About

Hi, I’m Andrew — or Uncle Versace, if we’ve crossed paths online. I’m a software engineer who really wanted to be a film composer, which tells you most of what you need to know about how my plans tend to go.

I grew up around computers and never really left. My dad was born in the ’50s but picked up machines early and built a whole career on them, and some of my favorite memories are the two of us putting computers together and talking code. He passed recently, and most of what I do for a living is, frankly, his fault — which is the highest compliment I know how to give. Pair all that with a ’90s kid’s diet of Hackers, Command & Conquer, and an indefensible number of hours in Mario Teaches Typing, and the outcome was never really in doubt.

The dream job, though, was always scoring films. I went to Western Michigan University on a music scholarship chasing it — jazz band, concert band, marching band, youth symphony, a garage band, the whole shebang — before two things sank in: the School of Music wouldn’t let me study what I actually wanted, and no director who loves your music has ever followed it up with “great, and where’s your degree from?” So I leaned into the other lifelong love. For the record, scoring a film is still the dream; I’ve just quietly moved it from plan to someday, which at 37 I’m told is called being a grown-up.

What I leaned into is this: I love building things and watching them actually work. I graduated in three years with two bachelor’s degrees — software engineering and mathematics. Since then I’ve spent my career building software, with a run of security consulting alongside it — including work that helped track down human traffickers and child predators. I don’t talk about that part much (it’s heavy, and most people would rather not sit with it), but it’s what I’m most quietly proud of, and I’ve been thinking about picking it back up on the side.

I’m also stubbornly drawn to academics. A few years ago, overthinking my future in a bathtub like a well-adjusted adult, I applied to Harvard mostly on a whim — and got in. That first semester is still one of the best stretches of my life. Life had other plans before I finished, but the pull toward learning never really leaves; part of me is still trying to make it up to the “gifted kid” who never took full advantage of the situation he was in.

The most important figure in my life is Hubert, my French bulldog and partner in crime. He’s named after a garbage-eating monster from Rugrats — long story, involved a voice in my head, I stand by the decision. He turns nine this summer, and his single defining trait is loyalty: stoic, ride-or-die, profoundly committed to belly rubs, and at my side through everything — including a breakup where the one thing nobody questioned was that he was coming with me.

Beyond Hubert: I’ve played Magic since Third Edition and I’m a control player to my core (read into that what you will). I’ll watch almost any film and find something to love in it — my favorite is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford — and I like movies enough to build a whole site about them, which you’ll find on my Projects page. My music taste is all over the map except country, though Tool, Brand New, and Thrice get the most plays. I had a Jeep until someone ran a red light last year. And I would very much like to travel more than I currently do.

That’s the short version. There’s more of me in the Blog and the Projects if you’re curious — and Hubert and I are usually around. Thanks for stopping by.