About Me
So…. a little about me. (when I say a little, I mean far too much)
I’m Charles, often referred to by any number of nicknames, Chucky, Greiggy or Charlie, but that’s probably not why you are reading this.
I was born in the sunny climbs of Scotland, where I lived until I was 7 when I set sail (or boarded a plane) for Western Australia, this is where I like to think I spent my formative years, though I don’t really know if I had stopped forming by 14 when I moved back to England or not?
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Education
I went to school both in Australia and in England, then college and then finally studied at The University of Essex, I got a BEng in Internet Engineering – at the time we were told that Essex was better than Oxford or Cambridge in this field, that being said, I am sure nobody ever ‘didn’t’ get the job because they had graduated from Cambridge, but again, I digress.
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Sport
I am, and always have been, a keen sportsman and viewer of sport.
I have played, in teams, the following sports : Baseball, Softball, Basketball, Soccer, Basketball and American Football, of these I still Play American Football for the Colchester Gladiators, a division one national league side, my position? Tight End.
I watch a LOT of sport, I semi-regularly attend The Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal play and take in a good amount of sport on TV, I think sporting competition regardless of the sport interests me, however I think I am definitely more an ‘extreme sports’ fan than a Lawn Bowls and Golf kinda guy, that’s not to say I wouldn’t give either a shot should the opportunity arise.
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The Diet
I am legendary around these parts for being the most ‘food challenged’ person everyone knows. I am allergic to many many things and when that isn’t enough, I have coeliac which is an autoimmune disease that means I can’t eat gluten… yeah, cheers life, I needed to limit my diet EVEN MORE! Still, it could be worse and generally it doesn’t impact me, other than people always asking me about it when out for a meal, but, it is what it is and I don’t let it bother me too much.
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The Beard
I don’t know, like 4 years? I am making the assumption that you want to know how long its taken to grow it? maybe 5, I don’t think its getting any longer now though, but hey, my hair fell out my head and I feel a responsibility to keep up a reasonable hair to head ratio.
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Hopes & Dreams
So, this is a bit wishy washy I think, but I think ultimately, I want to be happy. I think what I need for that to be true is that I can find a job that gets as much from me as I do from doing it, I don’t want to be a rat in the rat race, I want to matter to the company / industry I am in, not for some vanity reason, just because I want to be pushing both myself and what I am doing to achieve the best possible outcome, I think if I am able to do that and provide for my family, then I am doing something right. 100% having worked in situations where I was not happy, I am of the mindset that I would much rather be happy than earning every last penny that I possibly could, though a mixture of being happy and making a decent living is what I aspire to.
I am creative, I love to create, that being said, I am not entirely sure I have found my ideal creative outlet yet and I always feel a little creatively stifled, though I can’t exactly figure out how… ah the frustrations! I enjoy improving things, making things better, making people happy. I built a friend a high end PC, a week or so later I got a message from them, initially I was thinking ‘oh god, what’s gone wrong with it’ but that wasn’t the case at all, he was actually messaging me to tell me how awesome it was, especially compared to his previous machine – that made me feel good, and that is only a tiny slither of my potential.
I think my issue is that I am interested in too much, I get so motivated to find out the new things, once I know about them, I want to apply them and once they are applied, I want to be on the next new thing. I think my ideal job would be someone who just tries everything and figures out how to apply them to what situations… I’m not sure that position exists, but if it does… SHOTGUN!
Anyway, suffice to say that happiness both in work and life is what I want and am aiming for, if I never get there, then it won’t be for the lack of trying.
More to come, but damn, for someone who doesn’t really write about himself, this is a lot – I think I am going to have to restructure this though.
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Software I have used
If you have found your way here via my CV then I thought I would include software that I have experience of here, this doesn’t mean I am an expert in every one of them, but that I HAVE used them in anger, if you want to know the extent of my knowledge, please feel free to email/Tweet me.
Microsoft Server 2003-2016 / AD / WDS / WSUS / HyperV / DNS + more
Microsoft Windows 3.1-10
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office 365
Mac OS X (and Server)
Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier, After Effects + more
Affinity – Desinger, Photo, Publisher
VMWare
Sony Vegas
Davinci Resolve
I am non-specific about security/networking products, posting specifics about them could expose past or future employers to more targeted attacks from bad actors. However, I have experience in:
Email Security / MTA
IDS / IPS
EDR
SIEM
Firewall
Networking VLANS etc
PAM
Offensive Security products
Next Gen AV
Anti-Virus
Phishing
WebApps
G Suite
O365
WordPress
Vapid
Hootsuite
CharlieHR
Salesforce
FrogVLE
Moodle
Sadeo (Digital Signage)
Social Media – Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/YouTube/LinkedIn +more
Expensify
Slack
Other Software
Atom
VSCode
Inkscape
Sketchup
OBS