Who i is
What can I say. I’m the coolest guy that ever walked the face of this earth. I have plenty of interests alright. Some are unique while others are normal. Despite my large stature, I’m quite a nice guy. I mean, I love to cook, snowboard, and I love kids. I have a great work ethic and I’m smart. What more could you want?
So you wanna know who I is eh, well sit back and enjoy and I’ll tell ya. I am a 23 year old student attending SLCC. I am currently seeking a degree in Network Engineering. Trying to find out what you want to be is no easy task. I went through a lot to get to were I am today.
It all started my Sophomore year at Alta High school. Every day after school let out, I would go to work for a couple of hours. I worked as a Cleaner at Indian Hills middle school. I had a set route and I would be done with in an hour and a half. Sometimes my friend Josh and I had to do the ENTIR school ourselves. That was a task and a half. As the school year was coming to an end, I would always think about what I was going to do over the summer and what classes I was going to take. One night as I was pondering, a friend came in and started asking me if I knew any HTML. I had no idea what he was talking about. So he briefly explained to me what this whole HTML mambo jumbo was all about. As he told me more and more about it I found that my curiosity was was rushing through my blood like a bat outa hell. For days all I thought about was this HTML language used to create web pages.
Summer was finally here and boy was it FUN. I ended up staying over at Danny’s house ¾ of the time. We would stay up all night playing Diablo2. He had a paper route so we would wake up at the crack of dawn and deliver papers. He was saving up money to buy a new computer. School registration and picture day came up. I registered for my first Web page class. I was pretty excited. I saw my friend Dan at the registration table and he told me to take a C++ class, so I did. There was a time in my C++ class that a friend of mine was making fun of me and teasing. It didnt make me mad. But I remember laughing and telling him the next time he makes fun of me God is going to punish him. He told me I was full of crap. So I grabbed his scriptures sitting next to him and swung with all my might, Yelling “FEEL THE WRATH OF GOD” smashing him in the face. As he flew to the floor, I busted up in tears of laughter. He looked at me and all I could say was “ I told ya so”
The last month of Summer was an amazing summer. My gang of friends and I ended up becoming extremely good at playing HALO. We toured Utah and played many competitions. We were some of the first HALO players to be beta testers for Xbox Connect. XBC was a program that allowed you to play HALO over the Internet against other players. Dan and I became Gods at this game. We took on clan matches and guild matches from all over the world with XBC. We were ranked in the top 10 for XBC. We threw HALO party after party after party. We would have as many as 60+ people in ONE house waiting to play HALO.
Summer came to an end and my gang of friends and I looked forward to the new things we were going to learn this year. On the first day of class I found out that the school did not have enough teachers to teach C++, so they grabbed the French teacher to teach it. Boy was I in for a treat. Internet web design one was an awesome class. I ended up being the top coder in my class. I fell in love with HTML and CSS. My teacher promoted me to the advanced class the next semester. I ended up dropping one of my other classes. I felt the need for more digital design in my life. I transferred to the Digital multimedia class were I became a total DBA (Digital Bad A$$). I LOVED every minute of school. I would stay late and work on projects. After the projects I would spend hours at Dans house playing HALO. HALO ruled my after school life, while HTML and digital media ruled my life during school hours. As the school year continued forth, I became a L33T DBA. My friends would come to me for graphic designs and I would go to them for programming.
My name changed from Matt to LT72884. I got that name from the Utah fun dome. Dan, Chazen, Dave and I were waiting in line for laser tag. As I grabbed Chazen in a head lock and slammed his head into the glass mirror, we heard it shatter. We got up and walked off laughing. ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA, Dan continued to repeat the military alphabet. He was planning on joining the military right after High school. He came up with the idea to pick to letters from the alphabet and mix them with the numbers of your birthday. So my new handle for everything was now LT72884, or Lambada Tango July 28 84. Dan was Alpha Bravo, Dane was Charlie Foxtrot, Paul was Charlie Bravo and Chase was Yankee Tango.
The last week of school my web teacher approached me and asked if I would like to participate in a new school program for advanced web students. The program was called CIW. Certified Internet Webmaster. It was a college class. If I got this certificate before I graduate, it would give me an associate certificate in web design. I couldnt think, I couldnt feel, I could hardly stand, I could hardly believe it. My teacher just asked me to join an El33t group of students. She then proceeded to tell me that she wanted me on her webmaster team for the schools website. I was in complete shock and denial. She told me to think about it over the summer break. I promised her that I would.
It’s 2:19pm, June 3rd of 2002. Kids are sitting on the edge of their seats just dieing for that last ring of the bell, signifying that its SUMMER. The sweat drips off our heads, our legs shake with anticipation, our hearts skipping beats. 2:20pm DING DING DING. All you can hear is kids screaming and running down the halls. Complete ecstasy. Summer is here once again. No worries about work or school, just time to chill and relax. As I run out the door, Dan yells at me to come over tonight for the BIG HALO party. I grab Colin and tell him about it. Colin is pretty chill about it. That night and for the rest of the summer were some of the biggest HALO parties I have ever thrown. Dan had 6 tv’s set up, 6 xboxes and tons of food and people. We would set up 16 player games. $ teams of 4 peeps per team. Since HALO could only support 2 teams, we would do it the old school way. Free for all with 4 colors and 4 peeps to a color. Then at the end, we would determine our post game carnage report and add up all the kills and deaths to see who won. I had 95 head shots and 10 deaths. I used 110 bullets and had 100 kills. One of the best games I ever played.
It was now nearing the end of July. My cousin who is an Engineer for INTEL came down to visit us with his family. He asked me how my schooling was going and if I had any future plans. I really didnt feel like answering him at the time since I put no thought into my teachers requests. Later that afternoon we went down town to Temple Square. I then told him about the two opportunities from my school. He told me with a bold and concerned tone that I SHOULD do it because its only going to help me. I built up the courage and agreed with him. Later that night I ended up dying my hair black, but it turned out blue black. It was totally awesome. The following week was registration. I remember grabbing the pencil, shaking from nervousness, and filling out the registration form. This was the year of life changing events and my friends and I knew it!
BEEP BEEP BEEP. I turned at looked at my alarm clock. CRAP its 6:30 and its the first day of my Senior year. Wait a minute my Senior year, Holy crap. As the thought sunk into my head, I realized that today was the first day of the rest of my life. I start my first college classes today. How exciting. As usual, it was the LONGEST bus ride ever. It seemed like an eternity went by. As I show up at our normal hang out spot, Dan turns and yells “Dude, love the hair man.” A few minutes later Chazen, Colin, Danny, Clint, my cousin Josh, Dave, and Arthur ALL show up at the same time. Every one was there. We talked and shared stories about the summer and all the kickin HALO parties we threw. It was great. The bell rang at 7:20 telling us that we have 5 minutes to get to class. It sux when your locker is at the opposite side of the school and your class is up stairs.
As I enter into my CIW class I can feel the tension that every one has. We have no idea what to expect. I, of course, am well prepared with my headphones and CD player. I just finished burning 4 CD’s the night before last. A few of my skater friends are in class with me. I look around for a seat and stare at the other students. There is quite a mixture of kids in here. You got the skater kids, the punks, the preps and the nerds. It was a cultural shock to the senses and I could feel it. The teacher walked in and gave her usual speech on classroom behavior and class rules.
As I sat back and listened, I felt this extreme adrenalin rush come over me. I felt as if I was on top of the world. I was on top of the world and I knew it. After CIW class got out, I just sat in my seat because my next 2 classes were in the same room. The next class was web masters and then advanced web design. Webmasters class was awesome. I was in charge of the sports, yearbook and technology page. I learned a lot about web design, especially in the area of public relations. I ended up stating on one of my pages that Mr Jones the tech teacher is the best teacher that Alta high has. BIG mistake. With in 30 minutes teachers were feeling intimidated by that statement. They all wanted to be the best teacher to. Of course I changed and I did feel bad. I always told my self that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I always thought I would be a web and graphic designer. But then after I would say that I would always get a feeling of awkwardness. I felt that this may be to tedious and I would get board fast type of work.
The next day was my first day in English class. I sat next to a cute girl by the name of LuLu. She was here from France. Long story short. We dated for 6 months and became really good friends. It was a sad day when we took her to the airport.
As the months went on and I slaved away with coding web pages, the dead line for the CIW exam was creeping up on me and it was creeping fast. Before I knew it, test day was here. As my mom drove me to the testing center I remember telling her that my Pratt genes better kick in so I can pass this exam. Man, and I thought that those bus rides were long. Well, nothing compares to the pressure and intensity of taking a internationally recognized exam. The pressure was on and I could feel it. I can still remember to this day when it came time to hit the “Submit” button. I paused for a few, gathered me thoughts and pushed the button. Waited the longest and most painful 10 seconds of my life to get my results back. The screen flashed big red letters across saying “Sorry but you failed”…. HAHA Just kidding. No actually the screen came up and said congratulations on passing the CIW. Man was I happy.
The last semester of my senior year was nothing but fun and games. I was done with my CIW and I felt on top of the world. I was good at what I do. I knew it and my friends knew it. I started my digital multimedia class and advanced multimedia class. I did project after project on the same subject… HALO. HALO this HALO that, it never ended. I meet a lot of cool new people this school year. Josh Patterson is one of them. We meet at Indian Hills middle school were we both worked. We did not like eachother at first and I ended up tripping him in the hall and almost breaking his legs. After that moment we became friends.
Well its that time of year again. Year book stomp. Josh and I decided to sneak in because paying 10$ to get my 100$ year book was a rip. So we did. I realized for the first time that in two more days I will be graduating form high school and leaving for my mission. Graduation day was AWESOME. LuLu and I talked for ever and ever. She gave me a big hug and wished me luck. I thought I would never cry at my own graduation but I did. I cried like a baby. I loved every minute, every hour, every day of my High school years. I graduated on June 3rd of 2003.
Shortly after that I turned in my mission papers. September 16th 2003 I was called to serve in the Peria Illinois mission. I was to report to the MTC on Wednesday the third of December. I left and returned a week later extremly sick. I ended up serving a full two year mission at the Salt Lake temple as an engineer rebuilding and keeping the place running. I was just as busy as other missionaries. I did however go throw some very troubling times. I was put on prozak because at one point in time they thought I was depressed, when in fact that was not the issue. I was on medication for a full year and dont remember much but my parents sure do. They tell me stories of what I was like.
After my mission I got back into HALO2. I ended up meeting some people form San Fran. We got so good that I went to San Fran for a competition were I ended up meeting Metallica’s voice coach. I played HALO2 for 4 years straight. I played many many many competitions. I went form the top 10 to the top 3. After San Fran I stopped playing HALO. I started my first full time job. After 9 months of work I knew I needed to get into school. So I did the Christian thing and I prayed for lots of guidance. A few months went by and I switched jobs. I went to work as a computer manager at a heavy construction company named Rasmussen Equipment. My best friend and cousin passed away during this time of my life and that was very difficult. I knew I needed to get moving forward with my life.
It was a HOT July day. As I came home from work for the day, I wanted to watch the movie Hackers. I had never seen or heard of it until I saw it at the Library. As I watched the movie, I knew that thats what I needed to go to college for. I wanted to be a hacker. I searched for hours and hours and days for a school that had a cyber security program. Finally SLCC’s web page popped up. It was August, I called and ended up speaking with a MR. Dan Hutchings. We talked for 2 hours about cyber security. He also told me that I needed to know how to network and build networks first if I wanted to learn how to protect them.
I registered the first chance I had. I started school 6 months later. When I first walked into the class room, I shook hands with Dan my professor. He told me that since I was not A+ certified that this CCNA class would be a sink or swim project for him and I. I had no idea what networking was or even its sole purpose in the life of a L33t DBA. Well I ended up passing my CCNA classes but failed the exam. No I am no kidding this time. I failed. I was heart broken and confused. I didnt know what to do. So I came up with a great idea. I started my Linux classes next. Turns out that they dropped the next two Linux classes. I knew I wanted my RHCE after the first semester of Linux. I talked with the school and they said that there is no school in the state of Utah that has a Network Engineering degree.
By now I knew that I wanted my RHCT, RHCE, and my CCNA. I knew that the only way to achieve these were to actually have a degree that would offer these classes. I ordered books and other information from various other schools. I compared there network Engineering classes to the electives offered at my SLCC campus. I noticed that we had all the classes for a Network Engineering degree but no degree. So I opened up my trusty Open Office application and typed a mock up degree for network engineering. I turned it in and now I sit on the Student Advisory Board. They are using my idea and mock up as a draft for the new degree.
Well that sums it up. I know it was a long story but it was well worth the wait, dont you think?
This site has all my projects I have done for my networking class. It contains various tutorials on how to make PoUTP and WIFI antennas. I hope you enjoy.