Dean P. Simmer

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Technologist

Technology has always been a passionate part of my life. As a child, I used to imitate the Saturday CBS Evening News anchor, Bob Schieffer, and record my own newscasts on my Fisher Price cassette recorder. From there, I graduated to building a spreadsheet of every one of my baseball cards, but I gave up when the file reached the limits of early 1990s Microsoft Excel and a 3.5″ floppy disc. Yes, this is what I did for fun as a child who owned well over 50,000 baseball cards.

From there, I moved to building a custom “database” (read: fancy Excel sheet) for my uncle’s business and converted all of his paper files to a digital roster compiling a decade of clients. Pretty cool for a 15-year-old, I’ll grant you.

In college I had the opportunity to work for my college IT department, eventually taking on special projects for professors and staff for the last two years of college. I was, in essence, the help desk helper monkey (somewhere, I still have an ID that says as much) and I did everything from rebuilding server closets to migrating an entire collection of digital imagery to a Canto Culumus Digital Asset Management deployment.

After college, I moved to the Detroit area and got married. By happenstance, I met someone who was starting up a Catholic high school that needed some IT help. It started as a consulting gig, helping identify USAC e-Rate vendors and making sure there were some basic technology resources for the first year of the school. By year two I was building a Computer Applications curriculum, and by year three I was splitting time between teaching in the classroom and building a full-fledged IT department. I developed the first website, ran the school social media accounts, and handled the helpdesk on the side. I did that for eight years and its a big part of my story.

In the summer of 2016 I took my talents from Southwest Detroit to downtown, joining a technology firm that started in Kalamazoo and added a Detroit office in 2015. I’m a managed services engineer for clients all over the country, but the bulk of my day is supporting clients in greater Detroit. Servers, network infrastructure, email, helpdesk, you name it, that is what I do.

Other Words

About a Basement Full of Sand

Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, wasn’t the only big deal in her family. Her brother Henry Ward Beecher, a well-known abolitionist and preacher of the era, was a supporter of the anti-slavery group in the Kansas Territory. His organization raised funds to supply them guns. They became known colloquially as “Beecher […]

About a Statement

So an acknowledgement: the Nashville statement bullshit is exactly the type of thing that caused me to leave the ministry I was in. (Swears and spoken slang below. It’s written as I spoke it, not as a quality, edited written word. Whatever. Insert snarky GIF here.) First, about the statement itself. A huge majority of […]

About Humanity, Mimosas, and SVU

I distinctly remember telling my friend Justin why I loved Law & Order. The show that often billed their episodes as “ripped from the headlines” found a way to humanize those same headlines that seemed to be banal statistics. A murder. A rape. A crime spree. By high school, those things felt like just natural […]

About My Chemical Romance and My Friend Dylan

As a teenager/college student, I was a punk/alt/metal kid. A lot of it started in the Tooth&Nail/Solid state family, but it grew pretty wide beyond that. Norma Jean, Demon Hunter, Emery, and Anberlin were my favorites, hands down. I was never a Warped Tour kid, I never rolled in the scene, I was just an […]

About Faces, Drums, and Arms

A few months ago I asked Sergeant Scary to draw me my next tattoo. We spoke for a bit about what I wanted it to convey. My narrative goes something like this: I’m Padre. I am one of several people that lead chants for the Northern Guard Supporters. The NGS motif is skeletal, so the […]

About Shining Light on the Darkness of Depression

A while back I wrote about having depression and I’ll be honest, the response was unreal. My community, especially the group of people in the greater Northern Guard Supporters/Detroit City FC community, has been nothing but incredible in supporting me. It turns out that many of us share a fight against mental illnesses and adversities. Some […]

About theology, community and soccer supporting

Recently some friends of mine invited me on their theology/ministry podcast to talk about the soccer supporter community here in Detroit. I get it, that might seem weird, marrying theology and a soccer supporter community that encompasses every view of religion under the sun. But I promise it makes sense. Consider: the soccer supporter community has […]

About Having Depression

Note: I’m not writing this because a famous actor died, although that has forced some important conversations into the limelight. I’m not writing this to garner any sympathy because we all have our own diseases and struggles. I’m writing this for me, to try and give me a small step toward healing. I don’t remember when […]

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About a Basement Full of Sand

Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, wasn't the only big deal in her family. Her brother Henry Ward Beecher, a well-known abolitionist and preacher of the era, was a supporter of … [Read More...]

About a Statement

So an acknowledgement: the Nashville statement bullshit is exactly the type of thing that caused me to leave the ministry I was in. (Swears and spoken slang below. It's written as I spoke it, not … [Read More...]

Bio

I'm proud to be the husband to Giles, a wonderful woman and opera singer who performs under her full name, Dorcas Giles. We met in college and decided to spend our lives adventuring together. Together … ...read

Technologist

Technology has always been a passionate part of my life. As a child, I used to imitate the Saturday CBS Evening News anchor, Bob Schieffer, and record my own newscasts on my Fisher Price cassette … ...more

Detroit City FC

Soccer was never a love of mine growing up, although I played it for a few years. I have a few professional teams I've grown to love in my adult life, but that's due in large part to an attachment to … ...more

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