About

Who: I was born at Chicago’s Mt. Sinai Hospital a week before the worst blizzard the city has ever seen. This can hardly be considered a coincidence. Since then, I’ve lived in Gage Park, Marquette Park, Oak Lawn, Evanston, Rogers Park, Bloomingdale (what?), Chinatown, Printer’s Row, Forest Glen, and River Forest where I currently reside with my wife, two kids, and a big brown dog in a crumbling Tudor previously inhabited by feral animals.

I won my first guitar after a hot streak at the craps table at Vegas Night at the now-defunct Lourdes High School when I was seven years old. I have been a professional musician since age thirteen and continue to work today in sessions and on stage as time permits.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I would hang out after school at the Oak Lawn Public Library and use their Apple ][e computer to create primitive text-based adventure games and a crude DBMS to store song lyrics. I can still remember at least half of the 6502 microprocessor’s machine code. I went on to get a BS from Northwestern and an MS from UIC (aka University of Illinois - Cement), both in Computer Science. My Master’s thesis ran to about 100 pages; the title alone could literally bore you to death.

I’ve been developing software professionally for over twenty years, more than half of it doing automated, high-velocity equity and equity derivatives trading. I am currently in the early phases of a startup venture in the exciting world of home automation technology.

When I’m not chasing kids, bugs, or gigs, I try to keep our house from falling down around us and to find a little time for writing therapy.

If you need to get in touch, you can email john at scholvin dot com, after executing the appropriate text substitutions, of course.

What: Music, politics, kids, sports, current events, computers, technology, the interwebs, science, math, writing, food & drink, financial markets, extreme home repair.