Any business will tell you that the most important asset it has is its team members. That’s what makes Rockton Rock! We work hard, we play hard and most of all we love what we do and we do it exceptionally well. We invite you to take a couple of minutes to get to know our awesome team as they give insights on a wide variety of topics.
Rockton Spotlight: Jim
Anyone who knows me knows this for sure: the most important things in my life are my wife (Ashlee), our kittehs (Jupiter, Ludwig, and Rupert) and snek (Lyra), and, of course, The Beatles (John, Paul, George, and Ringo). So, I thought I would share a few other things about my life in and outside of Rockton Software.
Years with Rockton?
This is my 17th year with Rockton. Since I live in Atlanta, GA, I have worked remotely for that entire time. In fact, I’ve been doing the work-at-home thing for nearly this entire millennium.
How many years have you been working in the channel?
I started in 1994, so 28 years. Back then, I used Dexterity (and Dynamics) version 2.01. The software was delivered to us on what most people today would know of as 3D-printed save button icons. Back in the day, they were used to store enough data to save a thumbnail image. We got a shoe box full of them just to load Dynamics.
What do you love about working at Rockton?
It’s really true; the people are the best part of Rockton. Nobody in the company lives within 500 miles of me, yet I consider these geezers (look who’s talking!) some of my closest friends.
What TV show you are binging?
We generally don’t binge TV. We savor it. If we find a good series, we want it to last, so we rarely watch more than one or two episodes at a time. We‘re currently “between shows,” but here’s a few showgrams that we’ve finished/caught up on recently:
- After Life – dark comedy by and starring Ricky Gervais (creator of The Office) about a guy dealing with the premature loss of his wife to cancer. Very touching and also hysterical at times. Pick a nation, he’s a national treasure.
- Succession – a dysfunctional family who are titans in their industry (media). It has an awesome ensemble cast, but Brian Cox as the patriarch and Kieran Culkin as the snarky youngest son are standouts for me.
- My Octopus Teacher – tear-jerker! I have not eaten pulpo since.
- {Oldy but Goldy category} A few all-time fave comedies: 30 Rock, Veep, and Broad City.
What is your must-have food?
Anything of the Latin persuasion. A feel-good, go-to, comfort food regular stop for us is a local, Atlanta chain called La Fonda Latina. The pollo a la parrilla is the bomb-y McBombface, and the queso and salsa are the best in the city.
Favorite pastime?
The Beatles
These days, it would have to be collecting Beatles records and other odd items. Here are a few of my recent finds:
Second and Third State “Butcher Covers.” Two different versions of the Yesterday And Today LP, released only in the US. If you’re interested in why this is considered one of the Holy Grails for Beatles record collectors, you can find the back story here.
Their first commercial release was a 45 rpm single of My Bonnie (i.e. My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean) and The Saints (i.e. When The Saints Go Marching In). It was recorded and initially released in Germany in 1961 and they were just the backup band for another Liverpool singer named Tony Sheridan. (Note that they were listed on the label as “The Beat Brothers”. That’s an amusing story in itself, but in order to be discreet, I will leave it to you to look it up!) This one has a picture sleeve signed by Tony.
This is a vintage 1968 box top from a box of Mackintosh chocolates. Most of the candies listed here were name-checked in George Harrison’s song Savoy Truffle, from the White Album. A box just like this one gave George inspiration for the song. Here is the full story behind the writing of that yummy classic.
Photoshop
Second to that would be photoshopping stuff. Let’s be honest, it’s usually putting our cats into things. My latest project was the calendar I made for Ashlee that combined my love of our Furry Fam with my love of the Fab Four. I am posting each month as we come to them on my Insta, and you can see them here.
Here are a few other projects that I particularly enjoyed doing:
Best adulting advice
Keep things in perspective. Think about how much it will probably matter to you in five years. Five years will be here before you know it and then you’ll wonder why you made such a big deal about it.
Also? Make up words when it suits you. There are no rules.
