About The Nerd

Disclaimers:

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Where possible, electrons, bits, brain cells, and pixels are free-range and 100% recycled, and delivered using locally derived energy sources from within our solar system.

Contact Information:

Social:

Who I Am:

By day, I work from my home office on the eastern side of the Flint Hills of Kansas, in the heart of Jayhawk country. I am an engineer and technologist for a large US airline where I get to work on the inflight wifi. I used to work for the professional services division of a large Silicon Valley networking vendor where I focused on wireless networks for enterprise, maritime, large public venue, as well as wireless location technologies and services. I have also specialized at one point or another in the areas of cloud services, streaming media, and technology strategy for houses of worship, education, business, and agriculture.

In the past, I’ve been a professional geek for industry titans such as IBM, Sun, GE, MCI, and industry nobodies whose names have been long forgotten (and some who are long gone, but their technology legacy pervades our daily digital lives). I’ve also been a satellite and FM broadcast techie, done a stint in the US Air Force, as well as spending a summer in college being an infantryman disguised as a tourist attraction in Ottawa with the Canadian Grenadier Guards.

Alphabet Soup:

I am certifiable! From Aruba, I am a Certified Edge Associate (Mobility, Switching, ClearPass), Edge Professional (Design, Mobility, ClearPass), Product Specialist (Central, Location Services), and have passed the written portions of the soon-to-be-retired Aruba Certified Mobility Expert and Design Expert. From CWNP, I am a Certified Wireless Network Expert (#273), certified Wireless IOT Professional (Design, Integration). I am also a CBRS Certified Professional Installer. Previous certifications that have lapsed include AirMagnet design and troubleshooting, IBWave Wi-Fi design, Cisco CCNA (2004) and Ekahau ECSE-D (2017, 2019) certifications.

I maintain a pretty sweet home lab, (which deserves its own page).

What I Do For Fun

By night, I am Husband and Dad, with an unhealthy appreciation for board and card games and tinkering with electronics. I also like food.. Growing it, making it, looking at it, eating it…

As you may have guessed by now, I was born and raised in Canada (it’s like a whole different country up there!), but have dual citizenship, and I came to the US in 1993 to join the Air Force and serve my other country.

For fun, I was a practitioner (with a major emphasis on practice) of WT-style (Olympic) Taekwondo, and earned my 1st Dan black belt. Much like my CWNE (which I was awarded on the same day as my 1 Dan) it was a big hairy ambitious multi-year goal that culminated in only the beginning of the journey. Unfortunately, a lingering shoulder injury from the military and moving away from any readily available dojangs meant that my martial arts journey ended shortly thereafter.

I enjoy theatrical production and volunteer my technical skills with Theatre Lawrence and the local high school theatre department.

I am also an unrepentant aviation geek (and now I get paid to be one!) and have a fascination with aircraft rivaled only by Sheldon Cooper’s fascination for trains (I think trains and cruise ships and rockets other large things that move are pretty neat too!).

Aircraft bingo card

(as passenger unless otherwise noted):

Airliners:

  • Douglas/McDonnell Douglas:
    • C-47 (1970s)
    • DC-8 (1983)
    • DC-9 family(1990s and beyond)
      • MD-80 (1990s)
      • MD-90/95 (2000s)
      • Boeing 717 (2000s)
  • DeHavilland Canada:
    • DHC-2 Beaver (1970s, 2014)
    • DHC-3 Otter (1970s)
    • DHC-6 Twotter (2014)
  • (Formerly) Bombardier
    • DHC-8-Q400 (2000s)
    • CRJ family (a million times)
  • Boeing
    • 717 (See Above, this isn’t really a Boeing type)
    • 727 (1990s)
    • 737 Family
      • -100 Combi (~1976)
      • Classic -300/500 (Lots)
      • NextGen -700/800/900 (Lots)
      • MAX8
    (2022)
    • 747 Family
      • -400 (2000)
      • -8i (2022)
      757 (1991)
    • 767-200 (2012 – I also own 2 pieces of the Gimli Glider as luggage tags)
    • 777 (2001)
    • 787 family
      • -8 (2015)
      • -9 (2022)
      • -10 (2022)
  • Airbus
    • A320 Family
      • A319 (Lots)
      • A320 (Lots)
      • A320neo (2022)
      • A321 (2000s)
      • A321neo (2020)
    • A340
      • -600 (2020)
    • A350
      • -900 (2022)
  • Embraer
    • E120
    • ERJ130/135
    • ERJ140/145
    • ERJ170/175
    • ERJ190/195
  • Odd ducks:
    • Martin 404 (1983)
    • Fokker F27 (1970s)
    • Saab 340 (1993)
    • ATR 42/72 (1990s)
    • Pilatus PC-12 (2013)
    • Beech 1900D (1990s)

Military:

  • General Dynamics F-16C/D (maintainer)
  • USAF C-9 Nightingale (Douglas DC-9) (1995)
  • McDonnell Douglas F-15E (maintainer, first 3 production models)
  • General Dynamics F-111F (maintainer)
  • Fairchild A-10 (sat in the cockpit and made BRRRRT noises on the museum piece I maintained)

General Aviation:

  • Cessna 172/USAF T-41 (1994, as student pilot)
  • Cessna 162 (2011, as student pilot)
  • Cessna 411 (1996)
  • Beech B36 Bonanza (2010, and flew the plane for about 5 minutes)

Rotorcraft:

  • Bell UH-1 Huey (1995)
  • Sikorsky H-53 (1995)

LTA:

  • Cameron O-160 (2010s)
  • Barnes/TBW 77K (1980s, 2010s)
  • Aerostar 65 (2010s)
  • RVB Special Shapes:
    • Annie (2010s)
    • When Pigs Fly (2010s)
    • Buzzy (2010s)

You can see where I fly on MyFlightRadar24 (wififlyguy)

Ship Bingo Card:

  • Catherine M. Wedmore (2008)
  • BC Ferries (1970s, 2014)
  • Alaska ferries (1970s)
  • Silversea Explorer (2019)
  • Rhapsody of the Seas (2019)
  • Allure of the Seas (2020)
  • Celebrity Silhouette (2020)
  • Celebrity Apex (2020)
  • Celebrity Beyond (2022)
  • Carnival Celebration (2022 inaugural voyage)
  • Worked on remotely during the pandemic:
    • Silversea Origin
    • Silversea Moon
    • Silversea Dawn
    • Odyssey of the Seas
    • Wonder of the Seas
    • Celebrity Beyond
    • Celebrity Ascent
    • Icon of the Seas
    • Anthem of the Seas

Spacecraft Bingo Card:

  • LOL, I wish. Although I do work with several satellites.

I’m Going Places!

I also volunteer with Team Rubicon (where I was once part of the technology leadership team), IT Disaster Resource Center, and the United Methodist Church, where I chase disasters and punch them in the face.

I volunteer with my airline to provide air logistics to the Cat Distribution System

I also like to take the occasional picture and post to Instagram.

One of the fun things about my work and volunteer activities is getting to go to neat places.

Travel Bingo Card:

  • Canada (lived there 20 years) – Every province but Newfoundland
    • Yukon Territory (lived there for 3 years)
    • Northwest Territory (before it was split)
  • USA (lived there more than 20 years). Only states I have not visited are Oregon and Hawaii.
    • US Virgin Islands (2020)
    • Puerto Rico (2020)
  • Mexico (1989, 2019, 2020)
  • Haiti (2011, 2015, 2016, 2020 … but not sure Labadee counts on that last one)
  • Ecuador (2016)
  • Spain (2019, 2020, 2022, 2022)
  • Bahamas (2020)
  • Morocco (2019, 2020, transiting in territorial waters through the Strait of Gibraltar so only partially counts – my iPhone connected to the Moroccan cellular network though, so there’s that)
  • Gibraltar (2020, at anchor, didn’t go ashore)
  • France (2020)
  • Germany (2020, 2022; transit only through Munich 4x, Frankfurt 3x)
  • Czechia (2022)
  • Denmark (2022)
  • Sweden (2022)
  • Belgium (2022)
  • European Union (within an actual EU facility, 2022)
  • Italy (Fall 2022)
  • Greece (Fall 2022)
  • Malta (Fall 2022)
  • Turkey (territorial waters/cell phone network only, 2022)
  • England (Fall 2022)
  • Portugal (Fall 2022)