The Games.
I was first amazed with video games when a family-friend (who I called Uncle Mike, and was stationed in Japan where he first saw the Famicom,) showed my father his NES around 1986. But he wouldn’t let me play it for fear I’d break it. He didn’t want to risk a three year old breaking his new toy; makes sense to me. But eventually I got to play, and I never really put the controller down. My father realized how much I loved games, and gave me his Atari 2600 that was in storage. From there, it was to the Nintendo, Commodore 64, SNES, Genesis, PC, N64, Playstation, Dreamcast, Xbox, PS2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Xbox One, and where ever else gaming takes me in the future… Though often on PC. The potential of games is mindblowingly captivating. I even took two years (2003-2004) to attend Full Sail, in attempt to make them. That didn’t quite pan out the first go-round, but I’ve got the degree now. We’ll see. But regardless, I know I’ll never get away from these damn things. I love them.
The Work.
Apart from the requisite two years in food (Subway) as a teen, I worked a summer as an industrial plumber, and another in a hardware store. After high school I worked for four years at a local TV station in Albany, GA. I quickly went from teleprompter operator to Studio Manager. (My coworkers eventually admitted they mockingly called me “the golden child” behind my back, and assumed I was related to someone. I was not.) I worked there for four years. Then I took two years off to attend college for computer science (2003 – 2004; see above). When that didn’t work out, I returned to WALB in late 2004. In 2006 I changed tracks at the same employer, from the Studio Manager to a News Producer. It was my job to choose, write, rewrite, and edit the news as I saw fit. I continued to produce a morning news show 2011. I then did similar work in Anchorage, Alaska at KTUU for a time. After leaving there and doing web work for a cable manufacturer, when my non-compete ran out I returned to TV news producing in Anchorage, Alaska. This time at KTVA. After that TV station was bought and closed in late 2020, I returned to Full Sail, and finished that Computer Science degree in 2021.
The Future.
I spent about the first decade of my work life at one employer. Then I bounced between a few. Now I’m job hunting back in games (or some other creative medium,) and hoping to exit news. It’s difficult, given TV news is having difficulty keeping producers, and I’ve had more people reach out to me about employment in 2021 than any time in life. But if I don’t try now, when will I succeed?
This Blog.
For the record, anything on this blog is purely my opinion at best, and at worst, object of my rage due to a combination of dumb-heads, transference, and self-loathing. Though, I’ve been working on that pretty well, honestly. Nothing I say here is not meant to be comprehensively representative of any position I may hold, or at all of any person or organization save myself. But, for the record, I do hate that I feel I’m required to put this on my personal blog. It’s silly. I’m not even controversial like that.
Also, I can be found on Twitter here.
