About Me

Hey-o! My name is Daniel Santoro, but most people just call me Danny. Sometimes I get called Dan, and one time a guy called me Don, but you can keep it simple. A little bit about me: I’m an overly-ambitious thirty-something with a talent and interest in anything that has a line of code, a switch to flip, or a fuse to light (especially that last one) and I’m always learning and finding more. In practical use, my areas of expertise cover a broad net of topics – from professional, global-scale web design to small-store commercials and computer solutions… Ultimately, I’m good at pinpointing a problem and solving it.

Based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, I attended the University of Cincinnati’s Electronic Media program, of which I graduated in 2012 (with a minor from the Carl H. Lindner College of Business). Apparently I was pretty handy at it too – I was honored with one of Electronic Media’s highest rewards. Since then, I’ve worked in the media production field doing a variety of work from corporate video spots, television commercials, narrative short films, web design, social marketing plans, and complex e-commerce storefronts. My work has been syndicated on Amazon, WalMart.com, and dozens of other retailer websites and is used to drive sales for multi-million dollar worldwide companies.

Afterwards, I had the opportunity to dive into the WordPress community by working at WooThemes/WooCommerce and then Automattic.

For the past few years, I’ve moved on as a Senior Applications Developer at Siemens Digital Industry Software. There, I’ve built and now manage the blog network of over 60 individual blogs, the Solid Edge product site, and a custom professional certificate testing solution – all with WordPress.

On a more personal note, I’m a huge fan of movies and television – it comes with the territory. One of the first questions I like to ask a girl on a date is what kind of movie she likes, so let me just skip some overpriced fettuccini and share some favorites!

Favorite Movies

Asking me to narrow this down to a list is really, really difficult. There are so many good ones that it depends entirely on what type of movie… So I’ll have to make this a list of the most influential movies for me.
  • Star Wars (I’m going to lump the whole Original Trilogy in here. The prequels were good and all, but come on. Not a fan of the new trilogy. Leave them alone.)
  • Ghostbusters
  • All of the James Bond movies. Yeah, so there were some bad ones, but they make up for it.
  • Spaceballs, History of the World Part 1, almost anything else Mel Brooks did
  • Indiana Jones
  • Wayne’s World 1 & 2 (bet you weren’t expecting that curveball)
  • National Lampoon’s Vacation (The whole series, and yeah, even the remake was okay)
  • The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Excluding The Hobbit)
  • The Three Amigos (I think I may have worn out a cassette tape of this one.)

Favorite Shows

At least this one is a little easier… But it’s going to be a longer list. You have some binge watching to do. Let’s start with comedy and get serious as we go.
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  • The Office
  • Workaholics
  • The Flight of the Conchords
  • Workaholics
  • Malcolm in the Middle
  • How I Met Your Mother
  • South Park
  • Louie
  • Stargate: SG-1
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
  • Game of Thrones
  • The Sopranos
  • Hell on Wheels
  • Breaking Bad
  • The Walking Dead

Re-up those Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions.

Favorite Books

It’s depressing to admit that I never have enough time to read as much as I’d like, but here are some of my all-time favorites, in no particular order… Heads up, they’re mostly sci-fi or fantasy. They can also get depressing, but some are fun!
  • Ender’s Game & Ender’s Shadow
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • Dune (leave the sequels at the door)
  • The Average American Male
  • Catch-22
  • The Rum Diary
  • Ready Player One
  • Joe Ledger and Sniper Elite series (they’re pretty similar)
  • Magic 2.0 series
  • Caverns & Creatures series
  • Star Wars: Yuuzhan Vong Series (it gets dark, you guys)

So many more, but I had to clean the bookshelf and I can’t remember… The cat was chewing them. :/

Favorite (Board & Tabletop) Games

Pretty much all of them. Really. Except I don’t quite get the appeal of Settlers of Catan. So there’s an island, big deal. In Risk you take over the freakin’ world.

Favorite (Video) Games

Oh man this one is fun. As a kid of the digital age, I got to see some great games – here’s my favorites list, and if it matches up to yours then I think we might be best friends (here’s hoping Jennifer Lawrence is a gamer).
  • Star Wars Galaxies
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
  • Final Fantasy VIII
  • Final Fantasy IX
  • Halo: Combat Evolved (they were all good, but 1, ODST, and Reach were just awesome
  • Fallout Series
  • Resident Evil Series
  • Ghost Recon & Rainbow Six Series

OK, I’ll cut it off for now, but I didn’t even get to Civilization or anything. I’ll come back.

Got a beef with some of my top faves? Want to compliment my impeccable taste? Just want to ask a question? Bring it on. (Not the movie, though.)

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