U.S. Navy Veteran, currently living in Tokyo and Working in IT--oh and I'm new to SteemIt :)

Hi guys,

First, let me apologize for the bad picture quality... I don't have any new pictures on this pc.

I'd like to introduce myself as one of the new members of the Steemit community .

A little bit about myself:

I grew up in a small town in Alabama (USA), not far from Tuscaloosa--which some say is the college football capital of the U.S. I was never that big into sports, but I loved skateboarding, as a kid. Since I couldn't afford my own board, I got into football and basketball, which is easy and free to play. When I was about 16 years old, however, I tore my ACL, playing football, in my left knee and had to have surgery. This changed everything. Football was a risk that I couldn't take anymore. I played the year after, but I decided from then on to join the military.

There were two main reasons why I wanted to join the military:
First, I wanted a job in IT. My parents bought me and my sisters a computer when I was 10. I loved it. I loved playing computer games, and tinkering inside the box. I wanted to get more into IT, and learn how the networking, hardware, software, etc. worked.

--I chose football, which, after going to practice and recovering from games, takes the majority of your time, on top of trying to keep passing grades. So IT had to be put on the back burner, while I was playing football.

Second, I was in a bad relationship that I wanted to get out of. I’ll leave out the details, but living in a small town, I felt trapped and needed to escape.

The military gave me an opportunity to leave home, on their dime, and leave the bad situation I was in.

I joined the Navy in Summer 2008, and was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as my first assignment, which I volunteered for. There I was a guard for one year-- yes, I guarded the detainees kept there--and after that was over was sent to Atsugi, Japan where I served the remaining years of my obligated 5 as an Aviation Electronics Technician--the job I had originally signed up for.

When I was in Japan, from 2010~2013, I felt the Navy robbed my of a total experience due to the rules and restrictions placed on service members of a certain rank. So, because of that and my girlfriend, now wife, being Japanese, I decided to attend Temple University Japan campus located in Tokyo, Japan.

I had an English teaching job while I was studying in Temple University, which I continued working at for a few months after I graduated. I love to learn and teach, but I hated teaching English. It was mostly because of the business models that most Eikawas (English Conversation Schools) have here in Japan.

So I worked long and hard on getting out of the, almost inescapable, industry.

My breakthrough came earlier this year, when I finally got my chance to work in a data center, as a contractor for a large financial firm here in Japan. However, It was not long until I figured out the grass is not greener on the other side, and changed companies again in August.

Now I work at a different company in the same data center. Things are better now, but I'm now looking forward to the future. I have two kids, and can't see myself working up the corporate ladder here in Japan. I'm looking to entrepreneurship, freelancing, and investing to help propel me away from the dependency on any company for my ability to make a living.

[Update] I now work for Microsoft Japan :)

I started programming in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc. and most recently, AngularJS, last year. I hope to start my own web development/hardware business someday.

My latest obsession has been crypto. I feel like this is what it must have felt like in the 90s with the internet, the printing press, and on and on.... The tech behind this stuff is absolutely amazing, and revolutionary, and I want to be a part of that.

Something quite fortunate is the fact that the company I now work for has Antminers and Avalons in their DC, so I get to see and experience these miners up close, and also troubleshoot them etc.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to reading and checking out you guys' work here, and more from me coming soon :).