My name is Jeffrey Stone and I am a geek. Yep that about sums it up. For those that are satisfied I suggest stopping now. If you want the details by all means continue reading. Although, I cannot guarantee satisfaction if you keep reading.
When I was little the idea of what I was going to do with the rest of my life changed almost as frequent as my underwear, and probably faster at times. Actually I’m sure if you ask my wife it still changes quite frequently. I can’t help it. I’m distracted by shinny objects. I used to think that was a bad thing. But now I believe it is one of my greatest strengths.
At the most basic level I am a geek. I love technology. I love taking technology and putting it to work making our lives easier. There is a lot of cool innovation happening in the web and mobile space and around the aggregation of information. All that innovation means there is a lot to learn which is exciting. Its just an unbelievably amazing time to be in technology.
I am one of those people with an insatiable appetite for learning new things. Whether it is teaching myself to play the guitar, to communicate in French, a new programming language, or even learning to master the perfect loaf of bread its about pushing myself into foreign territory. It’s about taking various ingredients and turning them in to some bigger.
In elementary school I was coding simple BASIC applications in summer classes and by high school I spent my high school programming class time helping students learn to code. However, despite that enjoyment of coding I left high school with the idea that I was going to save the planet and started on a path to a degree in Environmental Biology. But school and me didn’t – and to a point still don’t – get a long very well. It’s not so much the material, its the pace. One of my strengths, as I have mentioned, is I can teach myself anything, but with that superpower comes a cost. I learn at a faster rate than the majority of people I come in contact with. School caters to the lowest common denominator. It’s just the way it is. And so I get bored. When I get bored I tune out. And when I tune out…well…I don’t make good grades.
Luckily for me about the time I started High School the Internet became mainstream. My boredom was met with an ever growing online encyclopedia. By the late 80′s, early 90′s I was on to coding web pages and even had a movie review site for a year or two. I was building my own computers and tinkering with an Operating System called Linux. As I got more into the world of Technology my love of coding took over and my desire to stick with Biology started to waiver. I left college and started learning everything I could in the realm of technology. I bounced around jobs for a while before I got my foot in the door at a company doing IT Support.
For almost 13 years I worked in system administration and IT Management, but always found myself drawn to coding applications. I love solving problems with code and technology in general actually. I am a big proponent of Open Source software as well as a free and open web. Information is the currency of business and for that information to be truly valuable is has to be easy to get, it has to make sense, and it needs to be absorbed quickly so that business decisions can be made fast. I think the web and mobile are going to play an even bigger part of that in the future and want to be in the middle of it. Recently I was able to get back in to the nuts and bolts of it with the company I have been with over the last 13 years. I have had the opportunity to put my skills and passions together to help technology shorten that gap between creator and consumer.
Through my love of code and reading I have found another creative outlet. Writing. It was only recently that I even realized how much fun I have writing. I have always been plagued by scenes that play out in my head at weird times brought about by a familiar scent or song. I always thought those day dreaming sessions were more of my ability to easily distracted that anything. But as I started to pay attention to them I realized might be more than just excursions of thought. I started writing them down a few years ago, and even have written a few stories based on the seeds I gathered. I’m not sure what will ever happen with them. But I still find sitting down and writing exhilarating. Whether I’m explaining a new technology, ranting about the world, or writing a story about a guy that sells body parts I love the power of words.
Anyway, I have babbled long enough. My concept for jeffreystone.net is simple. It is going to be a random, disjointed collection of things that I find interesting in the World and my views on life in general. You might find code one day, opinions on tech or rants about life on another, perhaps a how-to from time to time, and maybe I feel like it a piece of fiction. Simply put, I suspect its content of this website will reflect my life in general…lots of shinny objects. In any case I cannot promise value to anyone but me, but feel free to check it out.
