Saturday night we were invited over to our neighbor’s apartment for a dinner get together along with another couple. My wife and I had a great time, there was some seriously good food happening - gourmet sausages and the best apple pie that I’ve had in a long time (I might be lynched by my family for that one seeing as they OWN a bakery). Ok, this post isn’t about my obesity…

One of the other guys at the dinner works for a local contractor as their in house web developer. We spent a good portion of the night talking about our latest projects, favorite languages and techniques, and things we’d like to learn. Alas, we had to tone it down due to the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the others.

Talking about what I do with someone else who is equally as passionate gets me giddy (yes, like a school boy). Luckily for me (and for my wife) I have my partner in crime, Charles, to yammer with for the majority of the time, but it’s always great meeting new people like this.

As a warning for those of you whom I cross paths with; If you’re wanting to engage me with talk about something I have anything less than a monumental interest in, try not to expect anything more than vapid chatter. I struggle with maintaining small talk (and most social interactions for that matter), but my wife is working on me, God bless her.

My wife and I get along well, we’re best friends, but we definitely have our disagreements. One of the major parting of ways is my love affair with video games. I’ve grown up as a gamer owning most major systems since Atari, along with playing many of the original DOS games. My cousin and I have some of our fondest memories from playing games together, it’s always been our main connecting point.

The argument she likes to throw out is how I should have grown out of this by now. Obviously I disagree, and I’ve heard that the average gamer age is somewhere in the mid-thirties. However, even I was a bit surprised to read an article on Ars Technica about the demographic of gamers.

One of the biggest misconceptions about games is that they’re the domain of adolescent boys. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average age of gamers is now 35. Approximately 60 percent of gamers play video games with their friends, 40 percent of gamers in the US are women, and almost a quarter of all video game players are over the age of fifty.

Did you catch that? 40 effing percent of gamers are women! Later in the article it states that there are more women gamers over the age of 18 then there are male gamers under the age of 18.

So, confident with my new knowledge that I was ready to drop in front of my wife for a little statistical smack-down; blindsided, she caught me with a left hook…

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean they’re cool.”

Someone have any material to help with me that one?

So, in an attempt to give you a quick overview of who I am and what this blog is going to be about I shall do my best to not duplicate my ‘About’ page. This is my first real shot at a blog, I really never thought I’d have the interest in doing one but then again I never thought I’d get a twitter account either. After setting my wife up with her own blog and seeing how much she enjoyed interacting with people, I’ve finally decided to follow suit.

Ok, so what’s it about?

There are 5 things that I am interested in at the moment and I will more than likely post something about each of them.

• Family
• Web Development
• General technology
• Mountain biking
• Gaming

Family

I have been married to my wife, Morgan (22), for almost 2 years (in September). We recently found out that we’re having a girl, Madelyn Jo, who is due at the end of November, and the two of us are highly stoked. I come from a large-ish family of 2 parents and 3 younger sisters and a large extended family.

Web Development

I run a web development company called Element Web Media with my business partner, Charles. I have been officially working in this arena for 5 years now, and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I am going to focus much of my writing on this subject (PHP, Javascript (jQuery), CSS, (X)HTML and XML). I will probably talk some about design, however, I’ve never considered it one of my strong points so don’t expect much.

General Technology

I’m very much a geek and proud of it. I love doing things like specing/building computers, reading tech sites like Engadget and Ars Technica, talking about how awesome Android is going to be, etc.

Mountain Biking

MTB’ing is something that I’ve gotten into recently. When I found out that my Dad and Uncle had started and from hearing how much fun it was I jumped in and bought a bike. I have to say it is a total blast, everyone that goes with us for the first time is hooked (we have about 9 people right now). I started with the hopes of losing some weight but have only traded some fat for muscle (fine by me). We frequent the Sky Harbor and Squaw Leap areas.

Gaming

Gaming is what originally got me into computers, and I’ve been into it since the ripe old age of 7. I remember playing Police Quest 1 on my dad’s 286 trying to get to the “driving part”. I generally stick to my Xbox 360 as of late, but I have a fondness for MMO’s. There is someone who does not think highly of this particular hobby, and she, my wife, shall remain nameless.

Well that does it for my “short” intro. Hopefully one of the items peaks your interest enough to hit the subscribe link.