My primary skill set is realtime embedded software development with C/C++ & Linux, although I have written software using several other languages and environments. I worked mostly with Windows 7, 10, & 11 over the last decade, but I am currently back to working with Linux. Click here if you wish to see my resume. Note that my resume is not up to date.

I “retired” from my full-time position at FlightSafety International after 6 years, in March of 2021. At the time I started there, I only intended to stay for 4 years, and retire in mid-2019. They persuaded me to stay on a bit longer.

After my “retirement,” I returned to the DFW area of Texas, and I contracted at Lockheed-Martin for about a year and a half. At LM, I got the opportunity to return to using my favorite OS (Linux), although with my least-favorite distro (CentOS/RH). My first contract ended on March 11th, 2022, and my next contract with LM started on March 29th, 2022 (different division). That contract ended in July 2022 (see my blog post New Opportunity of a Lifetime). After the high-tech startup I was with folded, I moved out of the state of Texas to accept a full-time position where I plan to stay until my real retirement from programming. Since I plan to retire completely from programming for a living sometime around 2027 or 2028, I no longer keep my resume updated. No point in wasting the time of recruiters, although I still get “urgent” inquiries about jobs in places that I wouldn’t consider even if I were looking for a job. I put lazy recruiters who send out “spray and pray” emails on my block list.

I am also a violinist (my first W2 job was with the El Paso Symphony, while still in high school), and I teach violin and viola lessons in my home studio.

I am a Navy veteran. In the Navy, I was an Electronics Technician, and a Reactor Operator. However, in typical Navy fashion, my actual job duties consisted mostly of swabbing decks, standing watch, and brewing coffee.

Other: I have waited tables, managed a restaurant, washed dishes, sacked groceries, dug ditches, picked cotton, moved furniture, operated construction machinery, been a high-school substitute teacher, worked as a chemist making analytical standards for X-ray florescence analysis, and taught in a community college. But for the past 40+ years, my main occupation has been writing software.

You might wonder if there is anything I haven’t done. Well, I’ve never stood on a street corner with a cardboard sign that says “Will work for food.” I have also never been on food stamps.