About Me

Yup, still haven't cut it.

Who is Gregory Allan? OK so I guess this is where I really spill it all out. I have never fully done before what I am about to do below. For years I have silently been flying under the radar mostly working for clients in secret and few people really know who I am. So in the effort to build trust and authority in the world I am going to have to get more uncomfortable and start sharing who I am with people like you. After reading this page you should have a fairly clear idea of who I am and what I do and just why you may not have heard of me before and why I do not have thousands of followers and subscribers (anymore). The short version is that I am a web developer and programmer, a content creator and a good researcher and curator of information.

History

1975: I was 5 years old and my parents had me on ice skates. I know, it is a stereotype, I am Canadian after all. Despite what people may think, not all of us play hockey! But I certainly did. Being a fast grower and bigger than other boys, by the time I was 13 I was moved up a division early and found myself getting hit by 6 foot refrigerators. It was extremely rough and fast paced. This taught me to be persistent and determined.

1982: I was twelve years old and got my first computer, a Commodore Vic-20. Back then no one had even heard of a computer let along had one. In those days the main way to save data was on an actual cassette tape! You had to literally wait 20 minutes for all your data to store onto the magnetic tape and this was only for a few dozens screens of code. My ma bought me a book on programming Basic and I would stay at my computer for 3 to 4 hours typing in programming code and testing and learning on my own.

1985: I was in grade ten at school an one of my friends told me that guitar class was a good one to take because the teacher was lax and you could show up late and he would not care. That and that fact that my buddy seemed to always have girls hanging around him while he played his acoustic guitar in the hall sold me right away on the idea.

I found playing the guitar a natural thing and became quite good at it in a short period of time. Before long I was playing in talent shows and forming bands. A few years later I ended up actually organizing battle of the bands shows and that experience taught me at a young age how to project co-ordinate, delegate tasks and generally just get a long with all types of people.

Eventually the 5AM morning hockey practices started to conflict with my 10PM band rehearsals and I had to make a choice.  I chose music. It was a tough  choice, I loved them both but it was a good lesson early in life that life is about choices and you cannot always have it all. As my mom's favorite band sings You can't Always Get What You Want.

1988: I was graduated from school finally and by this time in my short life I had been through a lot of stuff. Being in a band and having a hot rod 55 Chevy made me very popular and this was not such a good thing. The problem with being popular was that there were a lot more opportunities for me to get into trouble. I am not going to tell you everything about my private life but suffice it to say, the day I was out of school I left the town I was born and raised in.

1988 - 1989: I went with a friend far up north to Dawson Creek, BC and got a job fighting forest fires and tree planting. It was a wonderful experience for me as a young man to travel across the country, live in camps and be out in nature. Again I was learning the valuable virtue of self reliance and independence.

1990-1994: I was heavily involved in the local music scene in Vancouver,BC. Back then you could actually play your own original music in clubs. Eventually the DJ took over and night club owners decided it was cheaper to hire one guy spinning records and the live music scene slowly died out.

During this time I got to hang out in the same places as Aerosmith, Warrant, Posion, Motley Crue and others. I also spent a lot of time in the recording studio.

1994-1998: I was the first person I know to get on the Internet. My first inspiration was to use it to help musicians connect with each other. I spent the next several years being one of the pioneers of the web.

1999: Went to college to become a Programmer/Analyst and learned the ins and outs of software development. My first job out of school was for an International Publishing company that distributed import/export information to embassies of the world. I even got to co-ordinate with politicians offices.


2002: I was active in the traffic exchanges industry and created a multi tabbed internet browser allowing people to surf 12 sites at once. This was long before Internet Explorer or Mozilla and multi tabbed browsers were available. I started an affiliate program and made some good money for a few years.


(this page still incomplete. I got other work to do!)

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