I'm a long time lover of puzzles and techie things. I find computers to be just right; not too easy, not too hard. Like FreeCell. They're puzzlements, they're solvable, and there seems to be no end to how skilled one can become at it. Like a piano or a guitar for others, computers are simply my perfect thing. What would I have done if computers weren't invented yet? Well, what did dogs do before cars and pickup trucks were invented? Where did a dog find a nice, strong breeze for its face? I don't know the answer to either question, but dogs got by somehow without it and I suppose I would have, too. But in the modern world, neither of us have to go without.
Education:
I graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, CA, from Delta College in Stockton, and from U.C. Davis. I have a degree in Business from Davis and probably would have a minor in Engineering if they did minors at the time. Nonetheless, I was later admitted to the University of Santa Clara's graduate engineering school for CSEE in the Early Bird program. It was a five-to-six year part time program but, sadly, I only did two years of it. I thought it was too much hassle when we moved farther away into our first house, I switched jobs and my career seemed to be going in a non-engineering direction at the time. This was a decision I would regret later in my career when sometimes I just didn't have the right sheep skin for the job I wanted. Who knew I would ever switch jobs again in Silicon Valley when the start up I was at seemed so promising in the early '80s? If you don't learn your lessons at home or in school, you'll learn them in life.
Career:
I spent most of my corporate career in technical management, often meaning that I was responsible for the nerds of the company. Let me explain. I seemed to end up at non-technical companies more often than not, or away from the engineering area of the company because on my business degree, so it was often my job to handle the technology for non-technical management and to manage the staff who could also understand it, providing them with a boss who could understand technology, too, and with whom they could talk about it.
In 2000, I went to another start up to work with an old friend and mentor, and it was here that I learned to fix computers. I was the Test Manager at a DSL company. We made internal PCI DSL modems. Our test lab had about 28 different computers of all different types and brands. While testing our DSL hardware and software in these test stations, we often messed them up good. My staff would just fix the computers so they could be used for testing again, and eventually I learned how to fix them as well. This was a very satisfying skill to develop.
My Own Company:
After that start up closed down, I found that family friends often needed their computers fixed, and I got the calls. The more I did that, the more I enjoyed it. Then I was told that there was a shortage of computer repair people up in the mountains of Calaveras County where I lived. That's when I decided to start my own business. My first customer was in July 2003. I remember because I got that first call during my son's birthday outing on New Melones Lake.
Other Interests:
What do other interests have to do with computer repair? You might be surprised what volunteerism can do for a person. Everyone has to take a breather now and then, and I find that when I have other subjects to switch to, the distraction helps clear my head of all the computer details I was either just working on or I'm still trying to figure out the solution to. I can 'get away' without having to go anywhere. Not that I don't want to go anywhere. I just need a head clearing, like, right now, today. If I switch subjects for a while, the concentration on that subject clears out the other subject for a bit. My days are often like a TV episode where there are two stories going on simultaneously and the show keeps switching back and forth between the subplots. That makes a more interesting show to watch. And it also makes a more interesting day to live. It let's me keep going, day and night, without burnout.
And besides, if you're looking for things to help you decide on a computer tech, this might be the information that you relate to. So anyway, here are my most notable outside interests:
Calaveras Humane Society:
I joined in 2006 and was president from 2008 to 2011. I'm still a board member and talk with the new president almost daily. You wouldn't think there could be much going on in a little old Humane Society, but there is.
BNI:
Business Networking International: This is a local chapter of an International company. We're a group of local business people who meet once a week in Murphys. We get together to learn about each other and our businesses, to refer work to each other from people we know or we meet, and it's our weekly feel-good meeting where we just all enjoy being together. It has a rigid agenda which provides a framework for us to cut up royally. What do I mean? You'd have to attend for a while to see.
Calaveras Follies:
This is an annual fund raiser for the Mentoring Society. My volunteer job is music editor, which I do on my computer, of course. Local people develop short musical skits that they performed in pantomime to a song or two that they like. We've had anywhere from 13 to 22 acts per show. My task is to make their song fit their act rather than their act being a slave to the song. So I cut and splice and tweak and tune until even I can't tell that anything has happened to the song. It takes a lot of precision and skill to make it sound like it was never touched. It's nerdy and arty at the same time. Way cool! Helping to produce the Follies is the most fun I have all year! I do the same thing for plays at Murphys Creek Theatre, when needed.
Bear Valley Music Festival:
I started out keeping their geriatric computers running and their network properly sharing documents and QuickBooks company files and their server working on remote access since their members who needed access lived all over Northern California. They finally got new computers through TechSoup, since they're a non-profit. And they switched to an on-line ticketing program (this year settling on Vendini) and thus needed a wireless network for walk up sales or ticket reprints out at the tent where the concerts are performed. No problem. ATT had a DSLAM nearby. So I worked with the ticketing crew each night to make sure the network was working and hung out at each of the concerts during their two week run, getting to know more and more of the people involved. Another fun annual project! Anyway, we had a few drinks and one thing led to another, and now I'm joining their board. They liked my Humane Society board experience.
Mensa:
A friend said I shouldn't tell people I'm a member of Mensa because it's intimidating. I asked how so. She said imagine you're at a restaurant where all of the tables are taken but you can join anyone else's table and have dinner with them. At one of these tables is George Clooney. Well, you wouldn't sit at THAT table because, well, it's George Clooney. I left that conversation a bit bewildered. Maybe she just didn't want me to take the chair next to George so that she could sit there. After all, it was her story. So to help with her fantasy, a few days later while driving home for the evening, I called her and said, hey, last night I had dinner down at the genius club and George Clooney said to tell you hi.