Matthew Graybosch

a thumbnail of the site’s operator — Photo by Catherine Gatt

Hello. Thanks for visiting, but my personal website is on a different domain now and has been for several years. You are nevertheless welcome to visit.

The only blogging I do here is in my git repository’s commit log. You’re welcome to subscribe via RSS if you like.

Contact Info

You can reach me by sending email contact at matthewgraybosch dot com.

I don’t use social media any longer, and haven’t for a while now.

Technically adept visitors can also find my phone number and mailing address with a bit of effort. The latter is public information by law because I am a homeowner. Regardless, I would appreciate an email first.

Purpose

This is my professional website. I’m maintaining it so that I have an anodyne and corporate-friendly website I can share with coworkers or while job hunting. It is my hope that this website will serve as a substitute for a LinkedIn profile.

It is also a small demonstration of my skill as a programmer and system administrator, as I build my website using shell scripts and a makefile and deploy it to Nearly Free Speech with rsync. You will find that this site is somewhat minimalistic in its design and implementation. Unlike other developers, I do not use JavaScript frameworks to build a single-page website that serves as a brochure promoting myself. While I could do so, I chose instead to improve my facility with basic UNIX tools because I prefer simplicity and efficiency in my own development projects.

The code used to create this website is available in a git repository. Should you wish to use it to build a similar website, you are welcome to do so as long as you honor the terms of the Creative Commons license under which I distribute this website.

What is a Full-Stack Thaumaturge?

That’s simple enough. I’m a full-stack developer (albeit stronger on back-end). I have also been called upon to work miracles on short notice, and ‘thaumaturge’ is often translated into English as ‘wonderworker’.

Situation Wanted

I currently work in the consulting division of one of the Big Four accounting firms, but I am open to a suitable opportunity paying at least $125,000/year in base compensation. Though I have been working as a .NET developer for over a decade I am willing and able to learn other technologies. I am particularly interested in transferring to sysadmin work with Linux or BSD systems. I am also willing to learn COBOL and work on mainframe maintenance.

I am open to full-time employment at an established firm. I am also open to work as an independent contractor. I am open to most industries and roles, with the exceptions of advertising, social media, and generative AI.

I prefer fully remote work, or at least hybrid with no more than a day per week on-site. I will not consider relocating to any location within the United States because I am several years into a 3.5% fixed rate mortgage in a medium cost-of-living area. I am, however, willing to travel for limited on-site work for the right job.

I prefer to hear from hiring managers, rather than third-party recruiters. Please do not contact me for contract-to-hire opportunities or startups.

Tools, Languages, and Frameworks

I started my professional career as a developer of Windows desktop applications and dabbled in UNIX-like systems and FOSS in my free time. As this website may show, that private dabbling has served me in good stead as I’ve transitioned to a full-stack developer.

Web Development

HTML5
CSS3
Sass
JavaScript
Node.js
JQuery
Bootstrap
U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)
React
Vue.JS
PHP
WordPress
Axios
Web Services
Jekyll

FOSS tools

GNU Emacs
GNU Make
ANSI C
vim
git
POSIX shell scripting
bash
ksh
zsh
Python
Ruby
SSH
rsync
sed
awk
m4

Microsoft technologies

.NET Framework
.NET Core
C#
Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server Stored Procedures
SQL Server Integration Services
LINQ
Entity Framework
TypeScript
IIS
WCF
ASP.NET
ASP.NET Web API

Oracle technologies

Oracle 19c
PL/SQL
MySQL 8.x

Cloud Platforms

Amazon Web Services
Amazon S3
Salesforce
Vultr
Microsoft Azure
GitHub
Travis CI

UNIX-like Operating Systems

Solaris
Slackware
Debian GNU/Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
FreeBSD
OpenBSD

a note on COBOL

While I haven’t figured out where to fit it in the lists above, I am also familiar enough with COBOL to read existing programs and re-implement them as C# and .NET web applications. If you’re looking for an experienced developer willing to dig deeper into COBOL, please contact me.

In addition to IBM System/360 COBOL with JCL, I have also worked with MicroFocus COBOL and tinkered with GNU COBOL at home.

a note on Visual Basic

While I can also cope with Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic.NET, I prefer to avoid the use of these languages because the former is dead and the latter has no future.

Nonetheless, I would take a sufficiently remunerative position involving the use of either language. I would, however, demand hazard pay for working with VB6; being typecast as a VB6 developer would do my future prospects no favors.

How to Hire Me

If you’re looking to hire, please provide the following information so that I can do further research to learn about your company and make an informed decision.

the name of the company offering the job
hourly wage/salary and benefits on offer
required skills
optional skills
presence and travel requirements
citizenship, visa, and clearance requirements
tax filing status (W2 vs 1099)
why the position is open

Please do not refer me to a LinkedIn listing, or ask for my LinkedIn profile. I do not have an account there and would prefer not to create one.

How to Work With Me

If you haven’t worked with me before, the following might help you understand me better.

I am on the autistic spectrum, and my difficulties are mainly in the social realm. I may thus occasionally ask you if I am to take a statement literally, or to clarify ambiguous instructions. Please don’t take this personally.
I am sometimes blunt in my speech, if not outright abrasive, especially on conference calls where there isn’t a single room to read but several. I have improved in this respect with time and experience, but I will not be offended if you discreetly reach out to me and advise me that I’ve spoken more harshly than is necessary or appropriate.
I do not care for abusive behavior, harassment, or bullying in the workplace. If I witness such behavior directed at others, I will either immediately speak up in opposition or seek redress through whatever channels are available.
I generally assume that How are you? is a rhetorical question, and that the person asking is merely being polite. I will thus generally give a non-committal answer like, fine. Please don’t take this personally, either.
I prefer asynchronous work, and to communicate by email. However, I pride myself on adaptability and thus am willing to use whatever tools I am provided. I am likewise willing to use video conferencing or talk on the phone, though I would would prefer in-person conversation to both.
When using chat tools like Slack or Teams, please do not send a message consisting solely of hello, but please include your question in your initial message. The sooner I have received your question, the sooner I can answer it.
I am most easily frustrated by slow or resource-constrained computers, unreliable software, and vague requirements. These hamper my ability to deliver quality work in timely fashion.
I am not particularly good at testing; I do not necessarily anticipate conditions or situations that haven’t been mentioned in the requirements or test cases.
I am good at implementing new features, maintaining existing systems, and troubleshooting bugs. I am also willing to mentor less experienced developers.
Because most of the US is under at-will employment, I regard all jobs as inherently precarious. I prefer therefore to keep to myself, and not get too close to coworkers who might be here today and gone tomorrow, for I too might be gone tomorrow despite my efforts. I am nevertheless willing to be as friendly and collegial as you please.
I work for no other reason than to get paid. Praise, titles, and little gifts are of no interest to me. If you are pleased with my work, and you have the authority to do so, the best way to express your appreciation is with a bonus or a pay raise.

A Bit About Myself

I’ve been married to Catherine Gatt since 2004. We live in central Pennsylvania with two cats and a dog. I have a house full of books and have been content to work from home in solitude since 2020. The life I live is mostly the life I wanted for myself.

I’m a mostly self-taught software developer by trade, and I work mainly with Microsoft tech at my day job. I’ve specialized mainly in building web applications with C# and the .NET framework at work. However, I can also do database design and administration on SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL. I also have a fairly extensive background with UNIX-like operating systems; I make a hobby of running Slackware on secondhand computers and I practically live in Emacs.

In addition to my day job I’m the author of the novels Without Bloodshed and Silent Clarion. Both of these are available on my other website, as my publisher is defunct and the rights reverted to me in 2020. I am currently out of print but not yet out of the game.

In addition to my literary pretentions, I am also a musician playing poorly for an audience of one the viola, bass guitar, and piano. Novels like Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man are my idea of light reading. I still lack sufficient French to read Dumas without a translation, but I am slowly improving and I had managed to get through a ten day visit to Paris with my wife without embarrassing her.

a photo of the operator’s desktop — Photo by Matthew Graybosch, featuring Purrseus (top left) and Smudge (bottom right)

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