introduction: first-person Q&A

Q: You know what? I don't really like on-line resumes.
Although that's technically not a question, I have a succinct version of this available for download.
In any event, this was never intended to serve as a real resume site anyway. I mean, really: "Please Hire Kent (dot) com"? Really?

Q: Core strengths?
I seem to get off on responsibility, and love accountability. It's a happy daddy thing or something. I positively revel in the fact that the most important job I'll ever have is to raise my boys into good men. It's through that lens that I view the world and pretty much all that I do. I'm setting precedent.

Drop me into a culture stunned by growth and bereft of foundational process, empower me to effect change, and I will positively beam.

World-famous people skills - the kind of person who strikes up engaging conversations with wait staff, check out clerks, and fellow grocers. See all those people out there? Those strangers? I'm the guy who views them as potential pals.

Q: Are you smart?
Computer and Internetworking savvy, I was a CS major who first learned this nerd stuff back in the mid 1980's while in the military (remember the USSR?). Thanks to a decade in manufacturing environments, I really get operational efficiencies, particularly how they encourage fiscal predictibility and positive growth.

Q: *YAWN* You're boring me. Aren't you just another geek programmer?
Well, look. I'm the first to admit to being a nerd. I mean...I read science fiction. Really: just look at the photo. Total geek.

I used Notepad to create this web site, leveraging a stylesheet and layout created for another domain. Total development time: one to two hours.

I have this thing about the value of using just enough resources to achieve an appropriate level of quality. Too little, and we end up looking bad. But too much, and we waste time. After all: I'm not up here trolling for a job doing web design. In fact, I'm not sure if I correctly terminated all those td's and tr's. Tables are hard!

Q: Wait. When do you know when you've done enough?
Many times good business decisions leverage solid financial assessments of priorities, drawing from data collected via well-instrumented metrics correlating to real contributions to the bottom line.

Q: Dude. I don't even know what the hell you just said.
Well, business is simple, but not easy: revenue minus costs equals profits.

Thus, effort on any given task had better earn or save more money than it cost, else the entire experience was unprofitable. Still with me, or shall I pull out my feltboard?

In this case, I never expect to actually get a job via an on-line resume. All other professional ventures were gained through personal contacts. Thus: a one-two hour investment of time into an on-line location where people can reference for discussion purposes. Well, and it's sort of funny. Isn't it?


Q: If I opened a door and saw you sitting there, as you are in that weird photo, I'd probably shoot a photo with my cell phone and lampoon your ass all over the Internet.
HA! Beat you to it!

My boys caught an opossum, named it Jethro. I asked them: "Boys, how did you capture him?" and they said "it was easy: we just jumped and yelled around him until he got stiff, then we pushed him into a box with as stick." Huh. That's a pretty sweet idea.

Anyway.

Asked what they intended to do with "Jethro the menthol eating ferret," they replied with an intention to charge viewing fees outside the neighborhood New Seasons. They earned like $8. It was awesome. Until now these kinds of photos have only ever been used for self-effacing entertainment purposes.

personal profile and contact information

Residence:
North Portland, Oregon (USA)

Date of Birth:
July 18, 1967

Status:
Happily married to the best girl, proud dad of two awesome boys, (8 and 11 years old), and a baby daughter, due to be born in December, 2009.

Hobby:
Breeding, feeding offspring, and reading, when time allows.

I am no longer (publicly) involved in grass roots municipal skatepark advocacy. Whew! I paid my dues! But I do enjoy participating periodically with SPS, the IASC, and the Tony Hawk Foundation. So I guess that means I am actually still publicly involved in skatepark advocacy. Darn.


Contact:
You can best contact me via Email at the following email address: