Greetings! My name is Jonathan Struebel.
I'm a native of Phoenix, AZ where the weather is typically sunny and the temperatures are nice, warm or HOT. You know all of those jokes about "You know you're from Arizona if ...", well they're pretty much all true, especially the ones related to heat and lack of water. But all that heat doesn't stop me from getting out and hiking when I can. We have some great mountain preserves right in the city, and it only takes a few hours to drive places where the natural beauty is stunning. The most amazing hike that I've done is the Grand Canyon. The sheer grandeur and awesomeness of it reminds me of passages from the Bible like Psalm 8:3-5 or Isaiah 40:12-26. In addition to hiking I also enjoy running as a way to get outside, although I seem to get injured about every other year which puts a bit of a damper on my activities.
Aside from being outdoors, my hobbies tend toward the technical. I've been interested in Audio/Video/Lighting for things like concerts and theater since high-school. I enjoy participating in the behind-the-scenes aspects of a production, whether it's assisting at church or helping out with a local community theater. In fact, whenever I'm at a concert or theatrical production, I spend as much time looking at how the technical aspects are done as I do watching the performance. Naturally, I will jump at a chance to tour the catwalks, the back-stage, or the AV booth. I also dabble in the various aspects of IT, from Linux server configuration and deployment to PC maintenance to the hyped Internet-of-Things or IOT. I'm always on the look-out for new technologies or ways to use existing technologies to make life simpler.
I like helping others by solving problems with technology, so my career path isn't much of a surprise. I'm an Electrical Engineer in the aerospace industry designing computers for satellites. Some have called me a rocket scientist, but I don't like that title since most of the scientists I've dealt with were more concerned with trying to understand the problem than with reaching a solution. I'm far too pragmatic to be a scientist, if there is a solution which takes care of the problem, or at least 99% of the problem, then I don't care if I fully understand the problem. I will, however, spend more time than I probably should trying to solve that last 1% in the most elegant way that I can.
