Downsized but not out!

Recently I was "downsized" from my work at Texas Instruments. There were a substantial number of people informed that their "position had been eliminated" in IT at TI. Unfortunately, in this economy job hunting is a full time job so I haven't gotten back to this blog to add more comments. To see my full profile and recommendations for my Applications Analyst work at TI see: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeristeele .

I am working my network and have spent most of this week on the resume, building my network and getting the resume posted to most of the high tech job boards. My dream job would be combine my interests in genealogy, history, trains, or public speaking with my IT extensive experience. I've already been asked to pass along my hints for using Google docs and notebook to job searching. I will be making video-casts of these this weekend.

The Internet web 2.0 technologies have made this an exciting time to be in the computer field and I'm sure there are many opportunities to use my skills. (How's that for optimism!) Onward and upward!

Webex is a great tool for genealogical societies!

I work daily with Webex holding meetings around the world. When gas shot up so high, Dallas Genealogical Society began to look for ways that some of the board members could attend meetings without commuting into the library. The board members are scattered throughout the DFW metroplex. Some of these dedicated volunteers commute 30 or 4o miles for a board meeting! That's ok if you can combine a board meeting with a day long trip to the library but many of us still work full-time. The solution was Webex.

I know, I know, GotoMyPC is heavily advertised on the radio, but I looked at both and found webex to be rock solid. The question was would we have to pay for a teleconferencing line or could we use use voice over IP (VOIP)? Today we ran our first test and it was a great success. Now next weekend I introduce the service to the entire board and then have an introductory session with them set for after that.

After a few months, I will post our story, but for now, I feel like it gives us a way to share information, share a common 'whiteboard' for scribbling, record our sessions, and listen to meetings. What a great way to save time and gas for genealogical society board and commitee meetings!

San Juan redeemed itself!

Once we got into the hotel room things began to look up! After a day shopping in old San Juan, I can say that prices are comparable to Dallas. We went into a Walgreens and found the same 2 for $7 cashews we normally buy along with the same prices on many other items. The restaurants were no more expensive than a nice place in Dallas. (i.e. $9 to $16 entrees) The two best shops were a little arts and crafts import place with hand carved items from Hati and other Latin countries and Butterfly People that had mounted colorful butterflies in Lucite. They are grown specially for the shop so they are not disturbing the environment. Quite colorful! Bill got some outstanding photos which will eventually end up on Pioneer Pix. They day was a nice close to the visit to San Juan!

Views Along St. Kitts RR

Scenes we saw along the St. Kitts RR included a longhorn cow, several beautiful beaches and old churches. Here's a photo of one of the cows and one that captured the beauty of the old churches and the beach.

St. Kitts Scenic Railway

On St. Kitts we took the Scenic Railway tour. Give me anything with a railroad and I'm on it! The tour was great. We rode 32 miles around a good portion of the island. The cars are reasonable and sitting on the top you do get a breeze especially at the higher elevations. Patrons can opt to sit in the bottom with the air conditioning but that cuts down on the photo opportunities.

Along the way you see goats, cows, and even monkeys jumping in trees! We got a real flavor of the island. As part of the Princess tour we got 'complimentary' Pina Coladas, Rum Punch, sodas, or bottled water with their very own custom label for St. Kitts RR!

San Juan not the best place to end the cruise

San Juan isn't the best place to extend your stay at the end of a cruise! Customs took forever; the traffic is horrid! Those of us that decided to stay over an extra day or so were some of the last people off the boat. The traffic was worse in San Juan than Boston on a bad day. Bill say's it reminds him of Taipei. When we got the hotel we had another line to PRE-Register even though the group had reservations for months! Then we had to wait until after 3 PM to get our room key after waiting in the line AGAIN!

We had had hopes of running out to Arecibo for a tour of the radio telescope, However, by the time we disembarked, went thru customs, transferred to Sheraton San Juan, pre-registered, stopped to eat (it was 2 PM!), and then stood in line for keys, we had no time to get the 50 miles on Sunday! This was a very disappointing end to a nice cruise. It's much nicer to leave the ship early, take a princess tour and end up at the airport and not bother to stay over.

Now that we are in Old San Juan there are shops and sites to see withing walking distance. At least the data card AND T-mobile for the Blackberry BOTH work in San Juan.

Wholly Genes Cruise 2008

The Wholly Genes Cruise just finished for 2008. It was a very successful event with outstanding speakers! No matter how many times I hear Tony Burroughs, Elizabeth Shown Mills, Cyndi Howells, Barbara Vines Little, Sandy Hewlett, John Cardinal, Bob Velke, etc. I always learn something from each and every lecture!

Here's a photo of Bob Velke and Cyndi Howells on Halloween Evening just before Cyndi was going to speak.