Who is Rich Wallace?

If you’ve ended up on this blog, you’ve probably had something to do with me or one of the blogs that I write already, but for those of you still yet to know who I am:

Hi, My Name is Rich Wallace!

Evidently, since you’re still reading, there’s some interest in learning a little more about me…so, here ya go!

Life
I live in Phoenix, Arizona with my wonderful wife and four children. I’m a native to Arizona and although I’m still not used to the heat here, I’ve learned to tolerate. My wife and I met in 1998 while working together and got married in 2004 and have been blessed with some pretty awesome kids over our years together. We have three girls and one boy (yes, most times you can find my son and I hiding under the stairs when the girly stuff takes over the household).

Career
I’m a software developer transitioning to full-time blogger. Although I’ve been blogging since 2004, I never really considered it something that I could throw around as a real profession until recently. I run about three blogs at the moment and although they are more of a series of online sounding boards to offer support and information to others, they have very high potential to help me reach my own goals of working full time for myself and my readers and to keep me at home with my family.

My past experience includes developing data integration solutions for a major home builder. I’m certified in several Microsoft application development products including Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and I use Microsoft’s SQL Server and BizTalk Server on a near daily basis. I’m a geek at heart, (ask my wife) and I enjoy gadgets and new technology.

Passion and Writing
When I young, I was very much a loner but always had things on my mind that just sat there with no outlet to relieve the pressure that was building up. I found a great interest in writing after I had submitted some intense reports for a school project based on my own mother’s challenges with diabetes after she had passed away. When I sat down to a blank notebook, I grew frustrated as I really had no idea how to write up such a report nor did i ever consider myself to be ‘good’ at writing anything, even my signature looks like chicken scratch to this day.

Finally, I took a deep breath and just told myself to start writing…it didn’t matter what came out, just start moving the pencil. After several hours of writing, my hand was cramped but I had generated over 30 pages of rough material without really needing to put in much effort. The report came back with an A+.

While perusing the Internet and dealing with Yahoo.com v1.0, I started to come across these sites that looked like online journals that really struck my interest. People were writing about whatever they had an interest in and it was all online, right in front of my face although they were on the other side of the world. More and more of these Web Logs started to appear and I was able to read up on anything from the Wild Macaws of South Africa to Ayers Rock tours in Australia, I was absolutely psyched and I wanted one myself.

I fired up the first version of Notepad and learned HTML as fast as I possibly could and started writing, tying in tags and anchors to get the formatting just right. I wrote about my days as a Car Lot Jockey and my time in the Air Force and whatever came up during the days. I never published anything online because I was simply too shy to put anything up online, but I quickly got the hang of “blogging” and never really let go of it.

Personality
I’m extremely introverted and very quiet and can sometimes consider myself anti-social. Odd as I can write all day and I love to reach out to others if I can somehow help them in some way. I’m not one to start up conversation out of the blue and I’m mostly viewed as unapproachable but it doesn’t mean that I’m not one to get along with once the ice is broken up a bit.

I have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit in that I’m constantly thinking of the next idea that I can put into place or how I can develop solutions that will ultimately enhance the lives of others if I can help it.

This blog is essentially my virtual den, where I can get my own creative juices flowing and put those ideas out in the open. I’m not quite sure what this blog will nurture just yet but more than likely it will contain some random thoughts, potentially worthy project ideas, maybe a rant or two or just some quick writings that need to get out of the brain house.