JOHN DESTACAMENTO
It was 1983 when I first discovered that I was a fast learner. At age 15, I was a Disc Jockey and Break Dancer. A cool kid still in high school however jobless and we had to save our allowance in order to purchase vinyl records for our gigs. But soon we earned funds to purchase some audio equipment. Although we began earning money, it was not enough to buy DJ accessories such as cases and lighting. So one day, I purchased wood from a hardware store, borrowed my dad's tools, then built our cases to hold two turntables and a DJ mixer. From there on, building things from wood became a hobby which soon spun off to building our own DJ speakers, light show fixtures including the electronic controllers.
A few years later I found myself installing high-end car stereo systems and building the customized speaker enclosures. This spun off to modifying car suspensions. By the early 90's I began to offer show car enthusiast "Kandy" Color Paint jobs (House of Kolor). This was a sophisticated process which involved a 12 paint coat process and specialized techniques.
In 1995, AOL (America Online) was the ultimate social internet trend. Besides checking email and hanging in chat rooms, AOL provided website hosting and to write your own HTML pages. This enticed learning how to code. I bought a book on basic HTML and soon published my first website called Mgeworld.com (Music Gallery Entertainment) on a linux operating system. This first website was to promote my Disc Jockey services, obviously right? Since graphics was another important aspect of website design, I decided to learn Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. During 1997 to 2002, website design services provided a steady part-time income. This allowed me to leave my full-time job as a Production Control Analyst at Silicon Graphics, Inc. During this freelancer phase, I had the opportunity to design websites for Ecommerce Companies, Music Record Labels, Employment Agencies and even a newspaper organization called Asian American Times.
"As of now I wish to pass on all my skills as a Full Stack Web Developer. If only time was on my side, I would find time to teach people how to mix 12 inch vinyl records, break dance, take apart your car and produce electronic music. "
Being a young entrepreneur meant I had a lot more time to experiment on new things. Music continued to be a strong passionate hobby. Other than a Disc Jockey for events and night clubs along with making mixed tapes, I became curious to learn about digital music. I bought a Midi Keyboard, Cakewalk DAW (Digital Audio Workstation along with a Roland JV-1010 Sound Module. Later, a lot more devices were purchased and it didn't take long to provide full music production. I became an executive producer for two CD Compilations on Destini West Records and Loud Impact. Today I am still skillful with some of the top music applications such as ProTools LE and FL Studio version 20.
In 2002, I decided to pursue a career as a personal trainer. As a fitness professional I continued to improve my web development skills as clients still came my way asking for my web design services. As internet connectivity became faster, developers started to integrate videos to their websites. This opened up another opportunity to learn Adobe Premiere to create fantastic fitness videos. Back then YouTube was still in the infant stage so we were getting thousands of views per week for our fitness videos. One of our videos premiered at number one for several consecutive months. Today it has 372,000 views? Currently, I'm fluent with Cyberlink Pro Director for video editing. Want a full green screen production? No problem! Around 2010 I began learning PHP, MySQL and Javascript.
Moving on to my 19th year as full-time personal trainer, I have exceeded 30,000+ hourly sessions. Most in the world to date? Part of this experience was teaching Personal Training Certification Classes at De Anza College for W.I.T.S. World Instructor Training Schools. Almost two decades as a fitness professional, I feel that I have fulfilled a wonderful career. As I approach my mid-50's I am now realizing that I have accumulated a lot of valuable skills especially in Full-Stack Web Development. These are not just ordinary web development skill sets. I believe I have created trademark techniques and practices which are authentic to the web development community. Ironically, there are no apprentices that have learned these skills. Apparently it now feels like an obligation to spread knowledge to others so they can help improve their lives. This is what led me to Globacate. To Globally Educate. As of now, I wish to pass on all my skills as a Full Stack Web Developer. If only time was on my side, I would find time to teach people how to mix 12 inch vinyl records, break dance, take apart your car and produce electronic music.
