Well, where do I start?

I'm 29 and a Male residing in the Hutt Valley outside of Wellington, New Zealand as of January 2006. Prior to that I was a full time resident in Auckland.... after this long I ame somewhat adjusted! NZ, for those of you who don't know (!) is a nation of 4,100,000-odd people located to the southeast of Australia and south of Fiji. Auckland is the largest city and is located at the ithsmus (narrow land bridge) towards the top of the North Island. The Hutt Valley is on the periphery of Wellington (the Capital) and is found on the harbour at the southern tip of the North Island. The sharp-eyed amongst you will notice that I was once in Lower Hutt... January 2007 saw us move north, to Upper Hutt.

For the last five years or so i've been working for the NZ Defence Force as a Network Engineer (3 yrs) and as a Network Design Engineer (2yrs). I guess that makes me well and truly an Engineer, though I spent 5 years prior working in IT support and helpdesk environments for a whole bunch of different outfits, which taints my view of the world somewhat...

I've spent time working for Xtra and then Telecom New Zealand, who own Xtra, as well as Quicksilver Internet and CallPlus (who are better known as the back-end of Slingshot). I also spent some time working as a hands-on IT Support guy, both for an engineering firm and for a large tertiary campus.

Having spent those five years working predominantly on the other end of a phone, but having also had hands-on experience, I was very keen to move into a more hands-on, engineering type role. I started getting interested in Linux and working to build my skills in a practical sense, learning how to configure and administer servers for web, mail, DNS and so-on. My knowledge in these areas had been built up over the years of helpdesk work (etc) but getting hands-on, engineering level experience was important. As I worked my way upwards through the various tiers of tech support these skills slowly built up and (with thanks to a couple of key friends) I eventually 'colocated' a server of my own. (Guess where this website is hosted?)

Eventually I wound up at a fork in the road; Systems Administrator or Network Engineer. So though I mainly deal with networking these days (IP, Routing, Switching, VPNs and Security Appliances) I maintain some knowledge in the systems world, which I keep up to date by administering my own servers and systems. My background in the helpdesk world makes me fairly sympathetic to the plight of those with that thankless task - and to end-users who struggle to get decent support.

The other major aspect of my life is of course, at home. I have lived with my wife Liz (known as wyldangel to some) for some 8 years - we got married in early 2008. We share our family home with our daughter Laura (born 2005) and our son Ben (born 2009). I'm slowly adapting to the fact that in 2010, I turn 30... i'm a Husband, Father, and contributor to my community and to society as a whole. Whoa.

Liz my lovely wife, is a challenge to my wit and intelligence (a PhD will do that, esp in the field concerned!) and we had been friends, and then partners, for many years prior to our engagement.

Special recognition here for our good friend David (dpa) who helps keep blakjak.net and its various bits and pieces ticking over. We met David up in Auckland; he moved to Wellington not long after we did and has certainly landed on his feet, with a good job and a lovely ladyperson to keep him company. In truth he's the brains behind most of BlakJak.net's innovations and I have him to thank for a lot of what I've learnt along the way.
Daveland would have more info, if he'd keep it up to date!

My interests include but are not limited to:

• Motorsport. Rallying in particular, I assisted with The WRC Rally of New Zealand for the period 2000-2005, via Amateur Radio and its AREC component.
  
• Amateur Radio. I've had my callsign ZL1VMF since I was 16, and find that its quite a useful hobby. I've talked to Space Stations as well as Amateurs from all parts of the world. I volunteer with the AREC who provide communications expertise for emergencies in a volunteer capacity. Check out the NZART Website (Linked in my links section) for more information about 'Ham' radio and how to get involved. Beyond YANZ, i'm currently serving on the committee of the Wellington VHF Group and currently hold the position of Webmaster , and served a term as secretary.
  
• Internet and IRC. I've been on the Undernet IRC Network for many years and help in a volunteer capacity with the #ZT project, as well as the Undernet User-Committee #Class project (I have stepped down from #class due to my inability to committ to the time the classes run, which is around Midday Saturdays NZT. If they ever run a class in an evening slot for NZ'rs then i'll be in with a grin...). #ZT deals with IRC And Channel abuse, with an aim to deal with abusers and educate users in how to protect themselves and their channels. #Class teaches about Undernet and how to do various basic IRC things in a classroom type scripted session with Q&A. For information refer to The User-Com Website. A link for the new-and-improved #ZT website is a work in progress.
  
• The other thing that I do is provide webhosting, DNS and Email services for friends and clients alike, usually in return for a donation toward hosting charges. The server was initially set up as an attempt to help learn the finer points of server and service management, and has evolved into the server you're talking to right now. I'm still learning. :) Services.blakjak.net has more info.
  
• Emergency Services. I've been a volunteer Fire Policeman since the early 2000's and consider this to be a great way to serve my community. I'm a currently a member of the Hutt Valley Fire Police. Fire Police derive special legal powers from the Fire Service Act, and using those powers the HVFP help out the Hutt District Fire Service and Police at emergency scenes. A website for the unit is now online, and can be found at hvfp.org.nz - I'm the webmaster for this one also.
  

So, welcome to my site. I intend to post up here with my occaisional rants, raves and generally anything I feel like venting / feel will benefit or amuse the general web public.

Oh and as a random thing, remember Geek Code? Heres mine:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCC/IT d-(+) s: a- C++ UL+ P+ L++ E-- W++ N+ o-- K- w M+
PS+ Y+ PGP- t+ 5+ X+ R- tv+ b+ DI++ D++ G e+ h---- r++ z+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

So there we go. Enjoy!
If you want to get hold of me, hit the Contact form above.

A final point, to be absolutely clear: any comments posted on this site should be considered the personal opinions of the Author (unless otherwise stated). I do not pretend to represent any company or organisation that I may be associated with, or have been previously associated with.