Gregory Darnell

My Free Time

I guess my first love is art. I can't remember a time when I wasn't sketching or drawing something. I like taking photos too. I used to shoot 35MM, but since 1999, I capture digital images. I have over 20,000 pictures on my computer, but don't have the time to sit down and view them all. Next woud be dogs. I love dogs like most people love babies. They are so loyal, genuine and raw. Plus when I am at the park, they are chick magnets, haha! But seriously, our pets enrich our lives. Music is very important and influential to me. I have been to over 100 concerts. I play guitar ( try to anyway!), write lyrics, and listen to music regularly. Mostly classic rock, but I like jazz, country, and classical too. Finally, I love sports. My favorites are mountain biking, snowboarding, and disc golf.

My Career

I began working in the computers field in 1990, as much new technology was emerging. I soon became a "techie". There is so much more to being a technician than merely fixing computers or reloading some software. It requires a passion beyond most people's understanding. I got into computers because of my dad. He was a programmer/systems engineer, and had very sophisticated skills in all areas of the microcomputer and electronics. He was building hobby kit computers before the IBM PC launched in 1981. In the beginning, there wasn't a lot to do with personal computers, so we tinkered. Then when windows came along, we began to acquire a little power. We felt like we had a bit of control. Processors started getting faster and smaller in months rather than years. Memory expanded and got cheaper, but most important, at least at the time, was that screen resolution was rapidly improving.

As we started to understand computers as a society, networks were being formed to connect groups of computers, and that is where the dawn of mutlitasking took place. As bulletin boards were being used to communicate via modem, the World Wide Web was being formed. A new language called HTML would be used to upload, view, interact, and download content from the internet. When computers became useful in the business world, everything began to change. People started looking at computers as a necessity rather than just a fancy box that sat in the corner. So now that the web was up and working, our world transfixed itself into a completely different system. The global econom