<commit_before>---
layout: page
title: About
permalink: /about/
feature-img: "img/sample_feature_img_2.png"
---

I created this blog to act both as a creative outlet for me and my wife and as a peek into our personal and professional lives (for those of you who are interested anyway).

We each have a number of hobbies and while all of those hobbies do not overlap between the two of us, one thing we have in common across our interests is that we like to share. Whether it's bringing in the results of our latest cooking experiment, introducing friends and family to new games, or just chatting up a coworker or friend about our latest dream or idea, we like sharing with others the things that make us happy.

My wife (Chris) and I (I'm Erik, nice to meet you) are both into technology and tabletop games. We both like to read, cook, and play video games as well. And while there is a lot of overlap in what we like, our tastes do vary amongst our hobbies.

Don't be surprised if you see something in here about our families or personal lives. Those are also important to us and we have a lot of friends and family who don't live anywhere near us so we might start sharing here to make it easier for us to stay in touch with the people we love.

Moving our joy of sharing to the web is probably way overdue, but here we are. Poke around, hopefully you'll find something interesting or inspiring. Or maybe you can share some of your own ideas.  We like hearing from others too!

{% include gravatar.html hash=site.social.erik.gravatar_hash %}
<h4>About Erik {% include icons.html social=site.social.erik %}</h4>

I'm a code mercenary. I run a small consulting business and do contract software development for local software companies. I'm also constantly working on software or learning about new technologies and frameworks when I'm not on the job. I homebrew from time to time, like reading about the latest happenings in science, and like lots of other stereotypical computer nerd types of things like anime, sci-fi, and dinosaurs.

{% include gravatar.html hash=site.social.chris.gravatar_hash %}
<h4>About Chris {% include icons.html social=site.social.chris %}</h4>

Whether it's reading one or creating one, Chris really likes story-telling. This makes her a great dungeon master! She's into drawing and art too and likes combining the drawing and the story-telling.  She admits that some of her other hobbies are somewhat neglected. She plays sports and the upright bass when she gets a free moment. By day, Chris' job doesn't translate well into her hobbies.  Her job is something like product manager or business analyst. She has a software background, so she really likes working closely with developers. She likes working with people in general too, and she strives to be well-rounded and proficient at pretty much anything her job demands of her.<commit_msg>Updated About page<commit_after>---
layout: page
title: About
permalink: /about/
feature-img: "img/sample_feature_img_2.png"
---

I created this blog to act as a creative outlet for me and my wife as well as a peek into our personal and professional lives.

We each have a number of hobbies and while all of those hobbies do not overlap between the two of us, one thing we have in common across our interests is that we like to share. Whether it's bringing in the results of our latest cooking experiment, introducing friends and family to new games, or just chatting up a coworker or friend about our latest dream or idea, we like sharing with others the things that make us happy.

My wife (Chris) and I (I'm Erik, nice to meet you) are technology fiends and tabletop game hounds. We both like to read, cook, and play video games as well. And while there is a lot of overlap in what we like, our tastes do vary amongst our hobbies.

Don't be surprised if you see something in here about our families or personal lives. Those are also important to us and we have a lot of friends and family who don't live anywhere near us so we might start sharing here to make it easier for us to stay in touch with the people we love. This has become especially true since the birth of our daughter, Kira.

Moving our joy of sharing to the web has been way overdue, but here we are. Poke around, hopefully you'll find something interesting or inspiring. Or maybe you can share some of your own ideas.  We like hearing from others too!

{% include gravatar.html hash=site.social.erik.gravatar_hash %}
<h4>About Erik {% include icons.html social=site.social.erik %}</h4>

Career-wise, I am split 80/20 between working at [Vertafore](http://www.vertafore.com) and my own
small business, [Technical Rex](http://technicalrex.com). I'm a software engineer and do mostly web
development. I'm currently transitioning my business from software consulting to something like a
startup: trying to make new products the world needs without a huge number of resources at my
disposal. It's a lot of fun! My other hobbies and interests include homebrewing, experimental
cooking, movies, retro video games, reading, board gaming, and more board gaming.

{% include gravatar.html hash=site.social.chris.gravatar_hash %}
<h4>About Chris {% include icons.html social=site.social.chris %}</h4>

Whether it's reading one or creating one, Chris really likes story-telling. This makes her a great dungeon master! She's also into drawing and art and likes combining the drawing with the story-telling.  She admits that some of her other hobbies are somewhat neglected. She plays sports and the upright bass when she gets a free moment. By day, Chris' job doesn't translate well into her hobbies.  She works as a business analyst at Vertafore. Yep, we work at the same company. In fact, we often sit within ten feet of each other there! Chris has a software background, so she really likes working closely with developers. She likes working with people in general, too, and she strives to be well-rounded and proficient at anything her job demands of her.
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