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Hey there! For starters, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to my blog, and let you know that I appreciate your visit. If you’ve made it this far then I’m assuming you want to know more about this blog and what the inspiration for it is.

Well, my name is Cliff Gunn. I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Mississippi. My current title is Sr. Software Engineer at Schneider Electric. You can find more information about my career on my LinkedIn page. I have a wonderfully, unique wife, Sarah, and we welcomed our first little boy into the world in December of 2014, Jackson Waco. We also have 3 furry children, 2 dogs and a cat, running around at home (Gambit, Tanner, and Peaches).

I have always had a passion and a hankering for everything that is art. As a kid, I took private lessons. After that from the ages of about 11-16, I took classes at school. Then finally, I gained a Minor in Studio Art, while attending college at Ole Miss. So, all-in-all I have around 13 years of formal art training, which ranges from drawing, to painting, to print making, to pottery, to sculpture, to graphic design, etc.

The way I initially got into Computer Science was almost fateful. I was in the upstairs of the Computer Science building at Ole Miss studying for a Biology final exam with a good friend of mine. Well, we decided to take a little break, and he went off to call the girl he was dating at the time. So, I was left sitting there by myself, and I decided to get up and walk around to stretch my legs. As it turned out, Dr. Conrad Cunningham, the Chair of the Computer Science department at the time, was in his office writing up a final exam for his students. When I walked by I noticed he was in there I stopped and knocked on his door and asked him, “What is Computer Science?” So, on a random night when we were both incredibly busy and didn’t have the time, Dr. Cunningham took the time to explain to me what Computer Science is and what the applications for it in the real world are. Almost exactly 1 year later I went straight back to his office and asked him what I needed to do to change my major to Computer Science. Dr. Cunningham became my mentor during my time at Ole Miss, and the rest is history.

During my time at Ole Miss, I realized that I have two very big interests in the world of Computer Science, building web sites and robotics. Building websites allows me to use the skills that I’ve learned on a professional level, while also incorporating my art background. The art of learning how to effectively construct a page to make it the optimal level of aesthetically pleasing and incredibly functional and usable is a goal that I strive towards every day. I hope I never reach it. Then, there’s robotics. This field allows me to build things and put into practice programming, some of the things that I learned in sculpture classes, and most importantly physically being able to watch something that I’ve created come to life. For me, there’s no greater feeling than watching a robot successfully complete a task that I programmed it to complete, or when it successfully interacts with another human being appropriately. Robotics is a field that I’m really just a novice in, but I don’t think I’ll ever quit tinkering with it. Robotics truly captivates me every time I work in the field.

I have many other hobbies. I thoroughly enjoy wood working, metal working, running, fishing, hiking, camping, kayaking,… really just about anything that involves the outdoors and building stuff. I tinker with just about all phases of wood working. Anything from a hammer and chisel, building furniture, cigar box guitars, toys, etc. Wood working is something that I got into fairly heavily while renovating a previous home for three and a half years. I rebuilt stairs, framed out walls, built an entire workshop from scratch, built railings on the front porch and in the house, along with many other things. It was one of the most fun and most awful projects that I’ve ever taken on. I can’t say that I would ever live in a home renovation again though. Metal working is something that I do the most when building my own robots. Then, all of the outdoors things that I enjoy are mostly a product of growing up in Mississippi. If not for my wife, child, and job I would probably only stay inside on nice days strictly for the practice of sleeping. Otherwise, I would be out exploring or doing some type of physical activity.

I feel like there’s a lot more that I could put here, but this is already a pretty lengthy segmented life story. So, for the sake of getting way to long winded and just writing an autobiography on this section I’m going to go ahead and conclude it. Hopefully this give a bit more perspective and backing to this blog as far as where things come from. I’ve always seemed to have interests in things that most people would categorize as being at opposite ends of the spectrum. So, I could see where this blog could seem some what random to someone that just stumbles across it.

Anyways I hope you enjoy the blog and keep coming back. Don’t forget to tell your friends about it, and by all means please share posts on any and all forms of social media.