Who are you?
My “day job” is that of Patrol Sergeant for a municipal police department in South Florida.  I’ve been a police officer since 1998 and have worked for three agencies.  My present department, one that will be my “home” until retirement, has had me in its employ since January 2003.  I was promoted to Sergeant on April 30th, 2008.

I’ve been married to my beautiful wife Leslie since February 4th, 2006 (02-04-06).  We’ve been together since 2002, when we were introduced by a mutual acquaintance at a shift party put on by the guys I worked with.  We hit it off that night and have shared many nights of laughter ever since.  She’s a great girl who supports my racing hobby (addiction) and puts up with more than anyone should at times (crazy hours at work, expensive hobbies, etc.). 

We have a German Shepherd-Doberman mutt named Apollo who was born on Valentine’s Day, 1998.  He is downright the smartest dog I have ever known, and his personality is absolutely amazing.  He’s a great protector, but very affectionate, and he adores his Daddy.  We actually upgraded to a king-sized bed to make more room for the little guy to sleep with us.  Even at ten years old, he’s active and (knock on wood) very healthy.  He loves running after the Frisbee and man can he jump and catch it!

Where are you?
I currently live and work in South Florida.  It's a beautiful place, but it's nothing like Brooklyn, New York where I was born and raised.

How did you get started developing websites?
I started toying with web code in December, 2001.  I was one month into wearing a cervical halo after discovering that I had severe cervical spine damage.  In a nutshell, C2 was broken, and C1 was subluxated enough that there was already damage to my spinal cord.  Without immediate surgery, I was taking my chances with a glass neck.  A minor slip and fall was all it would take to leave me in one of two conditions: quadriplegic or dead.   

During my post-operative recovery, I had many pain killer-saturated late nights in front of the computer.  Having always had a talent with a pencil and paper, I learned that I could create some really cool things digitally as well.  I played with basic HTML, created some rather lousy websites on some of the free servers, and just kept at it. 

Fast forward a couple of years.  I developed an adequate skill set to start creating websites for other people.  I solicited a few businesses and offered to build their site for free to establish a portfolio.  Some grabbed the chance and some shrugged me off.  I designed a couple of sites, nothing too crazy, and picked up a few more skills along the way.

I began trading my services for parts for my race car, and that worked out rather well for me, too.  It was advantageous to everyone involved on those deals.  The shop owners gave me parts that cost them far less than what the site would have cost them, but that were far more expensive than I would have charged. 

Nowadays, I offer my services for very competitive rates because I'm a working man myself.  I know how hard it is to part with a few hundred bucks, especially in a time when gas for our daily drivers costs the same as the gas for our race cars did just one year ago.   I even still consider bartering services for parts as well, so if you’ve got some cool stuff…