This post is part of the OpenStack Open Mic series to spotlight the people who have helped make OpenStack successful. Each week, a new contributor will step up to the mic and answer five questions about OpenStack, cloud, careers and what they do for fun. 
Christopher works for Rackspace on the OpenStack Heat project, focusing on autoscaling. I’ve been contributing to open source software for over ten years now, and I love working in Python. I spent a bit of time in the game industry, and while it can be fun, I’m happy to be back working on system/framework-level software, especially open source!
He lives near Dallas, TX. He loves Greenville Ave Pizza, Revolver beer, and RPG video games 🙂 You can follow him on Twitter @radix.
1. What is your go-to beverage or snack while coding?
Usually a gallon jug of water is sitting on my desk. I also run to my local indie cafe at least once a day to have a break and drink a cortado.
2. What is your favorite project that you’ve contributed code to?
That’d have to be Twisted — it’s where I cut my teeth on open source hacking, and also where I have developed many friendships in the community. I don’t get as much time as I’d like to contribute to it these days, but when I do I’m in my happy place 🙂
3. How did you learn to code? Are you self-taught or did you learn in college? On-the-job?
Self-taught, with casual mentorship from people in the Twisted community (especially Glyph Lefkowitz, Jean-Paul Calderone, and Allen Short).
4. How did you first get involved in OpenStack?
I became a contributor to OpenStack recently when Rackspace hired me to work on Heat. It’s been a pleasure getting involved with the Heat community and learning a lot of stuff about orchestration that I didn’t previously know. I can’t wait for everyone to start orchestrating their deployments with Heat!
5. What are your tips or tricks for surviving jet lag or long conferences?
5mg of Melatonin at 11:00pm (unless I’m out until 1am at the pub…). Definitely helps me get a good 7-8 hours of sleep even while jetlagged!
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