About

Why are you reading this?

I’ve often asked myself why anyone would pay attention to me.  I have a lot of interests, but I wouldn’t really call myself an expert at anything. I reserve that term for people who do truly amazing things.  I do have some deep pockets of knowledge in a few esoteric subjects like public key cryptography or the instructions on the boot sector of a floppy disk (I can almost sense your eyes glazing over as you read this).

I found out many years ago that people seem to respect honesty, dedication and passion.  If you can package all of those into what you say, people seem to care.  Every once in a while, I have been able to do that.  (I also think that people perceive me as honest because I sometimes look like Richie Cunningham.)

Basically, though, I’m just a normal, everyday guy.  Like everyone else, I spend most of my time sloshing through the muck of life trying to figure out the best way to do this, the easiest way to do that, or how to explain to my daughter that–no matter what the other kids at school tell you–there are no ghosts here, so please go to sleep now.

My “you are here” dot on the map of life

I think that you go through three, maybe four phases in life.  This is not some complicated philosophy, but just my observation based on many people I know.

Early on, you think you know how to do everything, but you’re really just trying a lot of different things and learning in the process.

The next phase is where you finally figure out one or two of the things you are really good at and you do them–usually for a living, but not always.

At some point, you realize that you have actually learned a few things that might be useful to someone else and you spend your time teaching–not necessarily as an academic, but you help the “learners” out there become “doers”.

Sometimes, the rare few may become such experts and have taught others enough to become truly wise.  I don’t know what you do in this phase besides be wise.  Maybe you become a guru of some sort.  Maybe you achieve the equivalent of nirvana in whatever particular subjects you are wise. Whatever it is, I hope to find out some day.

I think I’m in my “doing” phase right now.  I seem to be “doing” an awful lot and learning a lot in the process.  I think I like his phase.  I expect to be here for at least another decade–maybe longer.

How I learn

I love to try new things and learn new skills.  I have spent untold hours cooking recipes that I had never tried before, baking bread, building things with wood, and taking apart other things I’ll never get put back together because I’ve figured out how they work and have moved on to some other interest.

I’ve found that I learn best through a combination of trial and error, some study and, being taught by an expert–in that order.  For example, I tried about twenty different french bread recipes, used different kneading techniques, raising schedules and oven temperatures and humidities.  Then I read about the science behind it to understand why some attempts worked better than others.  Finally, I talked to a friend, whom I consider an expert in French cuisine (yes, he’s French), to teach me what he knows about bread.  And it’s his recipe that I use now.  I still haven’t perfected my bread making, but I’m proud of how much I’ve learned so far.

I think I’m writing this blog because it helps me process and learn whatever it is I’m going through in my life.  My hope is that some of you out there will recognize yourself in some of the things I write, connect and share your own experiences too.  I hope you find some small value here.

What’s in a name?

Del is a nickname.  My real name is Theodore, but I really hate being called “The Beav” or “Alvin the Chipmunk’s brother”.  And even though I had to explain to a slew of perplexed teachers every year that I prefer “Del” instead of Teddy, Ted or Theo; and I’m constantly reminding new acquaintances that it’s “Del with one L–not like the computers”, I’m really glad that my parents gave me this nickname.  It suits me.

Location, location, location.

This is mostly irrelevant, so I’ll just highlight the interesting bits.  I was born in Alabama, but moved to a really small town in western Ohio when I was very young.  A large part of my personality was formed by my “midwest decade”.

Once I moved to Virginia, it took me almost another decade to really call it home even though I think I feel more at home here than anywhere else I have ever visited.  With a few minor exceptions, I’ve spent the better part of the last three decades living on this little peninsula sandwiched between the James River, the York River and the Chesapeake Bay in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

Some great things about this area: I can drive to the nation’s capital, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, or the Blue RIdge Mountains in less than three hours.  I can drive to Virginia Beach or Richmond in less than an hour.  And best of all, I can get fresh Blue Crabs.  Awesome.

What does Del do?

In between spending time with my family, taking some things apart and building other things, I spend a lot of my time working.  I am mostly a serial entrepreneur.  Very rarely have I worked for a company with more than 150 employees.  I have co-founded a couple of companies and really enjoy the lifestyle and the challenge of doing nearly every job in business at least once.  Here’s a short list of some jobs I’ve had: dishwasher, lawn mower, architectural draftsman, basket weaver, bus driver, youth minister, waiter, cook, copy editor, pizza delivery guy, pizza maker, computer software developer, computer hardware designer, sales engineer, IT consultant, various types of managers in the tech-biz–including my current gig as CTO of a B2B eCommerce company.

What else?

If there’s anything else you would like to know feel free to ask.  Just send me an email or contact me here.