Hi, welcome to my website.  Here you will find random rants, raves and writings on things that interest me.  This is not intended as a commercial blog, so no link building at all, just random truths from how I see the world.  I speak with candor, providing my view of the world from my experience.

I currently reside in Paris, France; where I have recently transplanted myself from the Washington DC area after many years. I am the proud father of two loving, inquisitive, well-adjusted and compassionate children, Bailey Catherine and Samuel Emerson. They are the light of my life.

I am also the great grandson of George Platt Waller, the American Chargé d’Affaires to Luxembourg in the 1930s and post World War II. He was defined by his defiant disregard to the Nazi Third Reich’s push into Luxembourg and its resulting ouster of everything Luxembourgish.

I enjoy many hobbies, activities and sports and find myself drawn to new experiences like a moth to a flame. My desire for intellectual and emotional stimulation is such that I seek out these new experiences in the unlikeliest of places.

Feel free to tell me how you feel about my posts, writings, etc.  I have a few disclaimers though.  My view is not the only view of the world.  I do not denigrate others’ opinions or their views. There is more than enough space in the world, my heart and my mind to accept the views of many. Though I check my site, I do not always have the time to immediately respond to messages as Internet access in France is quite expensive and somewhat slow.

Topics that might interest you in this blog are the following:

• Za Zen Meditation:  I am a practicing Buddhist in the meditative sense.  Although I believe in Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammad being Boddhisattvas, enlighted holy members of their communities, I do not practice in any particular ceremonies or attend a church regularly.  Yes, I still celebrate Christmas and Easter and sometimes go to mass but I do it more out of the sense of community with my family and friends.  I am still seeking ultimate enlightenment.
• Cooking – I consider myself an excellent cook.  I have been cooking for 30+ years.  Have been professionally trained as well.  I run a cookie company and I when I retire someday, I am going to be a professional chef.  It is my one true love and the one thing I never tire of, no matter how many hours I am in the kitchen.
• Budget Blasters – I love saving money.  Some people call me cheap, some call me frugal, but one thing I do not do is skimp on quality.  If there is a way that I can save myself money, I’m there.  Whether its coupons, getting something for free or improving a process, I will always seek to do it the low cost way.  I am this way with my own personal budget as well as with customers.
• Music:  I love music in almost every form.  I play piano, guitar and sing quite often.  I also play bass, both electrical Jazz and Classical upright; albeit it has been a few years.  I have also played the euphonium, trumpet, trombone, violin and clarinet.  Yes, I used to be a band geek!
• Travel:  I love travel, especially when it is not related to work!  Just kidding, I will travel at the drop of a dime.  It has to do with my upbringing as an Army brat and living overseas in much of my formative years.  I have been to every country in Europe.  I have been to the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.  I have my heart set on Australia, Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, including Greenland.
• Funny Stuff:  OK, I find the oddest things funny.  You, the reader, may or may not find it funny.  If you do great, if you don’t that’s cool too.
• Organization:  I am chronically trying to organize just about everything I get into; whether that’s my home, my car, my office or my life.  If I have organization tips or stories to share, I will.
• Process Improvement:  I am a freak when it comes to process improvement.  Maybe that’s the engineer in me:  ”If it ain’t broke, take it apart anyway and figure out how you can make it better”.  Whether it’s developing software routines, breaking apart some gadget or just making something work better, I will tend to write (or boast) about it.
• Restructure:  I call this category restructure.  How do you change your thinking and perspective on things?  Maybe this is a category you might like.

Enjoy,

For your edification, my professional summary is below:

Mr. Bullard is a dedicated Software Development Project Lead, SOA and Enterprise Systems Architect, proficient in all leading-edge development technologies, featuring J2EE, Java, XML, The UML, Internet, XUL, and Web-based programs, with over 14 years of service in the DoD and Intelligence Community and over 18 years total in IT development and architecture. An authority on Web site design in the federal sector, he created one of the first public Pentagon Web sites in 1995, and is highly experienced with Rapid Application Development.

Mr. Bullard has written an information technology book, “Essential XUL Programming: The XML-Based User Interface Language” (July 2001-Wiley & Sons, Inc.). He has made significant technical contributions to many technical manuscripts and books that have been published by colleagues and friends.

He is currently a member of the following professional organizations:

• IEEE
• ACM
• North American Cartographic Information Society
• OASIS
• Association of Old Crows
• International Institute for Software Testing

Currently, Mr. Bullard is the CEO and Founder of build.Automate, Inc.  The objective of build.Automate is to build process, governance and automation solutions for enterprises.  In addition, product development centers around development of toolkit solutions for service oriented architectures and content management systems, also in the areas of process, governance and automation.

In his previous position, Mr. Bullard was a solutions architect with AmberPoint Inc.-the premier web services management company. In this position, he acted as a senior technical consultant for the Customer Experience (CE) group. He also acted as an AmberPoint representative to the OASIS standards body. In addition, he was a member of the SAML, BPEL, WSDM, WSN, and WSRF technical committees. He was a voting technical committee member of the Web Services Distributed Management Working Group. He is also the author/editor of OASIS WSDM MUWS 1.1-1 and 1.1-2 standards as well as the Introduction to WSDM Committee Draft.

Mr. Bullard has designed, developed, and participated in the enterprise architecture implementation of high-end J2EE systems for many customers, including but not limited to: SuccessTrade Securities, Hey! Software, AT&T Government Solutions, IBM, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Naval Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Information Systems Agency, SAIC, and Secretary of the Air Force-Acquisition. In addition to federal sectors, he has experience with many commercial Fortune 500 companies in the United States and across the world, including foreign governments implementing SOA solutions.

His most recent accomplishments include leading a 24-person project to SEI-Capability Maturity Model Level 3 certification and leading that same team to a new J2EE-based architecture and architecting ESM solutions for large-scale SOA implementations across the world..

An effective and experienced communicator, he designs and teaches courses on XML, SOA and other technologies for various universities. He has also taught two courses at Learning Tree International, including XML Hands On and The Unified Modeling Language. With varying fluency, he has conducted training, seminars and presentations in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Danish. A talented graphic designer, Mr. Bullard is considered a subject matter expert in Human-Computer Interface design.

In his personal time, Mr. Bullard enjoys do-it-yourself projects, photography, playing music and competitive firearms shooting. In addition, he enjoys riding his Ducati Monster S4RS Testastretta motorcycle throughout the mid-Atlantic states. He enjoys travel and has experienced more than 32 countries and 37 states.