I just thought that I would build out a GitHub Pages site as a bit of a bio page but also to capture any ramblings that I feel like making… I promise not to get to political or technical and more celebrate things that I am interested in or thinking.
Personal Bio
I was born/grew up in a small country town in South Gippsland, Victoria Australia called Leongatha Map.
Both of my parents were school teachers with mum being primary (grade 1-6) and dad Tech School Maths/Sci (year 11-12) and Tafe (Tertiary and Further Education) and some of my fondest memories as a kid are walking the halls of Leongatha Tech and checking out the computer room. At the time they had some awesome tape drives and I marvelled at the 8inch Floppy Drive Disks (something like this).
At home i grew up (thanks to dad) with various home pcs, from the zx80 to Commodore64 through 286/386/486 PCs (some with turbo buttons) and building small electonics kits (from Tandy or Dick Smith). I had an awesome Lego collection and some of the early Mechanics sets.
From the early days of playing Zork I was hooked on games and as the types of home computers progressed so did the games that I was playing. I still remember the drives to the Carribean Gardens to buy tape/disks and the excitement when something like Doom was released.
But my passion for gaming really was amp’d whenever I went to Melbourne (to visit grandparents ) as there was a local video game arcade at the “Fun Factory”. As a kid this was the best and felt like some kind of future reality where people could compete within virtual environments. One of the most influential games was also an early favourite movie - TRON. The combination of movie and arcade game had me completely hooked.
As my home PC’s eveloved my passion for motorsport was also captured through various evolutions of Formula 1 and rally games. Almost every interest I had was also covered in a game from surfing and skateboarding (in california games) to basketball (NBA Jam).
Games were not the only thing that my various comuters were used for and from using Logo in primary school (on commodore64) I had been programming. Also thanks again to my father we had a drafting pen plotter which was the most awesome way to connect my love for computers/programming with passion for drawing and design. Along with Corel Draw I was using Photoshop when released and other paint/drawing programs. Part of my year 12 art folio was a 256 color (maximum supported) shaded electronic painting that I actually took a photo of (analog) and had printed large at a photo lab as color printers were not capable at the time - circa 1992 (in rural victoria).
It wasn’t until University (RMIT studying Manufacturing Systems Engineering) that I became fully aware of Server Operating systems (like Windows NT) and full CAD systems (and engineering design). This only further drove me to explore 3d Studio Max and various animation programs.
Professional CV
Outside of cleaning windows and packing boxes at my home town pharmacy and working as a contract cleaner whilst in uni my first real job was over summer break whilst studying Manufacturing Systems Engineering at RMIT. I was fortunate to pick up a job as an electonic technician for a Pinball/Arcade Game/Jukebox Importer and distributor. As a childhood gamer this was right up my alley and spent many many hours on the systems either repairing or playing. I loved tearing down and restoring pinball machines and the mix of analog and evolving digital (monochrome led displays) was somehting better than simply one or the other. As one of 2 importers of Arcade systems we were kept quite busy converting and configuring games through the golden years of Sega through Daytona to World Rally to Manx TT.
I ended up getting a role as a field service technician for a large Arcade and Jukebox company which was great as it got me out of the workshop/office and on the road installing and repairing. I travelled through most of Melbourne and country Victoria visiting pubs and nightclubs (during the day) rocking a pager and early mobile phones (Nokia 5110).
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