phatness.com - still kickin

By Day?

I am currently building a new company around working with multimedia content and "getting things done." It is top secret so you'll have to wait until we release something to read about it.

I used to work for the largest privately owned company in its respective industry. Sorry for the obscure description, but I wouldn't want to associate this site with my employers. Anyways, I was in charge of "Application Development". I am otherwise known as Captain Super Geek. Our largest application has over 16,000 users and has a growth rate of about 40% a year. (That's pretty substantial!) It's also critical to our business so we tend to build things with tools that can scale and that can perform. These are not "throw away" apps either. So every one is developed with an assumed life expectancy of at least 10 years, more often longer depending on the business. That doesn't sound like a long time, but in our industry, its forever minus 5 years.

That makes us a Java shop because we hate the dark side. Being bound to a single company whose sole purpose is to make money off of you by forcing you to do it their way is not my idea of a picnic. Besides idealogical reasons, Java provides us with tools and abilities we wouldn't find in many other languages. People unfamiliar with the technology may see Java as only a language and not understand the benefits. Its really the add-ons and the libraries, that make it stand the test of time.

By Night?

In my psych class in college, I read that its common for people to require more or less stimuli then normal to reach an excited state. Cool, sounds like me.

I like fire. I like speed. I like big air. Though I don't like heights, which is weird. I like to accelerate more, brake late, and carve tight turns. Overall, I like to push the limits and boundaries of whatever activity it is that I am doing.

I am a dog lover. I ski *and* snowboard. Kids these days should still learn to ski first. They need to respect their elders and the people that made it all happen. I prefer dirt bikes to four wheelers. Though, all gas powered vehicles turn me on. I drive a lifted Jeep Wrangler with big tires and gadgets for off-pavement activities. The best sport in the world is soccer, the runner up is hockey, followed by baseball and volleyball.

So, check out the site. Look around. There are some trinkets that make it worth while. I promise.