When my dad passed in 1992, I was given his computer gear collection. An Apple 2e, Commodore 64 and an Amiga 1000. Plus a ton of peripherals. The Amiga was the first multitasking and graphical interface computer system, including a video toaster. I also got my dad’s video camera gear.
I became obsessed with computers, digital media, shooting and editing video and anything related to that.
In 2003, while working as the Food & Beverage Director for a private golf club in San Clemente (my previous career), I watched a computer technician charge $180 for 15 minutes of work. I had already been experimenting with desktop computers, so I determined at that moment, from now on, I would do all the computer repairs for the club.
To my delight, there was a section of the cart barn that contained 8 or 9 old or broken Desktop computers. With the blessing of my General Manager, I took a few of them home to scavenge for parts. I ended up fixing most of them. That success escalated my interest in all things computer and I spent much of my off time learning more.
At the same time I became fascinated with HTML and CSS and started building websites. Again, experimenting with multiple platforms and services. That fascination continues today in that I keep up with the splendid new technologies that continue to come at a blistering rate.
As a result of learning websites, I began working with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere and After Effects on a regular basis.
I don’t remember all the platforms I tried, but I have built hundreds of sites in WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, WordPress being my favorite. I’ve also worked extensively in PHP, .Net, MySQL.
In 2008 I left the hospitality industry and became the IT/Marketing Director for a small commodities broker in Irvine. The owner was a friend, and my primary function was building websites and writing for the blogs I had created to promote the company. That led to learning MS and Linux server technology, SEO, Google Analytics, AdSense and Ad Manager. Also building marketing campaigns including email marketing, press releases and advertising on the web.
Unfortunately, this gig coincided with the Great Recession and my friend’s business was pretty much decimated by the end of 2008.
I was able to pick up a few web and SEO related gigs, which evolved into starting my own business, which I ran for five years.
Duncan McIntosh Company, Inc. hired me in 2014 to migrate more than a dozen websites away from the proprietary Newscycle Solutions platform and take over IT operations for the office. I built and configured a dedicated server and created new WordPress sites for most of them, including editorandpublisher.com, which contained over 76k articles and stories and a number of special function applications.
My job duties grew every day (check my resume), and I remained with DMC until COVID just about wiped out the company in 2020. I was layed off, but not before consolidating all server functionality and data into one remote server staff could access from home.
Worth noting, DMC purchased OC Weekly in 2016. Not only was I tasked with setting up the entire office for the two merging staff. Moving and setting up all servers, computers, workstations, phone system, building the Wifi mesh system, and front door intercom system.
But also migrating the immense ocweekly.com website off Foundation and into a WordPress site that I built. More than 86k articles, 2 Million images, multiple online contests and several microsites for the events OC Weekly produced.
In closing, I meet and beat every challenge presented. I know how to build all kind of systems for all kinds of applications, and I love what I do.