About the Author
Hello. My name is Rob Friesel. But for the most part, the web has me down as @founddrama.
Software by day…
I’m currently a Lead Software Engineer with New Relic, doing my part to make alerts more humane, and the internet a better place.
From 2003 to 2019, I was at Dealer.com, where I held a variety of roles over my lengthy tenure. My parting role was as Lead User Experience Architect for the ControlCenter platform, where I helped Product and Engineering teams by stitching together user narratives so that those ergonomics don’t get buried under business requirements and technical constraints. Before assuming this role, I was a Technical Lead, and had focused most of my engineering career on user interface work. Before that, I started my career in technical support and customer service; those experiences were formative and gave me important insights that have guided my craft along the way.
Believe it or not, my liberal arts background has been brought to bear in some unexpected ways and places. I wrote the PhantomJS Cookbook and have contributed as technical reviewer or editor on several others, including: The Joy of Clojure, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (3rd Ed.), Principles of Object-Oriented Programming in JavaScript, Functional JavaScript, and Understanding JavaScript Promises.
Science fiction writer by night…
When time, energy, and children permit, I labor away on my childhood dream of becoming a novelist. Science fiction is where I’ve found my strongest voice, and that’s where I dabble most. I have a few irons in the fire, with a couple drafts ready to be polished as soon as I prioritize them. I tend to be long-winded (hence the novels) but nevertheless found my first publishing success with a short story: “Where the Air is Sweet and the Clouds are a Different Shape”, which appeared in Angela Palm’s Please Do Not Remove.
In the meantime, if you happen to be attending or visiting my alma mater, you may find my senior St. Mary’s project bound in the “St. Mary’s Collection”. (Please do not find my senior St. Mary’s project.)
Weekend homebrewer…
After a life-long desire to give beer-brewing a whirl, I did just that in August 2014. That first beer took second place in a very small competition. I brewed at a cadence of about twice a month from then until about 2019. I’ve also ventured into making mead, and won “Mead Maker of the Year” in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Greg Noonan Memorial Homebrew Competitions. (The 2019 winner also took 3rd place in the first round of NHC in Boston.) Perhaps my biggest accomplishment though was winning the first Corral Cup at the 2019 Greg Noonan Memorial Homebrew Competition and getting to brew my bière de garde on the Stone Corral system.
To make myself a better brewer, I also got involved in the BJCP® to help judge homebrew competitions. I passed the tasting exam in 2018 with a score of 84 and managed to earn enough points to get my Certified ranking before the close of that year. In 2022 I took the BJCP® written exam and earned a score which — combined with my experience points — leveled me up to a National rank as of July 2023.
In 2022, I took a role at Black Flannel as beer educator, earned the Certified Cicerone® credential and have my sights set on the Advanced Cicerone® rank. We also brew a variation on my Festbier recipe as our autumn Oktoberfest seasonal.
Directory Assistance
If you don’t get enough of me here, or believe it’s easier to stay in touch through one of those so-called social networks:
Friends, family, supporters, and well-wishers: feel free to make donations or order up presents from my Amazon.com Wishlist, here. And of course, you should buy a book or two:
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