About Ben, Editor's Cut
Beginning life in New Delhi, India, while my father was working as a Foreign Service Officer for the United States Information Service, I have had a fairly unique perspective of the world, its cultures and peoples, and how to learn valuable lessons from the varied and unexpected sources life presents.
I began formal schooling in Wellington, New Zealand, entered elementary school in Washington, D.C, began junior and high school in Tokyo, Japan and graduated high school in Kamuela, Hawaii and attending college in Annapolis, Maryland.
Moving to these places, and the social groups involved, taught me how to respect other, and contrary, viewpoints and, moreover, learn from the experiences that were sometimes truly amazing and sometimes incredibly distressing.
My earliest programming instruction began in 1978 on one of the first 9000 Apple II computers ever made. My first instructor was my father. I remember being overjoyed at seeing my name printing infinitely on the screen, and taking that elation to the next level when I was able to make a text wall of the same message, and I was hooked on the creativity, power and versatility of this wonderful, if picky, creative medium.
In 1987 I took a class in Blankenship Basic and both loved and excelled in it. In 1995 I took, loved and excelled in a C++ class at Indiana University. I should have divined from the signs available that changing my major from Philosophy to Computer Science (or Cognitive Science) was the wise choice, but, alas, I did not.
Fast forward through 9 years of college and 20-year career as a bartender, I found an amazing not-for-profit, intensive coding boot camp in Indianapolis, IN in Eleven Fifty Academy. In this 9-5 class/lab (including homework, 9-5 becomes 9-8), I gained a working knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, React.js, Angular, git, GitHub, Agile, Bootstrap, Angular Material and SCRUM, and various office soft skills designed to make me into a productive and effective member of any frontend development team.
I fully and truly enjoy coding, love the challenges and the elation when my brainchild matures to adulthood and getting to meet the industry people I get to meet, learn from and, when the opportunity arises, help.
