Degree or No Degree?

Sunday, 01 November 2009 15:19 Written by Administrator

I am a baby boomer. Served in the Vietnam War, Studied Mechanical Engineering, Medicine, Information Technology and worked the better part of my life. I started a paper route when I was 12 with 150 customers. I moved up to being a box boy in a super market, pumped gas, worked in a Saw Mill. All before I graduated High school. During High school, I taught First Aid, was a volunteer fireman at 16, and certified paramedic at 18. I entered the US Air Force at 18 and became a PJ. After returning from my military duties I returned to college to study medicine. I was told I would be to old to enter medical school after graduation, so I changed my career to Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

I quit my full time job as a EMT4 and paramedic working for a Portland Ambulance company on the day my first daughter was born to return to school on the GI Bill. I attended 2 years and was offered a full time job working for one of the big engineering firms in the city. The lure of real money where I could support my family was at the center of my decision.

Emerging Idiot’s

Sunday, 01 November 2009 15:18 Written by Administrator

OK how many of you (me included) own books that have the title start with IDIOT.

I am sitting looking at my bookshelf and I count 5. The Idiot’s guide to Linux, Photography, Word, etc. I even started a wiki last year called to Documentum 4 Dummies.

If you look at the definition for the word idiot as outlined in say http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot there are references like - In modern English usage, the terms idiot and idiocy describe an extreme folly or stupidity, its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.

De Oppresso Liber

Sunday, 01 November 2009 12:25 Written by Administrator

I wrote this ditty some time back and it still applies today...

This week I am updating my blog from my hotel in West Virginia. After an intense work week supporting a new client in the Washington DC area, I am taking a leisurely couple of days to visit my sister and a side of the family I have not seen in person for over 16 years. It really doesn’t seem that long, but for what ever reason we never had an opportunity as today!

I titled this week De Oppresso liber (to free from oppression). I chose this title because it represents a part of my personal history that I have shielded for the most part in secrecy for the past 30 years. Not because I am not proud to have been a PJ (more about that in a minute) but rather the pain of those events and how it effected me personally.