Welcome to BGillilandJr.com

To introduce myself I am the product of 14 years combined IT and Simulation support. I started out doing small HTML web pages in 1994 and moved into the world of computer support that eventually landed me at the Boeing Datacenter in 2004. My time was short there, Boeing Commercial Wichita was sold to Onex Corporation (now Spirit Aerosystems) and the datacenter was moved to St. Louis MO. I had a choice be laid off and continue the cycle of work and being laid off or move on to a different field. This landed me on July 1st of 2005 at FlightSafety International as a Simulator Technician.

Sense then I have acquired my AS in Electronics Technology, FCC General Radio Telephone, J-Standard, Updated my A+ Certification, FCC Amateur Radio License (KD0HMZ), and became well versed in Asterisk PBX.   I continue to work with LINUX, UNIX, Mac, and Windows environments to keep me up to date on the latest and greatest in OS developments.I also still do some web development, mostly in Joomla CMS or strait PHP/CSS designs. I dabble a little in RAILS, and java but I don’t like to develop in it.

Now on to the personal side of life, I was born and raised in Wichita Kansas and lived here almost all my life. I did a short stent in Overland Park KS before moving back here to enjoy my home town. I also like to call Mississippi home due to family living there.   I am married to Michelle Gilliland now for 13 years and we have our daughter Samantha whom has the unfortunate excuse of her dad being an extreme geek.

I am an avid Photographer and enjoy taking pictures of mostly nature and industrial design.  I love taking pictures of Lightning and storm structure which has led me to becoming a storm Spotter/Chaser. I joined Sedgwick County SKYWARN in 2009 with the intent of reporting any severe Weather when I am on the hunt for that perfect Lightning shot. I do offer any and all my pictures for sale or usage rights, with the only exception being family photo’s.

So now you might be asking why did I create bgillilandjr.com? The answer is simple but complicated. I live social (ie: twitter, facebook, linkedin, Flickr, etc.) and therefore need a presence online beyond those sites. I also wanted a place to showcase my work in web design, art, and photography so people can actually see what I do and not just talk about it.  I also wanted a place where my fellow Storm Chasers could find ready info on the Weather for the area.  I pull 90% of my data directly from the National Weather Service in Wichita or the Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma.  Radar is provided by a variety of products including GRLevel3 from a server in my home.

I am also an avid Gamer and the Former Senior Admin for Wichita LAN Party. I will be hosting some Game Servers in the near future for everyone to enjoy but for nowI am going to stop Rambling now and say enjoy the site!

Bill Gilliland Jr.