About Barry 'bmac2' McCormick · Barry McCormick

About Barry 'bmac2' McCormick

Hillbillies and Moonshiners, OH MY Link to heading

I am of Scotch/Irish decent, specifically the Scotch-Irish that immigrated to the US, originally in the Pennsylvania area, then migrated south into the foothills of the Applacian Mountains. Mainly, most of my relatives are from Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama where I was raised. All the jokes aside, my family really is from a long line of moonshiners and bootleggers. My family is not known for being the most law abiding group. Those of you know know me I am SURE are shocked at that since I am such a quiet follow the rules person.

Boaz-Crossville Area

Above is a map of the area north Alabama where i was raised. I was born in Union
near Boaz, AL. It was on a 40 acre farm that was originally part of the homestead my grandfather homesteaded. I was born in Union near Boaz and lived there until I was 5, then we bought a farm in between Crossville and Geraldine where I lived until I was 18. Route 3, Box 399, Crossville, AL. It was a 60 acre farm with chicken houses. We raised cattle, chickens and baled and sold hay. I hated being on a farm and never want to go back.

The Rock House

My grandfather homesteaded a huge tract of land near Union, AL, and his house he built by hand (“The Rock House”) still stands today. Above is the pic of the house I got from the street view on Google Maps. The entire house was hand built and the rock was collected on the property. There is a push to get it onto the national registry of homes. I had not been in that house in 40 years, at least, until I went back to Alabama for my 50th birthday. The gentleman that owns it let me go in and see it and take pictures. Above is the pic I pulled off of google showing the outside of “The Rock House” as it has always been called in my family.

Obviously I was raised in North Alabama, went to Crossville High School until my senior year when I went to Boaz High School. I was a band nerd, played baritone horn. Worked in a Hardee’s during high school. Graduated High School and went to LSU for a year, then went to Gadsden State JR College, then to Alabama. I have my BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from Alabama.

While I lived in Alabama until I was 18 I have lived in a lot of places. I lived in Baton Rouge, LA, and went to LSU for 2 semesters. I lived in Tuscaloosa, AL and went to the University of Alabama. I lived in the Jackson, MS area, Greenwood, SC area. I joined the Army while in living in Greenwood and did my basic training at Ft Dix, NJ. Then I did my AIT at Ft McClellan, AL. Then moved to Ft Hood, TX where I spent my entire 4 years of the Army. Bought a house in Killeen, TX. Once I left the Army my wife and I moved back to Tuscaloosa for me to finish my MS. After that I worked in Austin, TX, then Houston, TX. Left Houston to move to New Orleans, LA. After a tremoulteous time at Shell Oil Company ( I promise to write more about that sometime ), I moved to Salt Lake City, UT with my ex-wife. Lived there for 18 years, and hated every minute of that place. Now my wife and I live in southern Washington, just across the river 25 miles or so from Portland. Below is a map of the area we live in. Our mailing address in in Amboy, WA, but we live in the community of Fargher Lake. We own 5 acres on the side of a hill there in the woods. I am really fond of the saying “It is all GOOD in the WOODS!” due to living here. Interesting fact, we do not live that far from Mt Saint Helens, the famous volcano mountain that blew its’ top in 1983.

Fargher Lake

In my later years I have been a sysadmin/DevOps/SRE/System Analyst, etc. Mainly working in the computer software fields. I have used every Operating System I think ever created. I have always been obsessed with how they work and their design. I have lots of nerdy bad habits and hobbies. Most of this website will be about all my hobbies and interests. I just hope that some of the howtos I do on here help someone learn something. I feel that I have spent a lot of years learning and doing stuff and yet, so little of the time documenting what I have learned. This sudden push to do this is a way to get myself back into the sharing of knowledge that I so love to do. The pandemic really stopped all the meetups and conferences, so any avenues of sharing have been curtailed.

I am a huge Open Source and BSD proponent. I honestly think Microsoft and most of their products are inane at best, criminal at worst. I am a former college professor, so I believe knowledge is to be shared and taught, not hidden away and kept from people. Below are projects that I either follow, or have worked on over the years, all open source projects:

Other things that I am interested in and spend a lot of time doing is:

  • woodworking
  • home automation
  • beer brewing
  • off grid camping
  • raising bulldogs
  • fishing
  • kayak/canoeing

I have several other websites on topic other than the nerdy stuff here:

Please feel free to look at those too.