Who Is James? I debated about just what to put on this page. I couldn't decide if I wanted just professional information, personal information, or both. I opted to do a mix and just lay it all out there. You may or may not agree with some of my views, but hey - live and let live. :) I was born in Akron, Ohio in 1969 and my parents moved to Omaha, Nebraska when I was just 1 year old. I've lived in Nebraska ever since. When I was younger, I really wanted to move out of the state. Now that I'm older, I've come to appreciate Nebraska a LOT, and I plan on staying until my bones get too old for the winters. I live in Papillion, Nebraska, which is outside of Omaha. CNN/Money Magazine rated it the 23rd best place to live. We're right outside of Omaha, which just got rated the 7th best Big City to live in. Yeah, it surprised me too! Really though, it's great. Affordable housing, good schools, low crime - Papillion is fantastic! I'm married and I have two children, two dogs, three snakes, a gecko and probably some other critter I'm forgetting about at the moment. I tend to keep my private life private, so you won't hear me speak about my family much here, but they are EVERYTHNG to me. Life is good! I graduated from Ralston High School mid-term of 1988. It only took me about 14 years to finish my bachelor's degree after that. I'm currently working on my MBA. I'm not sure why, I think I'm mental. Scratch that, I KNOW I'm mental, but punishing myself with more "higher" education really has little to do with it. I love to better myself and enjoy learning, so I guess that's what drives the insanity. I am Vice President of Tigerpaw Software. Tigerpaw is family owned and I'm one of the family members. We currently have about 32 employees and we're looking to add a few more. I'm responsible for the development, support, and training at Tigerpaw. We produce an award-winning Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution. We have about 10,000 users on our current version and we're in 28 countries. I have a fantastic team, and I really do enjoy my work. I also write books, but I do that in the evenings in my 'spare' time. Writing was much easier before I had a family, so I tend to avoid new book projects these days. I still revise my most popular titles, so I'm usually working on a few books every year and a half or so. I've taught at the college level, but I have no desire to do that again. I've also been asked to write some articles for DevX and some magazines, which I might do.  My free time is very limited right now and I've learned to prioritize my life a bit better than I used to - I'd much rather be playing guitar than writing technical articles! :) Let's see, I've been a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer but I no longer keep that certification current. I got burned out on certification when I wrote the MCSD In a Nutshell book for O'Reilly. I have a black belt in Wado Ryu Karate. I've flown solo in an airplane (that was my first college major), and I'm a member of Mensa. Hmm, I also cleaned fish tanks for a living when I was younger, but I prefer not to talk about those dark times! I used to consider myself an Atheist but a better description would be secular humanist. Some of my best friends are very religious, however (I'm in Nebraska for god's sake), but it's amazing how we don't allow our fundamental religious beliefs get in the way of our friendship. I've been a registered Independent all my life, I think George W. has the gray-matter of a trained chimp, and I'm convinced our politcal process is broken. I'm a strong supporter of the legalization of marijuana, I'm a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and I write my senators and congressmen at least a half-dozen times a year on numerous issues regarding civil liberties and abuses of power. I love to play guitar and collect vintage guitar gear. This is a borderline obsession for me. One of my good friends Matt owns a guitar store called D-Rocks Music not more than 3 minutes from my house. It's like being a crack-head with a dealer down the street. It's dangerous! I also love modifying guitar effects and guitars themselves. I love tube amps. I love guitars. Did I mention I love guitars and all things guitar related? Well I do... Speaking of dangerous, I enjoy sport-shooting, archery, and I'm into white tail deer hunting. I also enjoy fishing. I recently got back from a fishing trip in Canada and I'm totally hooked on pike fishing. Ouch, did I really just say that? My son, who is 8, has been deer hunting with me since he was 6 (this will be his third season) and I recently taught him how to shoot for the first time. The kid is a natural! By the time he's old enough to hunt he'll be incredible. I better keep practicing! My daughter isn't interested in hunting yet, but she's younger, so there's still time - we'll see. She's got a lot of her mom in her (which is a good thing). I developed this entire site using Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET. I had a little help when I got stuck, but I'd say I developed 98% of everything here - including the images and animations. After reading this page, you'll probably notice that the web site content mirrors many of my interests. The only real purpose of this site is to provide code samples for readers of my books and some discussion forums for people to discuss my books. Everything beyond that is just about having fun for me. If you've got any suggestions for improving the site, please let me know. I think that about sums it up. The Omaha World Herald did an article on me a number of years back. You can read it here. I was also a fortunate recipient of the Midland's Business Journal 40 under 40 award, which you can read about here. Please excuse the picture - I've lost 21 pounds since then! :) If I can think of anything to add and I can overcome my laziness, I'll provide more more information. Until then, feel free to shoot me an email and introduce yourself - I'd love to hear from you! j