About

About this Blog

With this blog site, I’m dropping breadcrumbs as I develop Alexa Skills, Data DevOps tricks-of-the-trade, and other fun stuff.

Professional Background

My professional background includes 25-ish years as an Oracle/MySQL DBA/programmer, 4-ish years as a freelance website designer/developer, and one year sabbatical as a trained public investigator.

I am currently helping a startup called Smarticles by developing custom Alexa skills. “Our mission is to support the SocioEmotional Well-being and Conversation Skills of kids by engaging them in activities that strengthen how they manage their feelings and communicate with others.”

Database Administration

Starting in 1988, fresh out of college, I began my professional career as an Oracle database administrator and programmer. I’ve been both a consultant and an employee in a variety of industries, supporting full life-cycle development of database applications on multiple platforms. I enjoyed automating redundant tasks, documenting systems with quick-reference visualizations, strategizing architecture, and drilling-down to troubleshoot obscure issues.

Investigations

Early on, I promised myself I’d take a sabbatical after 10 years of working. That is why, in 1998, I took a year off, graduating at the top of my class at Seattle Private Investigations school. While working several private investigation gigs, I volunteered with public defenders (Society of Council Representing Accused Persons), where I was subsequently hired on contract for 6 months.

After the year was up, I was lured back into the IT world at fast-paced, bleeding-edged HomeGrocer.com.

Website Designer/Developer Freelance

Fast-forward more than 10 years, I again took a sabbatical. This time as a dog travel blogger (LetsGoDog.com). To build my blog site I learned WordPress, HTML/CSS and PHP. I studied visual design, SEO best practices, Photoshop, and content development.

Before long, our local hospice needed their website redesigned, so I volunteered to do that in WordPress. It was a rewarding project, working directly with the website owners. I then launched a freelance business called Erbinweb.com. But I knew I wanted to return to data someday soon, so I jumped into learning Python and R as well.

Going forward

Now, I am leveraging my experiences as a DBA, Data DevOps developer, Alexa programmer, website developer, investigator, and blogger to become a well-rounded Data DevOps / Alexa developer professional. With an appetite for learning, I endeavor to ensure the integrity and accessibility of data to people and organizations working hard to use data for good.