"When a flower doesn't bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower."

Thanks for visiting my website. It is a mix of personal interests and professional experience.

My professional background is focused on software quality assurance, but not just pointing and clicking! My approach to quality assurance is engineering based with an emphasis on "pushing left" and building teams from the "ground up". This means understanding the importance of being involved early in the software development lifecycle, being able to create detailed documentation, reliable processes, automating error-prone, mission critical and mundane tests, as well as harnessing human strengths (like exploratory testing).

I also have speaking experience on a variety of topics software quality assurance-related. My contact information is in the footer if you are interested in having me speak at an event.

When I'm not being a software quality assurance guru I enjoy a variety of activities, some of which are represented on my website. I like making craft cocktails , building things , and listening to podcasts.

- Krypton -

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day [APOD] NASA APOD

NGC 1514: The Crystal Ball Nebula

What do you see in this crystal ball? The featured image shows NGC 1514, known as the Crystal Ball Nebula, observed by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, in Hawai'i. NGC 1514 is 1,500 light-years away and was discovered by William Herschel in 1790. This planetary nebula is formed when a star becomes a red giant and ejects its outer gas layers. The ejected shell of gas is heated up by the core of the star to temperatures hotter than the surface of our Sun: that makes the gas shine, creating beautiful images like this one. The slightly asymmetrical shape of the Crystal Ball Nebula reveals a secret: the bright star in the center has a companion. As the two stars orbit each other with a period of about nine years, they shape the gas around them. In about 10,000 - 25,000 years the nebula will be dissipated by their stellar winds.