RickSpace

So, if you are at this page, you presumably have some interest in me. I will assume that you are either a friend, a co-worker or someone I’ve met at a conference or some other business function. I am a 25 year old (until December 2005) computer science graduate from Murray State University in western Kentucky. During my education there, I spent a full semester in Regensburg, Germany where I acquired a very limited ability with spoken German and an incredible longing to return and finish tasting the various beers, ales, lagers and stouts.

Upon graduation, I got a job with Ideal Software Systems, Inc where I had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing and intelligent people I have met to date. They do development on four or five publically-obvious programs but that actually breaks down into some fifteen or so actual projects with a relatively small development team.  I started there as an intern in college, took a full-time role as a traveling software installations/trainer/support specialist in May or June of 03. I worked in that role for about 6 months until transitioning into a role as a Systems Analyst in the development department where I did a lot of pre-development design, software testing, documentation creation, and any other role not covered by the developers or the support specialists. Shortly before I left, I began doing some project management and actually the team I was leading shipped the product just on time, about a month before I accepted the other offer. I eventually left the team at Ideal because of an offer from my current employer that I felt would be better for my expanding family (I have a daughter on the way in December).

I now work for the Computing Center of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis Missouri. The most beautiful campus I’ve had the pleasure to walk around, combined with the intense education and research that is going on around this university makes it an excellent place to be. I enjoy the time I get to spend talking with my co-workers as well as the laid-back atmosphere and satisfying nature of MOST tasks I perform (hey, you can’t love EVERYTHING you do).

I have relatively varied interests… I like computers, playing with computer operating systems (Linux is my largest interest in this category, as well as oft-times being the bane of my existence), computer games, computer software development… wait a second… No, really, I have varied interests… I’m a cool guy, I promise! I love to play Basketball when I have someone to play with, I was a power-lifter in high school and I played rugby for a semester in college (it took a good one or two games before I was injured enough to only want to go to practice from then on). I enjoy playing sports more than watching them, but basketball is about the only one I am any good at. I love to cook and I think I’m pretty decent at it. I am super-interested in small business and entrepreneurship and read books on those topics rather frequently. I love to read. I recently became a Christian and have been taking much greater interest in getting involved in group studies, and perhaps even helping with mission trips. I had been posting a lot at one point in time on ChristianForums and I intend to resume that since the people there are interesting and I have had engaging discussions with Christians, Agnosts, Atheists and members of other religions as well.

Above all else, I enjoy talking. I like talking to people one on one; I like giving presentations; I like teaching; I like learning. I just enjoy any interaction with people I can manage since I spend most of my time with computers. Please feel free to drop a line as a comment to any of my posts.