I began learning to program computers way back in 1981 in High School. The Data Processing teacher took pity on a young 9th grader and let me borrow time on the county's HP 2000 to teach myself BASIC. That experience grew into a passion for software development that has never waned. 

Though my early career took a 10-year detour, I finally began writing software professionally in 1995. I've been doing that ever since.