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Golden Ticket – Part 3 Consilium A ugust 1984: I started a new job at Consilium. Consilium was what was referred to as a start-up company. It had been around for about 2 years and had 60 something employees when I joined them. Consilium was a software (computer applications) company, meaning that they they made all their money selling software products as opposed to say someone like IBM whose main product was the hardware, the computer itself. Consilium did not sell hardware. Consilium sold a lot-based manufacturing software product that was the leading product of its type, leading edge was the popular term for that at the time. They were not the biggest but their product was the most advanced. S o perhaps you are wondering just what is lot-based manufacturing? Well in general there are a couple of types of manufacturing. One is where you make something one item at a time like when you are putting together a car. You put each piece of the car together one at a time, usua...

  Golden Ticket - Part 2 I took the job offer with Varian Associates in Silicon Valley with the condition that I could take a week off without pay after a few weeks. I wanted to go back to NY to attend a planned family celebration for my Dad's retirement. Varian was a very early Silicon Valley company. I think they went back to the early '50s, maybe even earlier. FYI, this is a different company than the Siemens owned Varian Medical company. V arian Associates had contracts with the Defense Department and as a result, had tight security. You had to pass through security when entering or exiting their buildings. So one of the requirements for my employment was I needed to get a security clearance. I didn't see this as a problem since I had previously attained a “secret” security clearance while I was in the Air Force, and it wasn't. I was issued a badge. This was the first time I had to carry/wear a badge at a work place. I showed up for work and the ...

  Reaching for that Golden Ticket – Part 1 - Finding a New Job Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp I was laid-off at the beginning of January of 1984. I was now without a job or even a prospect of a job for the first time since I graduated from college in 1978. It just so happened that Silicon Valley was in a bit of a downturn and the job opportunities were on the slim side. However, I had enough money to last me for at least 6 months and I had some options. I had some contacts and as a result I was able to find some short term contract work. By short term I mean I was able to contract out and do programming work at various small companies that knew me from previous employments. These contracts were less than a week long and most often just for a day or two. It wasn't enough to keep me busy full time but it did give me a source of income that allowed me to pay my bills without dipping into my savings while I looked for a full time position. As a result, there was no need to...

  From The Other Guys to The Irving Club or How I Became a Women's Softball Coach Team Pic the season Kris joined  Front Row: Becky, Susan, Monica Middle Row: Colin, Lisa (above), Cindy, Michelle. Kris Back Row: Me, Mary, Darlene, Maureen, Amy, Bonnie Raitt, Ken. P laying with the other guys was a bit of a switch. Under Leon's tutelage, I had been well trained when and where to back up plays as a pitcher, particularly for throws coming in from the outfield. Unfortunately, some of my Other Guys teammates had obviously attended a somewhat different training program and as a result they often threw to one base while I was backing up another. After a few games it became clear to me that I just needed to back up where they were going to throw and not factor in where the base runners were going or might go.... I was having fun playing with The Other Guys for a season or so, when some of the women at the Rec Center, some of them girlfriends of the guys from the men's ...

From a Schefflera to an Other Guy Reaching for the sky? No letting go of a pitch - What Form! H eidi and I were living in San Francisco together in the Richmond District. That meant that her friends became mine and mine hers. The thing is I have always tended to keep more to myself and keep or interact with only a few friends at any given time. I don't meet a lot of people or make new friends easily. So when I am in a relationship I often get new friends through my girlfriend, as my girlfriends tend to be more social than me. This was true with Heidi. I only had a few friends who actually lived in the city at this point, but just about all of Heidi's friends lived in the city. Heck she grew up there and always lived there except for the time she spent attending Chico State. We did things with some of her long time friends as well as her friends from The Recreation Center for the Handicapped (The Rec Center), where she worked. The Rec Center, a nonprofit organization...

January 30th     Dad - 1943 or 44 N ext Monday, the 30th , marks the 35th anniversary of my marriage to Kris. 15 years ago on that date, our 20th anniversary, my father passed away. Early that morning while sleeping, I suddenly woke up from my sleep. I glanced over at the clock and realized it was still in the middle of the night so I went back to sleep. That morning I received the call from the family. Dad had passed away during the night and the time was within a couple of minutes of the time I had woken up and looked at the clock. Weird. Also weird, the month and day Kris and I first connected matched the month and day of my father's birthday. S o, my Dad's been gone for 15 years now and I still miss him. He was in an advanced stage of Alzheimer's as well as Parkinson's. He'd been that way for a year or so and was living in a care facility. I, of course, went back to New York for the funeral and services. I am the oldest of the three kids. I asked to give his eul...

Well, this is a good looking group - - - except for one person.... T his was one of Bill's common sayings/expressions. He often would use this when meeting up with another foursome at the golf course. I'm  one of Bill's son-in-laws. Bill frequently referred to me as his son-in-law. He did it so often that some of his golf buddies would sometimes address me as such. Like “Hey son-in-law, get the pin.” I met Bill in the fall of '86. My girlfriend at the time, Kris, and I drove up to Sacramento to visit him. When we arrived he had just finished vacuuming the carpet in his townhouse. Now you may be wondering how I managed to remember such a seemingly insignificant detail like that. Well, Bill was rather meticulous about things. When he vacuumed he was very careful to vacuum in a straight line so that the nap of the carpet was perfectly lined up. It looked a little like the freshly mowed outfield grass at a professional baseball park. It actually pained him whe...

At the County Jail and White Privilege I am currently involved in a class entitled “Conversations Around Race” and also in a group engaged in conversations about race. As a result I have been thinking about my “white privilege” and have been looking back at my life in this context. I have been recalling past experiences, examining how I have benefited from “white privilege” as well as recognizing my own culpability. I have thought about a number of past experiences in which I can now see that I was the recipient of “white privilege”. In some of these I was aware of my white privilege but in many others I was not. Below is an incident I thought about. It is a rather small thing but it also happens to be an incident where I knew being white was an advantage at the time it happened. I n the fall of 1978. I was working at General Business Systems (GBS). One of my first assignments was to make software modifications to a GBS developed offender/prisoner tracking system for the t...

Fun  With Heidi Me on my 35th birthday H eidi and I were always joking around. We laughed and made fun of ourselves, each other and everything that crossed our path. We could find humor in the most mundane activities. Heidi used to meditate and also chant. She had set up a shelf with a few things on it that she would face when she chanted. When she was done we would sometimes talk to each other as if we were chanting, slipping in something like “I need to go to the store” or “what are we having for lunch” in the middle of a chant mantra. Essentially we found no subject or activity off limits for humor. I find it interesting about what I remember and what I don't. Sometimes small events just stick with me and I have no idea why they do. For instance, in February of 1984 I turned 35. I was living in San Francisco and had a new girlfriend Heidi. Heidi would be moving in with me soon but on my birthday I was still in the studio apartment across the hall. On my bi...