Born in Middletown, New York on July 18, 1964, I spent the first three years of my life at my parent's "dude ranch" in Walden, New York, living with my parents, my brother and sister and the 'rest' of the animals typically associated with a ranch or farm. Now that itself is amazing...my parents having a dude ranch, that is, since they both grew up in New York, attended universities in New York City and lived the first part of their adult lives on Long Island. What do city folks know about running a ranch and farm? Apparently it can be done and so, they did.

Even though I was a baby, I still remember much of this place, the woods, the livestock, our strange lineup of personal pets which included horses, a donkey, rabbits, dogs, cats, goats, a turkey that would dive bomb guests in order to steal the cigarettes out of their hand and eat them, birds and probably some other things I don't remember.

We moved twice after that before relocating down to Orlando when I was seven.

I passed the next seven years of my adolescence in northwest Orlando where I spent as much time outdoors as possible, running around the orange groves and swimming in the various lakes, which surrounded my rural property. I was involved in sports during that time including baseball, soccer and karate and rode horses with my older brother, sister and father whenever possible. It was during this time that the first seeds of my computer 'geekness' began to emerge with an incessant urge to role-play Star Trek and the desire to fashion all of the related accouterments like 'phasers' and 'tricorders' and other Star Trek-like items from whatever materials I could find.

There wasn't much else to do out in rural Orange County, so I passed the time throwing oranges at cars, setting things ablaze in fire pits and 55 gallon drums, and playing around with model rocketry, which is still an interest today.

At 14,we moved to a little more urban environment, selling off the horses and the ranch property, and into a quiet neighborhood in northwest Orlando called Westwood. Needless to say, my interest in nailing cars with oranges and pyromania subsided. There, my affinity toward things of a "geeky" nature continued to develop, as did my interest in old cars, to the dismay of my parents who came to loathe the driveway coated with oil stains, and the growing piles of auto parts in the the garage. It was during this time that the first personal computers began to emerge and I was there to valiantly greet them. I gained an affinity for another field of study at that time, foreign languages.

Over the course of the next 5 years, I studied Spanish, French, German, Russian and even for a brief time, American Sign Language. These languages helped me when I began to work at Walt Disney World bussing tables at the Crystal Palace Restaurant in 1981. For fun during that time, I was an assistant soccer coach and helped teach Kempo Karate at a local martial arts studio. I also had my first and last run-in with the law for stealing produce from a Publix loading dock, which was staked out by the Orange County Sheriff's department at the time. A stern talking to by my father and 80 hours of community service set me back on the 'straight and narrow' path.

The following year, I transferred to the newly announced Disney theme park, Epcot Center working for a short-lived department called "The World Key Network" which was a multi-lingual information center for guests and the general public. It was when this department merged with Disney's Guest Relations department that I met my future bride, Aracelis, in 1985.

After high school, I attended the University of Central Florida for a year. Realizing that I wasn't ready for the full University experience, I transferred to Valencia Community College where I obtained his A.A. degree in 1986. Throughout my high school and college years, I wrote for my respective newspaper staffs as a reporter and even became a paid staff member while at UCF.

I continued my career at Disney, eventually moving into the Ticket Mail Order department and then into the Information Services division where I worked at the Customer Service Desk, which was the company-wide computer help desk that supported Disney's east-coast operations.

Over the next few years, I had less and less time for restoring old Chevrolet Corvairs, so I sold off my 'fleet' which pleased my parents very much. My relationship with Aracelis continued to blossom and in 1988, I studied and received my Florida Real Estate License. I purchased my home the following year and it was this 6-month purchase process that had so many problems that caused me to abandon the idea of real estate as a career. The Disney job was going well at the time, so I decided to continue my technical career and advanced into the PC/LAN support department where I helped maintain the wide expanse of Disney's corporate and theme-park computer networks until 1995.

I married my long-time love, Aracelis in April of 1994 in a Wiccan hand-fasting ceremony, which was attended by both of our parents and a large number of friends at Dixon-Azalea park in downtown Orlando. One year later, on my birthday in 1995, I gave myself the best present ever. I left Disney to start my own consulting business and follow in my parents’ footsteps of being self-employed. My first client was, ironically, the Disney company, who provided most of my work for the next several years. My last day as a Disney cast member was a Friday and I returned as a consultant the following Monday.

My wife moved on, in the mean time, to provide clerical support for the Disney MGM Studios Main Entrance, and Event Productions departments, and eventually, Disney's Animal Kingdom Horticulture. The real test of my mettle, however, was in 1997 when my wife decided to pursue her goals of becoming a zookeeper and moved to Gainesville for two years to study as part of Santa Fe Community College's Zoo Animal Technology program.