Teq's Website
I was born in Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando. Before I could even read I was already playing on the computer.
In 2004 I read about Neopets in a Disney Adventures magazine, especially intrigued by their free Adobe Flash games. Some of their puzzles even encouraged the player to start peeking into HTML.
Around that time I purchased a Game Boy Advance and started buying used cartridges from GameStop's glass display. Strategy games like Mega Man Battle Network kept me hooked, and their scavenger hunts pulled me onto discussion forums like GameFAQs.
By the time I was a teenager I had become rather comfortable on the internet, spending hours in MSN Messenger and Xfire playing Maple Story and Gunz: The Duel with friends. I was born after Eternal September, but I still have a Usenet subscription today.
In 2012 I started attending Seminole State College, initially as a dual-enrollment high school student, and got involved in student life at the Lake Mary campus as much as I could: intramural soccer, the Environmental Awareness club, and the Grindle Honor Institute, which graciously afforded me the opportunity to work closely with some of the school's best faculty. I served on the Student Government Association as Secretary and Treasurer. I really treasure my experiences at this school.
I enrolled in a Bachelor's program for Information Systems Technology and earned my degree in 2017, along with an Honors Science Diploma. The program covered a broad range of programming languages, operating systems, and network devices, with a smaller set of business management credits. I walked at the University of Central Florida's arena for commencement.
I spent some time at Charter Communications (now Spectrum, formerly Bright House), where I got familiar with last-mile telecommunications, including DOCSIS 3.1 modems, the Wi-Fi routers we provided alongside them, and traditional landline support. I often ended up debugging UX issues across their websites and mobile apps too, with a technology cart of test iPhones, iPads, and Android tablets parked at my cubicle.
In 2019 I found a home at CentralSquare Technologies, who build software for cities and counties. I served as a systems administrator for their cloud sites and as a subject matter expert for our public administration software, operating our IBMi multi-tenant systems, writing internal tools for automation, debugging CL and RPG code, and modernizing our web interfaces. I personally transitioned many clients from their 5250 terminal emulator green screens to our Javascript-based interfaces.
In 2025 I was picked up by Stelo, a software provider for database replication. My primary responsibility is DevOps engineering, including CI/CD for our largely Java and C++ codebases. I'm also heavily involved with landing new prospects by performing demos and scaffolding new features. My work puts me between a lot of popular databases as well as plenty of more exotic ones.
In my personal time I like to keep busy with hobby projects. I've enjoyed making little demos with Godot, as well as Unreal, Unity, and Bevy. My preferred language for new projects is typically Rust. I also enjoy getting outside and taking walks to nearby locations.
I like scrambled eggs, coffee with four sugars and mocha creamer, medium-well steak, pizza with pineapple, white rice, pinto beans, strawberry shakes, bowls of cereal, baked chicken breasts, sweet BBQ sauce, spaghetti, chili, and greek yogurt.
I love watching television and movies, and connecting with others about them. Star Trek has always had a dear spot in my heart since my father, who grew up watching TOS, introduced me to TNG. You can often catch me rewatching episodes of DS9 or Voyager. I enjoy a lot of comedy sitcoms as well as the occasional dramatic fiction.
I have strong convictions about modern progressivism. I want to mitigate income inequality through stronger unions and a higher minimum wage. I desire Wall Street regulation that would prevent another 2008 financial crisis, health care reform toward a single-payer system, serious environmental policy to combat climate change, and criminal justice reform that ends the war on drugs.
I like to make contributions to open-source software and help build healthy online communities where I can. If you're interested in keeping in touch or learning more, you can find me on any of the social links below.