Something About Each of Us

[kenobi65]

I think I'm an outlier here, too.

I'm an account planner for a big ad agency.

What's an account planner, you might ask?

My job is to make sure the people who write advertising understand the people that the advertising is trying to reach.

I used to work in market research for several big "packaged goods" manufacturers (one in personal care products, one in food); account planning is not dissimilar to market research.

Way more than you wanted to know, eh?

 

[Bowhunter]

Im a maintance mechanic if it breaks if fix it if its eletrical i trouble shoot it and fix it if it needs rebuilt I rebuild it. In my line of work I cant do it or I dont know how is not an option but if you dont know you better find out (manuals, part manual, or call a tech line or somthing) You do it or get out.

 

[Mike]

Sat in "secondary" or high school to you folks. Trying to juggle 11 GCSEs including French, History, Systems+Control and Business+Economics. I a few weeks I have the final exams in all of them.

Next year I'm off to 6th Form or College or whatever you guys call it to do A Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computing. Considering History taking too.

 

[swimmer]

The company I've worked for the last 30 years builds the finest business jets in the world along with single engine airplanes that "taught the world to fly". We also build the worlds fastest business jet , a smokin' .92 Mach. New York to L.A in less than 4 hours.

Before supervising a crew of 15 men in various facility crafts such as power plant operators, HVAC techs, facility mechanics and waste water treatment operations my job description was HVAC/refrigeration tech. I started in the HVAC field in 1967 and been to more tech schools and seminars than I can count, or care to. I've worked for independent contractors, put up commercial metal buildings and for a small defense contractor. As a youngster I learned the value of work from my Dad who was a service station owner for over 50 years. That was back when you got your gas pumped by the attendent, got your windhshield washed and tires checked while getting almost 3.5 gallons of gas for a buck and sometimes if there was a "gas war" four or more gallons for a dollar.

I was also married in 1967 and still am to the greatest wife a guy could have. A son, 35, and daughter, 32, both married and between them eight grandchildren. Wanna see some pictures?

 

[BlueNinja]

Swimmer-

I'm assuming you're talking about Cessna?

 

[prowlerguy]

In chrono order:
BS, CompSci, USNA
EA-6B NFO
MS, SWEng
"blood sucking contractor" with Navy Lab
SW Dev
SW Architect. Strangely, I also will work for Bank One (CC's private label bank) soon, just like Mr. B.

 

[llickteig1]

I earned a BA in Computer Science from Wichita State University in 1985. I subsequently went to work for Boeing in Wichita, and am just starting my 20th year working in various IT functions still at Boeing. I have done many different types of work in manufacturing technology, aircraft systems, database administration, and end-user applications development. I have worked on too many different HW platforms, OS’s, DBMS’s, and development tools to count. I’m currently doing MS-Office automation applications, web applications development and DBA work in a PC shop. As they say, “It’s not just a job … “

I consider my most significant work-related accomplishment to be the invention of a knowledge-based system to do generative computer-aided process planning system for sheet metal and extruded detail and simple assembly parts.

Swimmer, we must get together and discuss the service station business. I also pumped gas, checked oil and washed windshields for my dad starting at about age 8. I also worked my way through high school and college in the food service and grocery business.

--Lance.

 

[Missileman]

I am a Journeyman Electrician and work for the second largest company in the world.
I program and maintain programable logic controllers and robots.
Most of the time during the week is spent waiting for something to break so I have plenty of time to kill.
I spend quite a bit of it here on the forum or building rockets.
(working on a renegade as we speak)
Been married for 20 years and have 4 daughters ages 10 to 19 (all rocketeers)

 

[arthur dent]

Im a trucker and i like to truck.I've been into rockets for a couple of years now but i've allways been into aircraft.I support Manchester United football club and i go to watch them when ever i can get a ticket.Im just getting into power kites so i've got something to do when its to windy for rockets.I live with my partner and my daughter and i don't live in Surrey.

Cheers...

 

[Stones]

I'm a welder/machinist for a company that turbinizes Douglas DC-3 (gooneybird) aircraft. Customers bring us the airframes or we find them from all corners of the earth. They're literally stripped bare, the fuselage is "stretched", the recips are replaced with Pratt turbines, and the interiors and avionics are suited to the customer. We build everything from cargo, to fire supression, to gunships.

Pic of a gunship with twin 50 cal. computer operated gattlings.

 

[OKTurbo]

Mechanical Engineer, BSME Oklahoma State Universite 1989, Registered Professional Engineer State of Oklahoma.

Out of college I worked 7 years for at a large coal-fired power plant. The last 7 years I've been working as a project engineer for a soy-based food additives manufacturing plant.

I basically like anything mechanical....airplanes...cars...motorcycles....rockets. I'm a sucker for hot rods and old british motorcycles. My major pet pieve are Mechanical Engineers who can't even work on their own cars.

 

[Juaru]

I sell property and casualty insurance. An independent agent, so I sorta work for myself. (Should have went to class)

Also, when nobody's looking, I run a struggling little rocketry website.


John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

 

[jetra2]

Well...I'll talk!

I'm a grand ol' seventeen years young, right at that middle age between being *legally* being able to drive and *legally* being an adult. There is one perk, though! I get to see R rated movies without having to have an 21-or-older person buy my ticket!

I'm a dual-enrolled college student. What that means is I take classes for high school at the local college. I don't go to high school, in a sense, since for the 4 or 5-ish years before I started taking classes at the college, I was homeschooled. So, I just go to the college three days a week and do homework and stuff the days I'm not at the college. Some of ya'll will consider me lucky...but it is hard - I have to do all the work to have a chance or two at passing the classes.

I work part-time as a bagger for Kash n' Karry. It's more than just bagging people's groceries. I go out and get carts and get to help out cleaning the store but mopping up spills and dust mopping the store, and doing other misc. chores that they tell me to do. It's a good job though. I only get paid a measly $6 an hour, but it is SO awesome having my own money to pay for rocket stuff! Ya'll won't believe how much rocket stuff I've bought in the past month or so! It's probably around $250.

Shut up, Carl.

I probably have around 35 rockets in built, being built, or kit form, and parts for 5-6 more laying around. I've been into the hobby since I was 5, which makes it about 12 years. I consider myself to be good at knowing a lot about the hobby, but I do NOT know it all. I still have to explore HPR and all the techniques and tricks that are in there, and I try to experiment by over-building the little ones...a lot...really...

That's pretty much all about me...if you want to know more...e-mail me or PM me sometime...I'm glued to this computer!

Jason

 

[hokkyokusei]

I started out as an Electrician, which was hard work and so worked my way into cushier and cushier jobs. Have a degree, B.Eng (Hons) n Electrical Engineering, though I've since specialised in embedded software engineering, mainly C, for consumer electronics products.

I'm married, with lots of kids & at least two cats.

 

[Len B]

I went to Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now called University)and got a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Colour Photo Technology in 1984. Yes, they used to grant those.
From there, I had various photo lab jobs mostly doing things by hand that are now done by Photoshop. That job most closely resembled what a graphic arts stripper would do. Since that paid more, I tried to get that work but ended up servicing graphic arts equipment.

In 1990 I became a service technician for a major photofinishing equipment manufacturer. I had a 3 year stint in the middle of that with a company that distributed the products but returned to the manufacturer and work there still.

I've been off work since June 2003. I thought I had the flu but it turned out to be Bacterial Endocarditis. That led to deterioration of my Aortic valve. Almost 4 weeks ago, I got a new one that is made of "pyrolitic carbon". I'll be off work until July some time and I will be happy to be back at it. I hope I remember after a year off!!

I got back into rocketry (addicted) in 2000 some time and haven't stopped.

I'm happy to have found TRF. It's a great group of people and a great resource. You must stop selling me stuff though!!


Len Bryan

 

[Rocketman248]

I've been in the Navy for about 4 months now. Right now I am in my first school in Great Lakes, IL. I will finish up here in July probably. Then I go to either California or Virginia for more school. I am going to be a fire controlman. I can't wait until I finish my training and I go out to the ship.

 

[Johnnie]

I became a BAR in Nov 1997 while working a career as a tractor trailor LTL driver. Have since graduated Summa Cum Laude with an Associates of Applied Science in Design Drafting Technologies, and after a Summer break will start work on becoming a Mechanical/Aerospace Engineer.

In 1999, the company I drove for sold out from under me and many other employees, and I now work as a Stockroom Storeman...that is until graduation, where I am being promoted to CAD drafter in the Industrial Automation Division of a mid-sized company in Huntsville, AL (The Rocket City).

 

[Steve]

US Navy right out of high school, after one tour bounced around doing construction and some oilfield roustaboutin', started working for a big oil company. That was 17 years, one wife (she's still here), and three kids ago. I've been operating a water-softening plant for the last six years, days and nights. Nights giving me more opportunity to browse TRF...

By the way - I've noticed a whole lot of college graduates/students popping up in this thread. Are there really that many rocketeers blessed with rich parents? (I'm baffled as to how I'm gonna finance my kids' higher education - I never went, and I have no idea how so many people can afford it - but I've got to figure it out somehow). Anyway, I'm proud to be associated (if only in cyberspace ) with such a neat bunch of folks.

S..

 

[Terrier]

Well, I started out washing airplanes to get my private ticket (1973), finished HS (1976), Joined the navy (1976), Retired from US Navy (1998, 21 years all at NAS Whidbey Island, Wa) working on the worlds best All Weather Attack Day or Night aircraft , the mighty A-6E Intruder, now retired. Worked for Boeing, 767 line, until the big layoffs in 2000, International Aero (interior specialist for commercial airlines) and now a contractor for the US Navy working on the EA-6B Prowlers at NAS Whidbey Island (4.5 years). Been around the world, at the governments expense, seen about every major Far East country. No degree, certificate or other paper document. Just a guy trying to make everybody else rich. I want to work for myself.

 

[illini]

Originally posted by Bushrat
By the way - I've noticed a whole lot of college graduates/students popping up in this thread. Are there really that many rocketeers blessed with rich parents?

My parents definitely were not rich (Dad never made more than $25k per year...'bout $40k in today's dollars). They didn't pay a single dime for my college education. I worked and saved all through high school. That paid for 1 year. Worked summers...that paid 'bout half of years 2, 3, and 4. Took student loans for the rest of years 2, 3, and 4. Had a graduate research assistantship that paid about $900 per month (plus tuition waiver) for my M.S. And had a NASA fellowship that paid $1000 per month (plus tuition waiver) for my Ph.D. Rich parents had nothing to do with it. Perseverance did.

I'm asking the same questions as you regarding my kids college education. I'm fortunate enough to be able to help them pay a good part of it. But I think I'd be an idiot and be cheating them out of a great lesson in life if I didn't ask them to work their tails off to pay as much as they can on their own.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by illini868891
Had a graduate research assistantship that paid about $900 per month (plus tuition waiver) for my M.S. And had a NASA fellowship that paid $1000 per month (plus tuition waiver) for my Ph.D.

^It's stuff like that I don't understand. I know there's college money out there - but I don't even know enough to know how much I don't know. (huh?)

I'm all for the kid working for the $. It's gonna be an uphill battle any way I look at it. The cost of everything just keeps going up, and up... (all the more reason to make sure they do get a college education. I hate irony).

S..

 

[illini]

Originally posted by Bushrat
^It's stuff like that I don't understand. I know there's college money out there - but I don't even know enough to know how much I don't know. (huh?)

Undergraduate scholarships are few and far between. I had a $400 per year scholarship from my home town, but that was a drop in the bucket. Only at the graduate level did I get a free ride. Graduate assistantships (research and teaching) are common, but at the undergrad level you're pretty much on your own. One way to reduce costs is to send the kids to community college for the first two years then transfer to the Big U. for the last two years. Not a bad strategy for a lot of reasons:

• Less expensive
• Kids get to develop good study habits in a less competitive environment
• Community colleges actually teach things. Universities consider learning optional.
• A lot of kids fail in their first year due to lack of maturity (in all its putrid forms).

My aero engineering class started with about 110 people at the beginning of my freshman year. That dropped down to about 60 by the start of my junior year, but was brought back up to 100 by junior college transfers. Those of us who started at the Big U. were shocked by how well prepared these guys were. Their juco's actually taught them stuff. We were taught only how to survive in the presence of bad teaching.

 

[OccamMD]

Little about me.

Graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in BioMedical and Enlectrical Engineering. Started a Masters there in radiation fault tolerance in VLSI chip designs. Left, worked for E-systems for a year and developed an error detection and correction system for a spread spectrum communications link.
Went to University of South Florida for a Masters in Computer Engineering. Worked for AT&T Paradyne, developed MODEM test equipment, took neuroanatomy @ USF med-school as an engineer to complete my neural-network emphasis on robot firmware/hardware design. Worked for Linvatec, Division of Bristol-Myers squibb. Lead engineer in developing embedded arthroscopic shaver and pump systems. Moved to Convatec division as associate director of advanced technology development. Lead engineer in developing embedded controls for a fibrin centrifuge which makes adhesive out of patients blood in the OR.
Left, started a consulting firm for embedded systems development. Hardware, firmware (C, assembly, etc...), motor drivers, and sensor systems. Been doing that for 5 years. I love designing and building boards. Presently doing a lot of mil work.

BAR for 3 years, ever since I thought my then 2 year old should love doing this. Trying to get more involved.

 

[powderburner]

Originally posted by Bushrat
I'm baffled as to how I'm gonna finance my kids' higher education

I have three of those to pay for, and I'm going to have to keep working until the day I drop dead.

I am also mystified by the seemingly 'secret rules' for qualifying for scholarships. I agree with illini, you just have to keep digging and eventually you will turn up something.

 

[illini]

Originally posted by powderburner
I am also mystified by the seemingly 'secret rules' for qualifying for scholarships.

They really are a mystery. I never qualified for need based scholarships even though my parents raised 6 kids and never earned more than $25k a year. But a guy in my high school class had a free ride on a Pell Grant...his dad was an accountant and he lived on the rich side of town (if there's any such thing in my old neighborhood). Guess his dad just knew how to work the papers to make it look like he was dirt poor. Another guy I knew had a free ride because some scholarship fund had decided he was a genius, but he was constantly on academic probation and I could (and did) whoop his keister academically. Yet another...well...you get the idea. I'm as baffled as anyone.

 

[seo]

BS Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, In.

Live in the Seattle area with my wonderful wife and twin daughters.

Design Thermal Power Plants by day and play with rockets and trains by night!

 

[Neil]

More recent version: (After I discoverd the PC version of Escape Velocity: Nova )

Build rockets by day, play EV Nova while the epoxy is drying

Great game, BTW... But if your any good at it, you will need to register it really quick... I got to the point where I needed to register to get any further in... Lets see.... 4 hours

WARNING: GAME HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. YOU WILL BE PLAYING NIGHT AND DAY YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

 

I spent my childhood in Alaska which means I missed the glory days of model rocketry
I now am a Union Journeyman Carpenter for Carpenters Local # 1597 in Bremerton Washington. I have about twenty years to go until retirement as long a my body/back can hold out.
Married a glorious seven years now to a wonderful girl, who about six years ago, bought me my first Golliath/Spitfire Starters set. She says she has been a widow ever since.

 

[mark schnell]

I am the pastor of the Harvest Community Church in Howell, MI. I have been a pastor for almost thirteen years and still love my job, (except on Mondays ). My wife and I are in the process of adopting a baby after 11 years of marriage. I can't wait to share rockets with our child, boy or girl.

I was bitten by the rocket bug when my older sister's 6th grade class was building and launching rockets. I was in third grade and our whole class went out and watched them launch. I had to have one. I was into rockets until about 10th grade when sports and girls took over. I got back into them when I got out of college and was into them for about nine years then put them away until about two years ago. This third rocket life of mine is the most intense so far. I guess that makes me a babababar!!

My other hobbies are woodworking, (which my wife loves because it's the only hobby that I've actually made money on, and she gets furniture out of it), backpacking, fishing, reading, and going to movies. One of the cool things about having several hobbies is that you can do one of them and if you get burnt out you just put it down for a while and do something else.