Who am I? What am I doing here?

OK, so I signed up for Patch's blogging thing. Someone suggested a self-intro for the first post, before a roll my eyes about tomorrow's Town Meeting session.

I've been involved in various aspects of Belmont town government for about 12 years, serving on the School Committee for two terms (2003-09), and two each on Warrant Committee and Capital Budget Committee (ex-official from SC). Sprinkle in a few lesser-known committees, Wellington Building Commitee, and much work on a several selectman campaigns and ballot questions. For campaigns, I've done a lot of analysis of Bemont data, so I surely have info on most of you. I've also been a Town Meeting member for about nine years.

My wife and I have lived in Belmont, Arlington or Watertown for the past 24 years. I was born in Philly, grew up outside Trenton, met my wife at Brown, and came here for an engineering job at BBN. Also, one of my closest college friends is from Boston, and visiting him was a blast, so I had to stay. I just happen to live around the block from where my uncle (well, my dad's uncle) lived for about 40 years. We have two teenagers.

I've been a software engineer for 25+ years, at too many companies. Some still exist, many do not. Now I'm at Akamai, in Kendall Sq. (And we're hiring... Akamai Careers )

Some days I really like Belmont, some days I look at real estate listings for Cambridge, Watertown, Brookline, or Newton.

I've never written a blog before, but have strong (and not-so-strong) opinions on many things. I like backing things up with data, and may mix in too much of that for many people when I write. Perhaps if I type my thoughts here, I'll annoy my wife a bit less.