
Who I am.
I’m Joe, I’m a geek, and I do many things. My wife and I live in Denver, CO are both from from WI originally. WI rocks, but my heart is solidly in Colorado and the southwest in general.
What I do.
I work as a Solutions Architect for a national technology company. I focus my efforts on Microsoft Hybrid Cloud solutions and technologies. It’s work, and it pays. That’s all I am going to say about that… I don’t like talking about my work outside of work. Life is too short to spend time thinking about work (outside of work) when you should be thinking about stuff that actually enriches you in more ways than just monetarily.
What I really do is try to live a dynamic and interesting life with my wife out here in Colorado. Travel, photography, making things, doing home improvements, and in general just doing things. Some of what I focus on the most out here are:
Travel – At current count I’ve been to over 1/2 of the states in the US, and have made it to 15 countries. Much much more to see and do.
Backpacking and Hiking – I am a Trip Leader and Sr Instructor @ the Colorado Mountain Club and teach backpacking classes every summer. The goal is for me to hike the Colorado Trail in the coming year or so.
Skiing – This is a fun winter activity for me, I am not seriously addicted to it as most are in Colorado, but it is a lot of fun!
Motorcycling – I love being able to go around Colorado on the bike. The mountains, the western slope, and states around us all make for some great riding. I’ve done a number of backpacking/motorcycling trips combined and that is the ultimate challenge for preparedness! You can check out my videos section as I have many vids from various big motorcycle trips around the southwest.
Photography – I’ve been doing photography to a hobbyist level since around 2000 borrowing gear, and have over the years upgraded and have amassed a pretty professional setup. (Sony A7RIII, and many high end lenses) I really do love photography, and I incorporate it into most of my other hobbies.
DIY/Maker things – I am passionate about making my own things. Whether it’s doing simple home repairs, or designing tools to address challenges I have with a project. 3D printing has really elevated my game in that respect, and I am now going into a whole new world of DIY/Maker projects and topics.
And… really anything else you see on this page in the categories 🙂
Other things I’ve done:
I’ve run multiple websites and started a few small companies in the past. Some have faded away, Some were very popular in their time, some never took off, and some were sold.
ProCooling.com – This was/is a computer cooling enthusiast website. It was started in 2001 and was a vibrant and centerpiece of the high end cooling community at the birth of hobbyist water cooling, and other technologies commonplace today. Many concepts and ideas that are used all over the high end gaming computer, and enthusiast computing industry today can be traced to the site, and the industry leaders in the forums. In 2006 Myself and the other key staff who ran the site went through a series of life changes that caused us to essentially step back from running the site. Since then, with occasional posts since, the site has been in stasis as a tome of historical info for that point in history. I am very very proud of that site and of the contributors who made it what it was. Check it out if you are interested http://www.procooling.com
MidwestLan.com – A good friend and I started a LAN Gaming organization in SE Wisconsin with the aim of being the biggest, and best in the region. I developed a custom website from scratch, and a custom event management system for the LAN (with bracketing capabilities, payment processing, automated check-in at the event, etc…). The site turned into an intranet portal at the event as well. The event was run at hotels, and sold out every single one while we ran it. At our peak we had a 24 hour events that had 155 people in attendance, at the time the largest LAN in WI that occurred more than once a year.

After a series of falling outs with our venue, overcharging for the space, and general chaos, and the next venue changing our deal right before it happened (costing us massively…). We ended up stepping back in 2005/6, and selling it to a group of highly energetic, and dedicated gamers. It still runs to this day check them out! http://www.midwestlan.com
Gaming: Over the years I also ran a few gaming clans, one under the name KickSomeAss (and owned the domain name KickSomeAss.com… which I was an idiot and forgot to renew years later) We focused on Quake 2 CTF, Tribes, adn Counter Strike (pre v1.0). We were damn good.
Media/Photography: I made up a media company back in the day to photography at SCCA ProRally events (and Rally America events after that). Northern Drift Motorsport. Rally America clamped down on anyone not affiliated with a big media outfit, I pretty much just hung it up and left the site as-is. The site should still be online with videos and pics at http://www.northerndrift.com
I have a new LLC I formed in 2018, I am not sure what I am going to do with it exactly yet, but I have some ideas. Stay tuned.
Mark Gandy
I would like some more information on your IDEX printer. Currently I have a K1 Max and have been toying with the idea to build a Voron Trident but really want bigger build volume and dual extruders. Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.