“Brian’s View of the Shore” is my first website. Built using Word Press. A fellow student (Thanks, Kaushal!) in my “Technical Communications” class (Fall/2012) at Saint Thomas did a presentation on “Blogging with Tumblr”, stirring my creative juices. I decided to teach myself WordPress and started development of this website in mid-Nov, 2012. The intent is for it to be more of a complete personal website and not just a blog. If you want to see a list of the various topics and pages, click on “Site Map” on the Upper Menu Nav Bar.
If you just want to read my Blog, click on “The Blog” on the Upper Menu Nav Bar, or any of the following Links, otherwise, read on.
When I was 42, I learned I had a 17 yr old daughter. Her name is Elyse. This blog is dedicated to her, as a way for her to get to know more about her “Bio” father. She lives in the state where I grew up, and up until recently (2014/2015), it’s been hard to develop some sort of relationship with her, with our visits being rare and sporadic in the beginning. However, in the fall of 2014, we started calling each other on a more frequent basis, with the result of her coming to visit me in the summer of 2015 – And, because of these calls, we were actual able to bond during her visit – partially because I introduced her to the hobby of Photography. I am not her dad, just her biological father, but she is a huge part of my life right now. And, I am so happy she has allowed me to be a part of her life.
Never having the opportunity to raise any kids of my own, I feel very blessed to have become a step-grandfather to a very beautiful and very special little girl who come into my life in April of 2012. Her name is Lailah and she is now my Universe. I missed out with raising Elyse and I will regret that for a very long time. I believe Lailah was put in my life to help me learn true unconditional love, and patience, and understanding, and everything else that goes with being “GranPaBrian”. This blog is dedicated to Lailah as well since I want her to know how much she means to me.
I learned how to code (using BASIC) in 9th grade on an HP 3000 timesharing system in High School (using teletypes – years before the invention of the PC). When I was 22, I started getting paid for doing what I love to do. I worked at a company called Unisys in a variety of software development (and data center) positions for 29 years. I now work as a freelance contractor as a BMC Software(r) “Remedy” Software Developer.
I have an unusual amount of interests, with Model Railroading being my first and foremost interest (learning about this hobby when I was 14 years old). The picture on the left is the first “track plan” I fell in love with. It was a dream of mine (and a lot of model railroaders) for several years to build this layout.
This track plan on the left has been the dream to build in my basement some day. Problem is, I don’t have a basement any longer, upon downsizing to my townhouse.
After thirty years of dreaming of a Model Railroading layout, I started working on my first N-scale layout in 2006/2007. Due to some procrastination & some lack of confidence, it’s still only about a third complete. It’s a “kit” layout, being 3 feet by 6 feet in size, called “Scenic Ridge”.
After twenty or so years of procrastination, I finally enrolled into the Graduate Program in Software at the University of Saint Thomas (Fall of 2012). This is a Master in Software Systems degree program, and I completed it December, 2015. Here is the Essay I wrote to get accepted into the Graduate Program at Saint Thomas.
The three of us, my daughter Elyse, step-granddaughter Lailah and myself – celebrating something – who know what – lol.
By the way, about the name of the website, no, it’s not ‘a view from the shore’, since we’re on the boat on Lake Owasso, looking toward the shore, hence, ‘a view of the shore’.
