Hi everyone, my name is Patrick.
I started programming back in 1979 on a TRS-80 Model 1 that was in my math classroom. I have never looked back since.
I am a technologist at heart and an IT Admin by trade, at the moment. I love making different tech work together to make a better experience for people. I see how many of these blockchain platforms and protocols can be combined in awesome ways to create new and better products, we are really starting to see this happening now.
Some other things that I really enjoy doing are fishing, tent camping, astronomy, and U.S. Constitution and law research and teaching on taxation in America.
I also have too many different websites and Facebook pages to give them all the proper amount time that they deserve. 
I got into crypto mining in the early days of Bitcoin when it was still under $0.10. I was too short-sighted back then to recognize it’s potential and I sold all of my Bitcoin, such is life.
I started learning blockchain programming about 9 months ago by watching YouTube videos and reading Solidity docs and things like that. I finally found Ivan’s channel about 5 months ago and watching him pretty much everyday really got me more motivated to learn faster and deeper, so here I am.
I’m not sure yet if I want to do a full-time remote job with a company or do freelancing and maybe eventually some consulting in the crypto space.
Anyhow, I’m really excited to be here at the Academy and am looking forward to getting to know and learn from as many of you as possible.