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Hello. My name is Justin. I live in Central Texas between Austin and San Antonio and I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else. You can't beat the weather, the culture or the uniqueness of this place.
I started this blog recently after a long time of thinking of the idea. We're far from complete here, as no webpage ever should be "done". I'll be building it out over time with more links and pages but primarily, at this point, this is my blog. A blog is a place for me to share my ideas and observations and write about topics that reflect some of my passions. Passions such as technology, economics, business process, management, marketing, the internet and social networking. While I may touch on economics on occasion, I'm going to try to stay clear of politics in general. There's plenty of people talking about politics on the web.
I'm fascinated by companies in general, but companies that change the space they are in are the most fascinating to me. Starbucks, Google, Facebook, and Twitter are a few that particularly interest me. Each of these has been a pioneer in their industry or transformed it in ways previously not thought of. Starbucks revolutionized coffee by seeing more than a commodity product. Google continues to transform how people use the web. Facebook has redefined how people socialize and interact online. Twitter has extended social interaction and provided a whole new platform for how information is spread.
I spent the last several years working for one of the world's largest money managers as a Business Analyst/Product Manager. While there I worked with nearly every business area in the firm defining and documenting software requirements and then leading development and test teams throughout design to implementation of the product. Focusing on extensibility and scalability, I designed, implemented and maintained a system allowing users to build custom subscriptions to the volumes of content that was entered into our in-house built system. I also designed a system controlling all application security for our vast suite of homegrown software.
As far as personal hobbies and interest, I love coffee and have been growing into a tea person as well. I also love music, particularly Texas music, although I love nearly all types of music, depends on what I'm doing and my mood. I'm an amateur/hobbyist photographer, although I have a LOT to learn in that area. Baseball and college football (Hook 'em Horns!) also keep my attention. I love baseball stats and follow the world of sabermetrics to some degree. I love barbecue, both eating and cooking, and am always on the search for the best chicken fried steak.
Please feel free to email me at any time. I'd love to hear from you.