About Burlimonster

Burlimonster has been the name I’ve used online since 2007. However, most of my online history has been working with other brands. I’m certainly not new to the content creator thing, but Burlimonster is the new home for all my other ventures. Over time, I grew tired of managing multiple brands for the content I create and decided to bundle all of them together with my Burlimonster content. What you’ll see in my history is from Rocky Mountain Mac Repair, Cocoa Touch Apps, Social Apples, Fix Denver, Drift Management, Eciov, TUAW and several other publications.

Am I a Journalist?

I suppose in many ways, the answer would be yes. Without a degree in journalism, can you really claim to be one? Probably not. I studied engineering, psychology, politics, and music in college — it’s always been hard for me to pick one thing to do. So… I’m not technically a journalist, but I do a lot of the same things. Concert photography, product reviews, interviews, guides, etc. — it may look like journalism, but I’m here to have fun and prevent this from becoming a “job.” I meticulously research each subject until I’ve exhausted my resources, but there’s nothing drab about my writing. Everything I will produce from this point forward will have humor and a positive impact on community. That doesn’t really sound like journalism to me; maybe we can change the definition together!

My IRL History

My life started in college; everything before that is typical growing up stuff. I spent my high school career optimizing my college application for the United States Air Force Academy. It’s incredibly difficult to become a cadet, but I was accepted in the first round of applicants. Why the Air Force? I wanted to fly. My dad has his private pilot’s license, and he brought me with him nearly every time he flew. Those trips are some of my favorite childhood memories. After spending time at the Academy, however, I realized being a military pilot just wasn’t for me. It happens. I spent the next year trying to find that “something else.” I didn’t have a backup plan, so I studied civil engineering, computer science, psychology, and even politics. None of them seemed like the right path forward at the time. So, I left and moved to Denver to finish school.

Music was the obvious choice even though I knew it wouldn’t go anywhere. I love it. It’s my favorite thing to do in my free time. I studied music and got a job as a “Mac Genius” at the Apple store in the Park Meadows Mall. Apple was actually kind of fun; they taught me a lot about customer service and helping others. From there I went to an independent Apple repair shop for a couple years before I started Rocky Mountain Mac Repair. During my time in the Apple cult, I started an iPhone blog called Cocoa Touch Apps. I thought it was a spiffy name at the time, but Apple quickly stopped referring to iOS as Cocoa Touch. Eventually, I changed the name to Social Apples. Soon after the name change, TUAW (an Apple news site produced by AOL) noticed my writing and asked me to join their team.

It wasn’t until 2015 that I revived Social Apples and turned it into the 2015 version of eciov.com. Much of that content you can still find here on this site. At that time, I was managing five different brands (beard oil, anyone?); I had no idea how draining that would be. Over the next five years, I’ve slowly but surely integrated everything into the Burlimonster brand. Now, I only manage two brands: Burlimonster and Neon Studio.

What is Neon Studio?

Neon Studio is my company; I run a user experience consulting agency that helps brands listen to and accommodate their users by improving their website or app. It’s a really cool gig that lets me interview users about their needs in the digital realm. It requires an extremely high level of empathy and an ability to relate to others as well. Am I good at it? Well, I think so… I’ve had a very successful career thus far. At this point, Neon is on the back burner as I work for a major corporation as a user experience and accessibility expert.

Do You Want to Help?

That’s about it for me. If you’ve read everything up to this point, maybe you’d considering joining “Burly’s Monster Pack.” I’m looking for motivated people to help promote the content I produce, moderate the community, and potentially contribute to our content. Specifically: sharing our content on social media, moderating discord and the forums, editing videos, writing scripts, etc. Content creation is hard to do by yourself. If you’re willing to help, I’d love to have you.

I love you all,

Burlimonster