Quick Facts
| Name: | Paul L. Tomlinson |
|---|---|
| Birthplace: | Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
| Childhood & Education: | Seattle / Edmonds, Washington, USA |
| Current Residence: | Sandy, Utah, USA (see contact info) |
| Employer(s): | See resume for details |
| Profession(s): |
Information Technology Hypnotherapy |
About Me (Narrative)
I live in Sandy, Utah, with my beautiful wife Rachelle and our three daughters (plus 1 dog, 1 mouse, and 3 cats), working in senior leadership for information technology and tinkering with a variety of technical and personal projects for the betterment of self and others (and fun; definitely for fun).
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and lived there with my family for just over three years before moving to Seattle Washington (and then Edmonds just 6 months later). I grew up and attended school in Edmonds, except for a single year in South Jordan, Utah following my parents' divorce.
McArdle's Disease (Glycogen Storage Disease Type V), a moderately progressive and often debilitating physical condition, started to manifest during my years of secondary education (though we didn't know what it was at the time). Combined with familial complications, continuing education was all but impossible; after completing the secondary ed. requirements I launched into work full time as a software and technology consultant. This continued, with a survival-of-the-fittest style of on-the-job knowledge acquisition until it came time to settle down after getting engaged to my wife in January of 1999. I swapped the free-form and highly variable nature of contracting for stability and settled into a desk job plying the same trade. Continuing my efforts at self improvement led to progressive responsibilities (outlined in my resume), but the less flexible schedule took its toll over the years. The condition which had curtailed so many of my physical activities became crushing, caused some significant weight gain, and eventually interfered with work performance.
Finally (15 years later), pressed into a situation where it was no longer possible to work around its constraints and while I was also fortunate enough to have good health insurance, I managed to arrive at the McArdle's diagnosis with a neuromuscular specialist. Turns out the physical incapacitation and mental fog was actually caused by side effects, whereby the metabolic resources available happen to carry with them certain inefficiencies and waste products that were creating a state of near-constant metabolic acidosis and renal stress. And, once those details were in place, management strategies were deduced and life was restored to a sort of normalcy: conscious focus has been retained throughout the course of the working day, physical performance though still limited is orders of magnitude better than it was, and the weight was rapidly shed (45lbs./20kg in 7 months). Work performance is once again top shape as well, in senior management of software development where I'm happiest (professionally speaking). I've come through the fire well tempered and far more patient for the ordeal, and greatly improved overall due to the habits of great effort which sustained me during times of similarly great opposition (which, now with the opposition lessened, provide a wellspring of accelleration).
More personally, during this time Rachelle and I have had 3 beautiful daughters, moved a couple of times locally, and generally made a wonderful life for ourselves. She (Rachelle) does a better job of chronicalling that in public forum than I, through her blog: Bless This Mess.
Those interested in more details are welcome to contact me, review the work presented here on the site, and read or search through the blog (recommended reading includes “The Long Journey” for some additional context to what's presented here, and Rachelle's photography just 'cause).