All About Kodiak
I really don’t like talking about myself, but since this is my personal site, I guess I should say something…
My name is Jason Pitoniak, and I’m a twentysomething guy living in Rochester, NY. (I say twentysomething not because I am trying to hide my age, but because past experience tells me that I will get older before this page gets updated.) I am a pretty laid-back, easy going kind of guy. I never let things get to me and just live life as it comes. In fact, one of my colleagues recently described me a being “Type ‘B’ with a capital ‘B’.”
I grew up in a small city in Western Massachusetts and moved to an even smaller town around the time I became a teenager. I came to Rochester in 1996 to go to RIT.
I graduated from RIT in 2000 with a degree in IT, but they wouldn’t let me leave. The department that I was working for as a student had an opening, so I was eventually hired as an Educational Technology Specialist (it took them more than a year to finalize things). That basically means that I’m a web and multimedia developer who is also called on to do just about anything else you can imagine using a computer to do.
One of the nice perks of working for a university is that I get to take classes for free. I am currently working on my Master’s Degree, also in IT. Since I specifically work for NTID, I am also taking sign language classes. Sign language is a fun and interesting language to learn. I took four years of French in high school and I barely remember any of it. Hopefully it will be different for sign.
I also own my own web development business, Interbrite Communications. While I do offer full web design services, and I seem to have a decent sense of design (I designed this site, so judge for yourself), I do not consider myself to be a designer. With Interbrite I specialize in web applications that allow customers and employees to interact with a company’s website (shopping carts and whatnot).
When I’m not sitting in front of a computer working on a website, you can often find me at Tay House Cabin in Cobbs Hill Park, where I am an Assistant Scoutmaster (and webmaster) for Tay House Boy Scout Troop 19. I am an Eagle Scout myself and scouting gave me a lot of opportunities to try new things and many great experiences. I joined Tay House so that I could give back some of what scouting gave me. I enjoy working with our scouts and they really seem to look up to me.
In my free time I enjoy hiking, camping, biking, canoeing, or pretty much anything that can be done outside. I’ve been on a 10-day backpacking trip in New Mexico and I’ve hiked portions of the Appalachian Trail. I can often be found simply walking or biking along the Erie Canal or through my Park Ave. neighborhood. I also enjoy hanging out with friends or just relaxing at home with a good book or a DVD.
