever to load, so I'm learning Php and MySQL in hopes to enhance my web-design efforts. You'll see some font weirdness as the old pages were written with straight-up HTML - without the benefit of style sheets or anything automated... I used good ol' Notepad in the early days. So if you see some font weirdness, that's just me being smart and using style sheets, along with smoothing them out as I build the new Php pages.
Here's my latest custom PC creation:
#24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo machine for Kevin Suberg.
Building this machine was pretty special for me. Kevin's the nephew
of my friend Ron who happens to have inoperable brain cancer. I really
don't care for Jeff Gordon, but when Kevin saw my 'Rusty' machine and I later
found out he was a Jeff Gordon fan, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to
build this machine. The above link tells more...
Unfortunately, Kevin lost his battle with cancer earlier in May 2006. But I'm pretty sure he's up in heaven playing with Lego's and NASCAR Racing on a much better machine.
It all started with me failing a Geometry class in High School, and later finding out that the Computer Science courses they offered would make up that math credit. Plus, my buddy Bob had an Atari 500ST that his dad bought to help him learn about computers - although we goofed around playing games more than anything (never did get that simulated 747 off the ground...). After mastering Apple Basic and Apple Pascal on the school's Franklin Ace 1000's, I moved on to the CAD program in my drafting class. I was hooked at that point.
I joined the Air Force with the hopes of becoming a CAD operator, but failed a color vision test and was placed into the 491x1 (now 3C0X1) career field - Communications/Computer Operator. I learned how to operate mainframe computers and their peripherals. Yeah, I know...that was pretty close to drafting (rolling my eyes as I type this...).
After getting out, I became a maintenance technician on a mainframe computer system - which is pretty challenging, but still not drafting. I had bought an Amiga 500 several years before, and loved using it. But as most people will say, the Amiga was just not recognized by the world as a substantial computer - stupid world. So, I got my first PC.
I got the hottest machine I could afford at the time ($3000 for a Cyrix 166+ loaded) in October 1996, and rapidly watched the market take off while my machine was quickly left in the dust both in horsepower and affordability. I was learning why I loved my Amiga so much all those years...it didn't require an annual budget of $1000 to keep the beast up with current technology standards.
Over the past several years, these machines have taught me a lot about computers, gotten my menial tasks done, helped me become a better illustrator, kept me from getting bored when there's not much to do or on TV, kept me from getting my chores done, and helped to empty the bank account...but I love playing with them and as long I can, I'll have at least one computer taking over a corner somewhere in my house.
Over the past few years, I've earned several Industry recognized IT
Certifications, including: CISSP, A+, MCP & MCSA.