In case you haven't already noticed, my name is Josh Odegard, and this website is all about me. If this isn't your first time here, then you have probably already noticed that I have made some drastic changes lately - and I'm just getting started. I originally put this site together, 10+ years ago, as a simple way to share a couple of things with some friends and family. Over the last decade, I have added a hodgepodge of information including stories that I have written, pictures that I have taken or drawn, and even some samples of work that I have done. Unfortunately, during all of those years of adding "stuff", I just kept adding more and more links to the main page, and I never took the time to arrange anything or give the site any kind of order. Bad form, Josh, bad form. Well, I'm finally going to organize the chaos!
I have already given the site some structure, and maybe a little style, but now I have to fill in the content. If there is something that you would like to see, or if you see something that looks wrong or out of place, please take a second to let me know.
So, thanks for taking time to learn a little bit about me. I'll try not to scare you.
If you're reading this, you probably already know me, or know a little bit about me. Who I am depends on who you ask. Some people have said that I'm "a good person", but they were probably just being nice. My mother tells me that I'm a "winner", but she might just be saying that so I don't ever put her in a retirement home or have her commited. Recently, a friend told me that I am "weird, but social", which to me, sounds like she called me "creepy", but in a nice way. No matter how many people you ask, you will probably never get the same answer. Not because I treat everyone differently, but because words are just not enough to describe me. I am more than a few nounds or adjectives. If you want to know more, feel free to read more about me.
There is absolutely nothing that I won't talk about. Partly because I have no verbal inhabitions, and partly because I was born without one of those filter thingies - you know, the little doohickey in your head that stops you before you say something that you really shouldn't say? Sometimes I'll think about something that is so interesting that I decide to write about it. But this is not just some ordinary blog on the internet. First of all, I don't blog, I entertain. My posts are not mindless ramblings written on the internet with the hope that someday someone will read it, and maybe even leave a comment or two. They are works of art - mental art. My words have the power to paint a picture so vivid, that your mind's eye will never be able to un-see it - no matter how hard you try. And the posts that also include pictures? Good luck ever forgetting those.
Now that I have set a very high bar for your expectations, let me apologize for not having anything for you to see right now. I have not added any blog posts yet, mostly because I haven't written the blog section of the website yet. But when I do, I hope to add new posts several times a week, at the very least. I don't always have things that I need to talk about, but I'm pretty good about being able to come up with something worthy, and turning it into a literary masterpiece. If you have any topic suggestions or requests, feel free to let me know.
Of course, I was usually the only one voting. However, every employer that I have ever had has referred to me as amazing, invaluabe or irreplaceable. Having been working for over 20 years, you might find it unusual that I have had very few jobs. It's not because I am usually unemployed, it's because no employer has ever wanted to let me go. Because of this, I have stayed at each job for years at a time. I guess I am just good at what I do, no matter what it is that I am doing. I learn quickly and work even quicker. I have a very strong work ethic and believe that the job needs to be done the right way, or at least the best way. If you want to know more about why you should hire me, please read my resume.
Obviously, "castles" is a metaphor for "websites", and "empires" is a metaphor for "web applications". I don't how I could have made that any more obvious. Anyway, this section was the biggest motivation for my recent redesign of the site. Lately, I have been very busy professionaly, and my work portfolio has grown relitively quickly. So I decided that it was time to create an online resource where I could show off some of the sites and applications that I have been building. Some of them are simple websites made for small businesses or individuals, but recently I have started to build more custom web applications allowing businesses to be more efficient, and even be more mobile. Web applications allow any type of data to be managed, as well as to be accessed anytime, from anywhere. Take a look at my portfolio to see a small sample of the work that I have done, which will help you better understand what I am capable of doing in the future.
Maybe I haven't seen everything, but I have seen plenty of life that is picture-worthy. Sometimes, I see things like a kid with a parrot walking around a retail store. Or maybe a pickup truck full of alpacas. When I see things like these, I take a picture. While you may not be lucky enough to see excitement like this on a daily basis, you are fortunate enough to have found my photo galleries. So if you have an iron stomach and a lack of shame, or even just an indulgence for craziness and stupidity, then check out some of my photos.
Do you remember when I said (above) that this site started as a way for me to share random things online, and how I just kept adding more and more random stuff? Well I wasn't kidding about the "random" part. I have so much different stuff to share, and so much of it is unrelated to everything else that I couldn't possibly categorize everything. So I'm making a "Stuff" category that encompasses everything else that didn't fit in some place specific. This includes things like getting Remote Support, watching Fox Soccer Channel online and even a joke or two. If you have something that you think should absolutely be on my list of miscellaneous stuff, let me know, and you might just see it added to the website.
Find out how to contact me by phone, email or one of many social networks. Or you could just send me a message online.
If you need to contact me for any reason, please feel free to use any of the options below.