Just who or what the heck is a Digital Dr?!?

"Ken" "Fuzz" "DrFuzn8r" "Digital Dr"

These days, I'm a Dad, entrepreneur, technogeek, musician, twitch streamer and Cheeky Canuk. How did I get to where I am now? It all started many, many moons ago! Read on to find out!!

Computers:

My first encounter with a computer was in Grade 9, junior high most likely for the majority of you. The Pet CBM was the first time I ever encountered one of these amazing machines! There were only 3 of them in the library at the time and more nerds than computers! Most of them were playing games, admittedly I was too ... at first, and then a whole lot more after.

One of the games that everyone seemed to like was this little multiplayer tank game, very basic compared to some of the games we see now, but remember this was around '83. So you had this little icon that shot a line and if it hit an object, the round was absorbed or  it would ricochet off on a new path.

I grew up curious, taking things apart and "sometimes" putting them back together (much to my parents chagrin). So while no one was watching and with no other nerds grazing, I printed out the game. All 65000+ lines and smuggled the print out and started poring through it. First just reading through it wasn't giving me insight, it wasn't long until I started changing a line here or there and just see what that would do. Ultimately, once doing this over 9000 times, I had modified the code so that if I hit a modifier key, I could steer the "shell" wherever I wanted. I could make every shot look like a ricochet that managed to  find its way to the enemy tank. Shortly no one wanted to play me anymore, cause I beat them all soundly, every time! LOL

After Gr 9, we moved to the main high school, where we had a whole room of Pet CBMs, another room of ICON computer systems and one where we had 8 C64's. This last room was where all us nerds gathered, Tony, Mike, Tom, Sid Vicious, Calvin, Gary and a few other outliers. We got totally into the Ultima series of games, especially once Ultima 3 hit. We all had our black books of notes and would share solving the puzzles etc. As a collective hive mind, we sussed out the secrets and beat all the games. Someone even figured out that we could stack the 1541 drives so that we didn't have to swap disks as much. We also figured out quickly that you could hole punch the disk and flip it over and double the capacity of the disks!

This was a golden age of sorts for all of us. All kinds of fun playing the games and learning about computers, programming and systems classes, it was all amazing. It was an escape as well.

All I will say here is that if I didn't have computers, during this stretch, or one of my best friends taking his own life, things would have indeed turned out different.

Couldn't afford school, so I went out and worked for a bit, mundane jobs for the most part, warehouse manager for a mine equipment provider, assistant manager for a MET store and a few others.

After growing bored of these and wanting to return to my roots, I did so after hearing about a new program through Human Resources Development Canada, where they'd pay for my schooling and pay me a wage for attending.

At the end of the program, we had to do a work placement. They didn't have one for me. So like many other things I've done, I went out and found my own. This was for Elsag Bailey INC, programming controllers for automating processes within our pulp and paper mill. Of course they didn't start me there LOL. Shortly into my placement though, I caught on and learned enough to start. The boss at the time was very impressed that not only did I catch on so fast, but I was turning out code at an astounding rate. I was offered my first job in computers!! Good things can't last forever though and our office closed after 5 years.

More mundane, non computer jobs later, I was hired unseen, by a headhunter, but for my resume, to roll out 4500 computer systems for an oil company in Calgary. Long story short, our team completed the contract ahead of schedule and moved over into a break/fix capacity for them. Originally I was working for a headhunter and got hired on by the direct contract to the oil company. I did some dumb things during my probationary period and they had no obligation to hang on to me. So that was that. A number of valuable lessons learned and taken away from this.

All throughout my life, I have built my own computer systems, helped friends and family with their issues. A few years back now, I found a program through HRDC and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, that essentially would pay me a living wage to start up my own business. After helping everyone else for years and learning all I had on my own, both for pleasure and for work, it was really a no brainer what I would end up doing. In Nov 2012 Digital Dr was founded.

Since then it has evolved from a local repair business to more of a worldwide consulting and IT services company. I've always loved the creative aspects of the computer, music, graphic arts, video etc and am trying more and more to incorporate those things into what I do every day! I still love gaming and I think is the reason why I'm still doing what I do. I've watched 2 friends start their own businesses and slowly get burned out/slammed by the local economy to where now, I think even gaming isn't appealing as much anymore. I get it, I'll never let that happen here though. I'm having too much fun with this. It maybe should be illegal, but I'm sure as hell glad it's not.

Gaming is what has kept me learning and doing more within the industry. With my twitch stream and the other elements I've added to what I do at Digital Dr, has kept it fun and entertaining. I still love helping people and fixing problems, but now I can be more creative and in tune with my core philosophies and have an immense amount of fun, while "working"!

On Dadding:

My daughter is a pretty awesome young lady. She's a wonderful bubbly teen that loves anime, drawing, singing, playing piano (yay!), our kitties, youtube and weird (to me the old fart) dance moves. She's funny, charming and compassionate. She has a wonderful group of friends and it's always hilarious listening to them laugh or squeal with glee at something when they come visit. Watching her grow with just a little guidance (nope, no helicoptering) is amazing.  Being her dad makes me smile. I know I'm far from perfect, but I love her and mean well. I think she gets that, she's very intelligent ;)

© Digital Dr 2016 All rights reserved 229 Fourth St. W.  Fort Frances Ontario Canada

info at digitaldr (dot) ca

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© Digital Dr 2016 All rights reserved 229 Fourth St. W. Fort Frances Ontario Canada

dijidok (at) gmail (dot) com

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