About Me

I first started scripting when I was 12 years old, pioneering my way through some of the earliest web technologies available to the world before most people knew what the Internet even was. Purely a hobby back then, it was here that I really found my love of programming and scripting, using it to do very tiresome tideous tasks in the matter of a few keystrokes.

I worked my way through middle school and high school improving my skills and learning as much as I could about HTML. As soon as it was available to me, I took a basic (and the only available) programming course at Olean High for C++. A brilliant instructor, Vince Monachino was instrumental and teaching me to think unconventionally outside the box, and to realize the logic behind programming.

Finishing Highschool 9th of 212 students academically in 2002, I went on to further my learning career at St. Bonventure University in their new Business Information Systems cirrculum that was supposed to combine aspects of business and Information Technology. After completing 2 semesters and 29 credit hours with a 3.03 GPA at SBU, I realized that not only was SBU not the campus for me, but that no one offered the type of degree I was after.

I left formal school and took a position at Adelphia INC (bought by Time Warner) in summer 2003. After 2 years of dedicated technical support I worked for 1 year as an escalations support engineer. My duty there was to notice potential outage situations, as well as mediate incoming phone call volume to ward off of unnecessary calls due to idenitified network issues. This gave me an astounding amount of communication skills and troubleshooting techniques. Not only did I have to figure out what was wrong, but I had to tell phone reps, supervisors, managers, directors, network technicians AND customers what was going on the way they needed to hear it to understand it.

When there was nothing wrong there was nothing to do, with free time a usual option at my job, I spent it learning more about websites, proper coding, and PHP. After Adelphia ceased to be, I took my first official programming position at Synacor, INC in Buffalo. I was a Vendor Integrations Engineer, specializing in "making it work." My job was to integrate my company's product with other 3rd party vendors, to provide an all-in-one package for clients. Commuting from Olean every day took it's toll. While I had little problems keeping up with the work, eventually, and after some disagreement with my terms of employment, I felt it best to leave, and did.

Finding opportunity elsewhere, I took my most recent position with Mellon Technology in Olean. Quickly becoming the lead programmer, I oversaw the work of myself and 3 other people, as well as some interns and short-term employees during my almost 2 year stay. On top of which, I began to enter a world where not only was I capable, but I was proficient.

During my stay at Mellon I worked on many websites, many projects. Over 75 websites were built from the ground up by yours truly. Some local businesses, some national, and some out-sourced. To see some of my latest projects check out my portfolio.

My weaknesses are my strengths... I strive to learn more and make the unknown known, and part of my regime. Now that you know more about me, I welcome you to contact me for your business venture. It doesn't have to be painful, and it doesn't have to be complicated, I promise.