Big Nerd of the Month: Steve Sparks
After a brief hiatus, we are pleased - nay ecstatic - to bring back the Big Nerd of the Month. For our regular blog...
3 min read
Oct 10, 2012
A “secret Superman†who expertly juggles three major projects while teaching onsite classes across the country. Who is that masked man you ask? Our own October Big Nerd of the Month, Chris Stewart.
This is actually the second appearance Chris has made on the Big Nerd Blog. Remember the epic Clash of the Coders? He and Bill Phillips made up Team Franklin, which earned the inaugural honors as the most bad-ass coders at the Ranch. And that’s really sayin’ something.
BNR Blog: Congratulations Chris! With a year-and-a-half tenure at the Ranch, you are practically considered an old timer. How’d you meet Aaron and come by gainful employment?
Chris: I first heard about Big Nerd Ranch and Aaron when I started learning to develop iPhone apps and bought one of Aaron’s books. When I was working on my master’s degree, Aaron gave a talk at my school. I went and asked him about a job afterwards and the rest is history.
BNR Blog: What is your favorite thing about working here?
Chris: The culture of learning. We are always learning new technology and really immersing ourselves in the things that we do.
BNR Blog: I have a minor obsession with bad movies. I understand that your favorite movies are Shaun of the Dead and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Two delightfully campy flicks leading me to a pair of important questions.
First, slow or fast zombies in your movie lore? (And of course, the internet has a full wiki debate on that matter. Brains!)
Chris: Definitely slow zombies. When I watch zombie movies, I like to imagine that there’s a way I would survive in that situation. You’ve got no chance with the fast zombies.
BNR Blog: Second, would you support a remake of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure?
Chris: YES. As long as it’s got the original Bill and Ted, I’m on board.
BNR Blog: I’m curious; as a bilingual developer – fluent in iOS and Android – what are your favorite tech gadgets?
Chris: Obviously, as an employee at Big Nerd Ranch, I love my Macbook Pro and iPhone. On the Android side, I will say that the original Motorola Xoom has held up like a champ since it was released more than a year ago. It’s been great for Android development (plus it’s gotten very quick Android version updates).
BNR Blog: Final question! Will you dress up for Halloween?
Chris: Yes. I haven’t nailed down a costume yet. I’ll be out of town teaching that week, so I’ll have to make sure costumes are acceptable for an instructor.
Chris actually left one question up to me to answer – always a dangerous proposition. What word or phrase best describes him? To answer it, I went back and reviewed the write-in explanations of why Chris earned Big Nerd of the Month. The answer was obvious.
I’m going to go with “Bad-Ass Coder, Secret Superman aka the Quiet Rock Star.â€
I like it. It juuuuust starts to describe how much we appreciate our October Big Nerd of the Month.
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