My Name

It's 1999. After deciding, in 1997, that I did not, in fact, want to be a clinical psychologist, I needed to figure out a new direction for my professional life.

I spent 2 years learning network and systems administration, and worked in a couple of jobs in that area of computing from '97 to '99. Then I discovered programming. It was love at first site. (This was the late '90s, after all, so Internet programming was all the rage. Thus, the pun.)

I interviewed with fresh ground software, in downtown Los Angeles. The 2 co-founders looked at me--I, in my wanna-be-psychologist double-breasted suit, they in their shorts and t-shirts and flip flops (I was totally jealous!)--and said, "You seem smart and hard-working. Your education is useless to us, but here, read these programming books, change your clothes, and then you're hired."

"Oh, and, everyone here has nicknames, so from now on, your name is Sigmund."

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This is the short version. The longer version is coming soon. Stay tuned.