Welcome to the portal! The portal of imagination, understanding, free chicken and banana flavoured coffee. What’s that? That’s not what you were looking for? Google does bring up some odd pages these days eh. Well, whatever your reason for being here, hello, take a seat and would you like a cuppa tea?

Photography is my main hobby and this years current undertaking was intended to be an attempt at 52 topics over 365 days. After pondering this for most of January, and managing only one shoot, I’ve decided that a few too many targets have been set; target overload if you like. I’d set targets for photography, writing, IT certifications, possibly moving country, job hunting again and blogging – phew – I’ve realised that I wasn’t doing anything as I’d tried to do too much, so I’ve slimmed it down. I have IT targets set and good intentions for the others so we’ll build from there.

I’ll be continuing the processing of images taken during our travels of 2009 throughout Europe so expect images of France, Spain, Andorra and the Czech Republic. In fact I’ve got images spanning years before as well that are awaiting conversion too; variety is the spice.

So please continue onwards to follow my journeys through photography, IT and writing, we’ll see how we progress, and don’t fear for the kettle is always on.

Continue to the Blog

Personal & Professional Profile

By night I may be found in the various guises of photographer, writer, cook, gamer or brewer of tea beverages but by day I am an IT Systems Engineer. Below is a summarised version of my current CV/Resumé and employment status.

According to my father I typed my name in to a BBC Micro B at aged four and I haven’t looked back since then, progressing through forcing Dune II to run in himem, organizing squads/playing in the Quake II Savage CTF Leagues and leading forty-man raids in the World of Warcraft.

I am a hands-on and enthusiastic IT engineer, well versed in technical hardware and software planning, implementation and support, covering a wide range of systems, with eight years of commercial experience in the UK and Canada and seventeen years of personal computer experience A skilled problem solver who demonstrates well-honed organisational skills and an on-going dedication to the IT industry through continued self-development.

Employment Status

I am currently happily employed at Inline Computer Support in Canada and am not currently seeking employment opportunities. I expect to be staying in Canada for a further 18-24 months and may be seeking employment on my return to the UK in late 2013-2014.

Professional Experience

Senior Systems Engineer

April 2010 to Present | Inline Computer Support Inc, Canada

Computer Systems IT Officer – Contracted

Jan 2010 to March 2010 | Lakes College West Cumbria, England

Systems Engineer & Contracts Manager

June 2003 to Feb 2009 | KCS Computer Solutions, England

Certifications & Professional Memberships

Key Skills

Technical Competencies

Continuing Professional Development and Education

2010 – CompTIA Certifications through self-study

CompTIA A+

CompTIA Network+

CompTIA Security+

2008 – Microsoft Certification

70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

2006-2007 – Lancaster University

Lancaster University Certificate in Microsoft Technologies. Passed with commendation.

Comprised Microsoft courses: MS2273, MS2276, MS2277, MS2278, MS2279

2000-2003 – Manchester University

Graduated with Bachelors of Computer Science degree with honours.

Procrastination.

I believe that’s what I should really have entitled this panel. For many years I’ve been jotting down random ideas for snippets of stories, plots and characters but for some reason I have, as yet, not spent any dedicated time developing these musings. I can prove it of course, I can take photos of my note books, you can see the ideas scrabbling to get off of the pages and away from my dangerously sharp pen, truly you can!

So why is this panel here you ask?

It’s here as a reminder, a constant reminder to myself to stop the procrastination (Editors Note: Sampling fine beers does not count as procrastination, it’s education) and to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, mind to ideas and to combine those thoughts into something enjoyable and entertaining, although to be honest I’m not sure that some of the ideas should be allowed to mix together at all.

I have a few small personal writing targets set this year so we’ll see how many of those I hit. Until I get started on the writing in ernest, amongst continuing my IT certifications, please enjoy the following link to the blog which, as a warning, is likely to contain contents of a photographic nature.

Continue to the Blog

Email

greg .at. gregsteer .dot. co .dot. uk (replace the .etc.’s with the correct items)

IM

MSN/Live | knightofthekeyboard@hotmail.co.uk

Social

Facebook | www.facebook.com/gsphoto

Photographic

Flickr | www.flickr.com/photos/gregsteer/

Professional

LinkedIn | ca.linkedin.com/in/gregsteer

Forums

www.certforums.co.uk | user gsteer

www.photography-on-the.net | user gregsteer

www.fountainpennetwork.com | user gsteer