My interest in technology can probably be traced back to around age 6, when I nailed a pair of movie reels to a wooden box, connected them with a rubber band, and declared I had a computer! It took another 8 years or so before I got my hands on real "technology" when my dad took me to a surplus shop and we came home with some solenoid-driven rotary switches and a board of toggles and indicators. My mom taught me how to solder, and the next thing you know, I had built a signaling system for our model train layout using a check-in/out system using trackside contacts. After a year or so, I discovered 7400-series TTL and replaced the relays with digital logic and new-fangled LEDs, and my interests moved from trains to electronics, and ultimately computers.

By 1979 I was working for IBM, servicing mainframe computers and peripherals, but my heart was in small-systems. I left IBM for my own business for almost 16 years, providing small-business consulting and integration services. In 2001, I returned to the corporate world, working for the Federal Reserve, Liberty Travel, CIT Group, and finally returning to the small-business world as a NOC Manager for Baroan Technologies - an MSP in Elmwood Park. The automation solutions that I developed for them were so powerful and flexible that we turned that into a separate business, and - once again - I'm an owner in a technology business called MSP Builder. 

In all the intervening years, I never lost interest in Model Railroading, and have amassed a collection of HO-scale cars, engines, and structures - some of which actually see the light of day on a small layout. Another interest that developed would shock my high school wood-shop teacher (who would likely only remember me for an absolutely pitiful shop project) is woodworking. I've assembled a fairly adequate shop and have created several projects, including custom kitchen cabinets, moldings, and display cases.