User:Chris Drysdale

Chris Drysdale is a Computer/Networking Administrator with an A.S. in Information Technology Security (2011) and a Webmaster Certification both from St. Petersburg College. Prior to transitioning into this new career, he worked for Tires Plus Total Car Care, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Holdings, Inc. as a Market Pricing Coordinator and a Market Analyst, where he handled pricing and market analysis for over 400 retail stores in 38 markets spanning the country.

He currently resides in Clearwater with his wife Sky of 20+ years and their two cats who they spoil shamelessly.

The Early Years...
Chris was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, an only child. His father, Jim, was a warehouse manager and his mother, Diana, was a bookkeeper. As a child he spent time in Hartford, Connecticut as well as the Bruin/East Brady area of Pennsylvania, until settling in Pinellas County in 1976. Ironically, 1976 in Clearwater was the last time he saw snow. He went to King's Highway Elementary, Lakeside Christian School, Oldsmar Christian School, Cottingham Christian School, and finished his grade school track at First Lutheran Christian.

The "I was a teenage...." phase...
Chris graduated Countryside High School in 1987, where he was a member of the Air Force Junior ROTC. This was probably a contributing factor to him almost running off to join the Renaissance Festival. He instead became a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism for over 10 years where he was a heavy weapons fighter and received an Award of Arms as Lord Christoph Ian of Darktree.

This was also the period where he acquired his significant restaurant experience, thereby proving the axiom that experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.

He wanted to win the lottery and build an island fortress, not sling hash at Denny's

College Years... the perpetual student phase.
Early college: Chris went to, as it was known then, St. Petersburg Junior College where he enrolled in and completed the nationally renowned Interdisciplinary Studies Honors Program. He spent a couple of semesters at the University of South Florida and then returned to SPJC where he went to pursue an AS in Deaf Interpretation. However, before finishing, he discovered the path of the interpreter was not one he was meant to walk.

This period also marked the end of his restaurant work. Though his philosophy class taught him about Friedrich Nietzsche and the universal truth, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger”, the practical application of that in the workplace lead to a graveyard shift of the soul.

He renounced the path of waiting tables, viewing sunlight as an enemy, and always smelling like a French fry to try his hand at the corporate world.

Late college: After having spent some time using temp services to aid him in his search for a niche, he got into the Graphic Design field. This was the start of a Golden Age, and with the advent of Web Design he decided to chase his fortunes as a Web Designer, acquiring a Webmaster Certification from St Petersburg College. This led to the creation of his side project, Carpe Textum Web Design, as well as an interest in building computers. Unfortunately, as the market was saturated with Web Designers from the dot.com collapse, Carpe Textum never became the mainstay of his economic growth.

Chris Drysdale – On Tour
Despite spending the preponderance of his time in Pinellas County, his horizons have been broadened by adventures domestically and abroad. Chris road-tripped to Chicago where he fell in love with Cincinnati on both legs of the trip. He has eaten fresh lobster in Freeport (a suburb of L.L. Bean) on his trip to Maine.

Seattle will always call to him, as his numerous trips there took him to the Space Needle, Boeing IMAX, Pike Place, and his favorite pizza joint, Belltown Pizza. A bottle of water and rocks from the Pacific Ocean taken from Ruby Beach still sits on his desk.

He took a cruise to the Bahamas, finding Freeport and Nassau to be brightly painted poverty. His last cruise took him to Alaska through the inside passage, where the view and the experience was simply epic.

International incidents were mostly avoided on his two trips to London and single trips to Ely, Manchester, and Edinburgh, Scotland. (though he will never again wear a Manchester United scarf into a pub in London.) In Manchester he visited Old Trafford and touched the pitch, a moment indelibly etched in his mind. (That moment would rank a close second to touching the Stanley Cup the year the Tampa Bay Lightning won it.)

Midlife crisis....it's not just a song by Faith No More.....
Red convertibles, a blonde trophy wife, pomp and circumstance....a Jedi craves not these things....

As a result of his transitional period, Chris, rather than falling apart or going off the reservation, instead achieved clarity of focus and purity of purpose. He was able to finally seize control of managing his career, rather than having it managed by the capricious winds of change.

Now, he stands astride the possibilities like a colossus. Undaunted, undeterred and stalwart, forward progress is inevitable and perpetual.

Computers, Networking, Information Security….the future….his future. Now.

To be continued.....

Hobbies and other informal tidbits.
Chris has gotten in touch with his inner child, fed him three cups of espresso and half a bag of pixie sticks, and then cut him loose -- unsupervised.

He spends his free time dabbling in creative writing, web design, model building, reading, role-playing games, table top games, computers, and working on household projects.

His sports interests are the Tampa Bay Lightning, Manchester United, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.