Hello! I'm Joe!

I started learning to write code when I was about twelve years old. Not having a computer of my own, I would write lines of code on yellow pads of lined paper, debugging them in my mind, anxiously waiting for the moment when I could type them in and see if they worked.  From then on I was hooked.  I rarely had anyone who could teach me about computers or programming, so I learned how to learn from books, which has served me well over the years.  I had learned a couple of programming languages from library books before I even had a computer of my own.  My first computer was an old  TI-99/4A (roughly equivalent to a Commodore 64), meaning I had to learn to write very efficient code to make anything work.  It wasn’t long before I became the “tech guru” for my family and friends, troubleshooting and writing apps whenever anyone needed help.

My first job in tech was as a network administrator for First Source International and their sister company Paragon Memory.  When I was hired, I knew next to nothing about networks, but I knew I could learn everything I needed to know quickly.  I’m always striving to learn more, and before I left the company a year later, I was functioning as the head of the MIS department, where I was especially proud of having completely automated tasks that used to take an MIS employee a full day, every week, to accomplish. NovaQuest / Webvision International then recruited me to write network management solutions.  Over twenty years before it became popular, I worked remotely except, only occasionally going to a client’s site.  My last project for them was for Countrywide Home Loans which helped bring millions of dollars into the company.  

At the age of 22, I went to prison for nearly 24 years.  In a place with such limited hardware and software, I was truly able to lean into my tech skills and become an innovator.  I learned MacOS so that I could set up, configure, upgrade, and maintain computers in vocational graphic arts, I wrote database applications in VBA for Access and Excel, I learned how to use media equipment and software to run the prison’s 11 CCTV channels, and I used graphing calculators to learn C and Lua, writing thousands of lines of code on those little calculator keyboards.  

I love learning new things, helping people, and solving problems, and I am currently preparing to be a full-stack developer.  I recently completed certifications for UX/UI design, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and I'm currently pursuing one for Python.  I love this field because there is always more to learn, always new problems to solve, and always things that we can do to make things better for people.