FAQs

Since as far back as I can remember, I had been using technology, such as my beloved "Leapfrog Leapster", to not only entertain myself, but to learn valuable skills that I can apply in my own life. As I grew older, I began to notice the value that technology could add to any system, especially a business. Since this realization I have committed to learning everything I can about the history of technology and its implementations in business, as well as my personal life. 

I have a white board hanging in my room that I put quotes on from people I try to emulate. The list includes quotes from Alan Turing, Jocko Willink, George Hotz, and others.

A more personal inspiration is my grandfather, John William Griffin Theiring. He passed away from unknown circumstances in 1977 when my father was 10. He was an engineer who worked for the federal government. There are lots of family theories about what he was working on and could have passed away from but many of the answers to these questions are unknown. What we do know is he would frequently work on projects at home related to electronics, such as automated Christmas tree lights in the 1960s!

I started playing football when I was in the fifth grade. My dad attended the high school that I would later attend, St. Francis, and would consistently bring me as a baby to Friday night football games. I grew up dreaming of playing on the field that I had watched so many games on. I wasn't the best player and had to work hard to earn a starting spot my senior year, which I successfully did. 

During the 2nd quarter of the first game my senior season, I tore the ACL, MCL, and meniscus of my left leg. This threw off all sense of normalcy in my life and induced a sort of identity crisis. I gained almost 100lbs during the recovery process, my at the time cheerleader girlfriend of two years broke up with me, and in general it felt as if everything I had worked hard for and cared about was gone in an instant, due to something I felt was completely out of my control.

At first I didn't, my self pity followed me into my first year of community college. I made no changes to my mentality and that was reflected in my poor academic performance and social isolation. After this first year, I had an awakening as to the path I was headed down and realized I needed to make changes. I transferred to a community college closer to home for my second year and joined their football team. I invested significantly more time into academics and my grades reflected that. Between my first and second year at the new college, I had lost all the weight I gained post injury and then some. I was elected one of four team captains my second year and even accomplished a football goal I never thought I would of catching a touchdown pass in a game.

90% of the time I'm listening to music, it's my classic rock playlist. Lots of Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, but my all-time favorite band by far is RUSH. 

Also my dad's favorite band, if my dad was driving, Rush was playing. It was forced at first, but as I got older, and started listening more attentively, I identified with the mathematical approach rush took to composing music, and the Space-Opera-esque topics Neil Peart would write about.

The other 10% of the time you'd likely find me listening to either my guitar adjacent hip-hop playlist, classical music from composers such as Claude Debussy and Niccolò Paganini, or country.

I don't watch any TV, I don't watch anything on streaming services like Netflix. I am almost solely entertained by YouTube videos. I loooooove YouTube. My feed consists mostly of science and technology related videos from channels such as Linus Tech tips, Lex Fridman, GamersNexus, Paul's Hardware, and more. I also enjoy legal history and analysis videos from channels like LegalEagle and CLR Bruce Rivers.

I enjoy reading when I find a book I'm interested in, however I read less than I would like to. I recently finished "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky and I am currently reading "Fundamentals of Music Processing" by Meinard Müller

I frequently enjoy videogames throughout the evening. Most of the time I'm playing Chess, Minecraft, Rocket League, or Sea of Thieves with friends.

I think a lot of the shortcomings of my leadership capabilities during my second year at Glendale College.

We finished the season with a record of 2-8, the worst record of a team I've ever been a part of. 

There were many reasons for this, chief among them was the lack of communication and understanding between coaches and players. This was where I was supposed to contribute.

I had the respect of the players and coaching staff, but I did not use and command respect as often as I should have. I felt the culture of the team slipping game after game, even though I was putting in effort to correct this, I was not as direct as I could have been and can't help feeling like I could have been a significantly more effective leader.

I feel a good deal of responsibility for the poor season we had.

Easy, Minecraft. For most of my younger years, the best gift I would receive for birthdays or Christmas was a Lego set. I loved to build Legos from sets, as well as on the fly from my giant cemetery of previous Lego sets. 

Around the 6th grade my friend told me about a game called Minecraft. My parents refused to buy the $15 game, but luckily that same friend let me use his login, and so it began. 

Minecraft was like infinite virtual Legos and I became obsessed. I used to wake up at 6:00am to get an hour of Minecraft in before school.

I now run my own server for friends and family and play to this day. It is a great creative outlet, as well as a tool I've used to plan out projects like when I rebuilt my closet 1 to 1 in Minecraft to reorganize it. This game was also a great introduction to the cartesian coordinate system, which benefited me when I began 3D printing.