About Me

TL;DR – Husband, father, software developer, martial artist, beer geek.

Software Developer

I’ve been writing software in one form or another since high school. I am now a Lead Engineer at Signal.

Photo courtesy of Monty Ksycki

I specialize in web development. I have experience building and maintaining all aspects of a complex web application, including managing the OS running the application, administering the databases that hold the data, designing and writing the backend code that runs on the server, implementing queuing systems that enable offline processing, and slinging the client side code that makes the application come alive in the browser.

I love working on the web because of the limitless possibilities, and the challenges they bring. These days I primarily work in Ruby, but in the past I have also worked with Java (Java EE) and PHP. Lately, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time studying and using a few different NoSQL databases, including CouchDB, MongoDB, and Redis. I also enjoy working with open source tools such as Linux, git, and jQuery. I take pride in making sure my code works (TDD), and I love building scalable systems. Contributing to open source projects also puts a smile on my face.

Check out my LinkedIn profile and my Github account for more details.

Family Guy

I am married to a lovely, supportive, fantastic woman with whom I greatly enjoy spending time with. I am also the father of two wonderful children, whom I look forward to watching grow, all the while praying that it doesn’t happen too fast.

Martial Artist

I am a volunteer karate instructor, leading classes at Southwest Chicago Shotokan, and assisting with classes at Chicago Shotokan. Both schools are affiliated with Shotokan Karate of America, a non-profit organization teaching karate in the US since 1955. We hold true to our parent organization’s non-profit status by volunteering our time as instructors, and keeping costs at a bare minimum, so anybody who wants to learn karate can.

Contact

Feel free to email me at john@johnpwood.net regarding whatever.

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