The Last Train

“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.” — Robert Southey
It occurred to me that once I stepped onto the train this morning it will be my last time for what will probably be quite a while. Moving to a new state at the end/beginning of a year really drives the point home. There is a definite feeling of closure and new opportunity.
That got me thinking about my journey ahead and how I ended up at this point. I’d like to thank the people around me that helped define who I am in my career path.
It pretty much started with myself and a pirated copy of Agile Web Development that led me to find others interested in Ruby programming. It was a tough time but that is when I stumbled into Ray Hightower leading a Ruby Meetup in a library meeting room. Thanks Ray, my involvement in ChicagoRuby, I feel, is what really moved my career into the fast path.
Next up is Dave Giunta, Courtney Braafhart, and Jim Hassan who believed in me enough to take a chance and give me my first full-time Ruby dev position. Thanks… I was crazy nervous trying to play it cool in my interview (with my pinstripe suit). This is also where I met Adam Walters, Chris Hallendy and Stephen Korecky. Who have become good friends and I’m always learning from each of them.
This is about where I attended an Obtiva TDD Bootcamp taught by one Dave Hoover. Dave must have been semi impressed with me cause he asked if I was interested in trying out for Obtiva shortly after that. Of course I jumped at the chance to work along side people I looked up to in the dev community. So thanks Dave Hoover, Kevin Taylor, Todd Webb and Kat Reid. That quadruple interview was intense and I know I bombed Kevin’s interview but again… thanks for believing in me.
I can say that once I started with Obtiva it was Noel Rappin, Joe Banks, and Chad Pry that really put up with me and taught me to become a half way decent dev.
Now my journey continues to Florida to join the Hashrocket family. It is my honor to be a small part of another great dev shop. So thank you, Hashrocket, for taking me on and letting me continue this crazy career path I’ve set myself on.
To all who were mentioned and those that were not… thanks for the friendship and experiences. They will not be forgotten.


I was never a fan of using
After a fresh install of OSX Lion, RVM decided no more of my ruby friends could come over and play. So I was all like “what’s up, RVM… y u no like my ruby exchange students anymore?”
For those of you who regularly read, or at least know me, know that I work/ed for a software development shop in Chicago called
Before starting with