blasterpal/old_about_me.md

## old_about_me.md

      
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    About me

I have worked in almost every area of IT and software: hardware, networking, security, consulting and development. I've been called a jack-of-all trades, another has suggested 'Web Architect' since I focus on the Web. I love everything related to the internet and the open-source technologies that support it. Everyday is an opportunity to learn something new.
While I've programmed in Bash, C, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python and others on Solaris to Linux, I've had an affinity to Ruby and Ruby on Rails since 2006. My project experience varies from small micro-sites, Fortune 500 marketing sites, SaaS applications, large real estate rental sites, and social media real-time television event sites. Also before 'DevOps' became a moniker, I began working between development teams and operations, helping get large architectural changes deployed smoothly. While Ruby and Rails are my goal-to tools of choice, I am not a one-trick pony. I've written Java to talk to legacy web services when nothing else will work in a pinch for example.
I have deep experience using Opscode Chef to automate and manage cloud infrastructure in web-focused companies and love using Cloud infrastructures like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Rackspace Cloud. Heroku also is platform of choice for getting ideas running.
My elevator pitch is that I enjoy writing code to solve business problems, automating all aspects of infrastructure and keeping a keen eye on information security and cost. I follow "buying versus building" when it makes sense and leveraging cloud services to enable startups and small businesses to effectively accomplish their goals.
Presently, I live in the suburbs of Atlanta with my family. I enjoy creating music, embarrassing myself with karoake, history, sci-fi and learning new open-source technology. On occasion I can be found digging for diamonds in Minecraft with my sons.