Who Am I?

	Name	Douglas
	Age	40s
	Location	Grand Rapids, MI
	Gender	Cis-male
	Anything Else?	I'll add it when I think of it!

Who Am I?

Greetings and salutations. My name is Douglas and I am the writer of this website. I am in my mid-40s, married with three children, and currently reside near Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have called Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Texas and Oregon my home at points in my life. I am a toddler wrangler and diaper technician (a.k.a.: stay at home dad), a fan of all things tech, self-taught computer programmer, an amateur photographer, fanatic about sports, and a gamer. I am a super ultra lefty, an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, and a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. I am also an advocate of the Personal Web (Web 1.0).

My Life on the Internet

I have been using the Information Super Highway (laser sounds intensify!) in one form or another since 1996. After learning basic HTML, I created personal websites on Geocities, Angelfire, and Tripod. I feel that those were the best days of the internet, before the corporate take over. You can find out more on my thoughts over on my Web 1.0 essay.

Why "Shacks"?

I have ADHD and a tendency to jump from one thing to another. I have a lot of interests and I like to share them. I have a lot of ideas and I frequently start one thing and then move to another. I used to leave behind a lot of unfinished projects. I have decided to embrace this part of me and call my projects "shacks". I have a lot of shacks. You will find more and more placed here as time goes on.

I have more about my "shacks" over at Doug's Shack - A Celebration of Diverse Interests.

Programming

I got a late start in life with computers. My parents didn’t own a computer until I was already in my early 20s. My first taste of programming was learning to use Javascript with HTML on my Sega Dreamcast’s browser back in 1999. From there, I taught myself Perl and PHP. Once I had my hands on a computer, I began to learn languages like C, C++, C#, R, Java, Visual BASIC, and probably a few more I can’t remember right now.

Gaming

Although I don’t get to play as much as I used to, I still consider myself a gamer. I have owned almost every mainstream game console to come out since the Atari 2600. I have owned – in addition to said Atari – the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, and the PlayStation 5.

My favorite genres are strategy, role-playing, simulation, and sports.

Sports

Let me tell you this first and foremost: I am terrible at sports. I was not gifted with the talent of coordination. However, I do love sports. I will watch any athletic endeavor. My favorite sports are the entire football family (Association Football, Rugby Union, Rugby League, American and Canadian Football, Gaelic Football, and Australian Football) and baseball. My favorite teams are: