I finally got around to creating an About Me page for my blog, which I've been meaning to do every since I read Jeff Atwood's commentary on it in his Thirteen Blog Cliches post.
My name is Russell Ball and I am 35 years old. I currently live in Kansas City, Kansas with my wife and six year old step-daughter. I've been a developer for almost eight years. I spent 2 years with the job title of architect, but recently switched jobs so I could be a developer again because I missed coding. I've mostly worked in Microsoft-dominant development environments, but I have become very interested lately in expanding my horizon to other tools, platforms, and languages. My blog subtitle comes from my Starbuck's caffeinated beverage of choice.
A Few Random Things You May Not Know About Me
- I lived in the Dominican Republic for a year when I was 17 and still speak passable Spanish
- I taught first grade for three years in an inner city school in Washington, DC. where 95% of student population qualified for a free lunch and 100% were minorities.
- I own about 20 books on chess and used to play speed chess in the park in Dupont Circle almost every day when I lived in Washington, DC, but I haven't played in several years.
- Besides trying to qualify for the 50 state club by running a marathon in each state, I have also run in a few ultra-marathons. I finished a fifty miler last year in just over nine hours and have been toying with the idea of running a hundred mile ultra-marathon some time in the next few years.
- I've been sky-diving three times and would love to go again if I could somehow convince my wife to let me do it.
- I have been in an earth quake, blizzard, hurricane, drive by shooting, and a coup d'etat.
- I am a bit of a beer and coffee snob (the darker and stronger the better). I've even made a few batches of homebrew before with the help of my running/drinking buddy.
Favorite Books
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Cider House Rules - John Irving
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Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen
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Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
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Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
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Wizard of EarthSea - Ursula Le Guin
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Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
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Shantarum - Gregory David Roberts
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
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One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Favorite Musical Groups
- RadioHead
- Green Day
- Nirvana
- Cold Play
- Death Cab For Cuties
- Weezer
- Rachmoninov
- Beck
- Dashboard Confessional
- Nine Inch Nails