About me

I was born in Brownsville, TX in the 60’s and would say I excelled in sports and in the classroom, in that order. Actually I was very good with school work and didn’t have to try very hard to get good grades, but I liked playing sports even more. I tended to get bored and glided through school to the point I joined the U.S. Army after high school somewhat to fill some time until I figured out what I wanted to do the rest of my life.

Joining the military also fulfilled a desire I had since I was little boy and I didn’t want to go through life regretting not having enlisted and serving my country.

Experiencing basic training with its demanding physical requirements as well as exhausting mental stress, and completing many other difficult things that I would never had been tasked to do in the civilian world was worth more to me than the money I made while serving in the Army.

Even now in my 50’s, I still refer to those days now when I’m confronted with a situation that I need to conquer and know that I have the resources to accomplish my goals and complete the task at hand.

Walter Cromack is my pen name. Walter for my favorite broadcaster when I was growing up, and perhaps the most trusted man in America, Walter Cronkite, and Cromack for my elementary school, or the beginnings of my introduction to learning. I enjoy mental activity and engaging my mind in problem solving, analytical thinking and other methods of stimulating the brain such as puzzles, word games and testing my memory.

I’m a computer programmer by trade, of more than 20 years now, having developed mission-critical applications for my employer plus a few applications just for fun.

I’m still surprised at what I’ve been able to accomplish having come from one of the poorest parts of the United States, but feel absolutely blessed that I was dealt such a great hand in life.

As a programmer I failed many times during the development of a program but I never let those individual setbacks hold me back of the ultimate goal. When the program is released and installed by the end-user, they don’t know that I could’ve spent an entire day agonizing over a complicated algorithm just to make one button work correctly on a screen. They just see the end result (success!) and not the individual failures I encountered along the way. The important thing is to not give up, stay focused, make adjustments if necessary and don’t lose sight of the desired result.

In addition to computer programming one of my other interests is writing, and thus the creation of this blog.

I hope you enjoy my writings, and hope they’re neither too deep nor too complex, and rather just want to share my ideas and a little advice that could possibly help someone succeed and enjoy life.

Which reminds me, success and failure is determined by each one of us. The effort we put into a task offers more insight into our success than just numbers or stats ever can. The reward we get from having put all of our effort into something will give us more satisfaction and pride than any  grade or score can. Just like when you exercise: it’s only when you feel so exhausted at the end of the session that you feel you’re going to be rewarded for your efforts. That’s how life works as well.

Stay tuned for more on my experiences in life, including some from the military that will make you laugh, plus others that relate to difficult situations and how they always seem to work themselves out. Meaning that we end up regretting the time we spent worrying about them. Right?

God Bless, and happy reading to all!