About Joe Pearce

About Joe Pearce

General:
I am a 39 year old college graduate, happily single and recently divorced. I am an employee of Eastman Chemical Company as a journey systems analyst in the Global Network Architecture group. I have lived in Hampton, Tennessee in the same home all of my life. I am a Free and Accepted Master Mason and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. I am student and alumnus of ETSU, and a graduate and alumnus of Northeast State Community College. I am currently on what has turned into an extended hiatus from graduate school. I have been working on completing my masters in Computer and Information Science.

Education:
I was a graduate student at ETSU working on my Masters in Computer and Information Sciences, but was recently purged due to inactivity. I simply haven't been able to find the time to go back. I have a BS in Computer and Information Science with an Information Technology concentration. My electives focused mainly on security and forensics. I have not made up my mind whether to do a thesis or a Capstone project for my masters, but if I do a thesis I hope to do it on smart card security focusing on the problem of DSS satellite theft. My main interest's are information security and forensics, network and system administration, project management, human relations, organizational behavior, and interpersonal communications.

How I Got Here:
I have always been a geek of sorts. When I was young, I had the first Atari on my street. I had the first computer which was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2. I wrote my first program on an Apple II at my elementary school in 8th grade in 1985. I wrote programs in Basic on the old TRS-80. During high school, I worked on computers often, but never thought about using it as a career. After I graduated I became a meat cutter and cut meat off and on for 10 years until a work related injury forced me to make a change of careers. I only touched computers when I had to. After the injury, I decided to go to college and major in Computer Science.

Hobbies:
I love to fish, hike, and camp. I especially love trout fishing in the local creeks and rivers. There is nothing like a day of relaxation standing in the middle of Laurel Fork Creek fishing for the elusive Brook Trout or the super fun Brown Trout. Yes, I even like to catch the occasional Rainbow Trout. I love to hike the Appalachian Trail. The Pond Mountain area is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in the world. I also love to camp. Carden's Bluff, named after my mother's side of the family, is one of my favorite places to go due to its direct proximity to Watauga Lake. Carden's Bluff was named after Ansil Carden due to his ferry across Watauga River to the Horseshoe Bend area of Siam, now the current site of Watauga Dam and Wilbur Dam.

I also enjoy gardening. I took a break this year, but plan to have one next year. I have a great garden every year which normally has the standard crops. I have grown leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, vidalia onions, yellow onions, brocolli, zuchinni squash, yellow crook neck squash, better boy tomatoes, blue lake bush green beans, pole green beans, bantam hybrid corn, golden queen yellow corn, silver queen white corn, radishes, carrots, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, spinach, green peppers, bannana peppers, jalopenio peppers, cayene peppers, cantelope, watermelon, and okra.

I can't forget to mention all of the flowers I have growing. I have a mixture of annual and perennial flowers all over the yard in pots and in the ground. There are simply to many to list. I just love the outdoors in general.