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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
| Locale: Schaumburg, Illinois Weeke Of: September 21, 2020 This past week I was in my old haunts, but man has it changed. Motorola sold the entire campus, and there's quite a bit of construction happening where Motorola buildings used to be. Some are apartments, others, I have no idea what they are for. My customer was the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the class was a tailored class of 3-4 courses we put together for them. It wasn't a bad class, considering I only had 2 students. Both were former Army, both knew quite a bit, but had so much to learn. They were pleased with the class, their comments showed on their critique sheets. That's the one thing I've never quite understood completely about this. We are graded by the students, yet we do not administer tests, nor can we 'grade them' on their knowledge, attitude, and other things. Guess it's all part of the job. I know I never describe the classes much for you, and that's intentional, and needed. Some of the stuff I can't talk about, but the biggest reason is that it would make little sense to most of you. I think Robert Waltz  and 🌕 HuntersMoon  would understand some of it, but I'm not sure who else would. Plus, I'm willing to bet that I'd have the greater majority of you bored to tears in less than five minutes!On another front, things are slowly coming back to normal, or as close as it's going to get anytime soon. Restaurants have dine-in service for the most part, travel (flying) is not fun at all. I don't mind crowds, even in these times. But don't lecture me (us) about one way to act, then pack us in a plane like sardines. As a result, I'll be driving to every class I can. Right now, I'm in Omaha Nebraska for a class this week, and drove here from Central Illinois. Hotels are iffy at best. Some have breakfast, some don't. None have any kind of housekeeping going on. If you want your room serviced, you have to notify them. Maybe I should notify them every day and see what happens....  In Closing I will spend the weekend at home, and drive to Omaha (where I'm at right now as it turns out) for a class next week. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!  Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Sacramento, California This week finds me in smoke filled Sacramento California for a class with the Office of Emergency Services. It's a 'radio' class, one that covers one of our handheld and mobile radios. It's not an overly tough subject, but it has been a little challenging. More on that in a minute. Things have gone well really, other than a small bump on Monday. Every once in a while I have a student in class who has been around a while, and either knows A LOT, or wants certain 'pet subjects' covered. In this case, there's a man in class who fits both descriptions. The biggest issue in his eyes, is that he want only those subjects covered, despite the fact that there are newer people in the class who really need the full curriculum. Besides, if I covered only his pet topics, the class would only last a couple of days, and they've paid for five days of training. Believe it or not, I think we've met on a common ground, and for the most part, have gotten along well. So well, that he asked me for my business card today. He either wants it as a dart board object, or to remind him of this class and how upset he was at times, or really wanted it so he could call me with any questions that may pop up in the future. How did we manage to get to this point? I've answered every question he asked, we discussed subjects in radio frequency that a lot of technicians in today's world have little knowledge of. Best of all, we solved one of the issues he was complaining about. To make it short, he complained that in replacing a board in a radio, that it would fail with an error code, even though he 'followed the procedure'. To make sure I knew what he was talking about, he replaced the board in class. I watched him, made sure he was following the steps correctly, and sure enough, at the end, the radio rebooted as it should have, and operated normally. I didn't do a thing. I just watched them do the work. But I think that knowing the procedure, the expected results and all got us (him) 'over-the-hump'. Noteworthy Restaurants: (There's no dining in here in Sacramento, it's all take out) Kabob King https://www.kababkingonline.com/ I went there tonight, ordered a couple of small appetizers, and a Shrimp Buryani. The appetizers were an order of 2 Samosa's, which I thought were small, as they have been in the past, and an order of Fish Patora. First, the Samosa's were the size of my fist! The Fish Pakora was in a small styrofoam box, but dang, that box was packed! We won't mention how huge the Buryani is. Let's just say I have lunch for the next two days of work. Bonchon Natomas https://www.bonchonnatomas.com/menu I'm loving all the oriental food I can get around here. Their Shrimp Shumai and Bulgogi were excellent. I had the Bulgogi for lunch the following day since it was also pretty large In Closing I will spend the weekend at home before going to Schaumburg for a class with the Transportation Security Agency next week. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: At Home Still This week finds me in still at home, teaching another class online. This one was a bit special, and in many ways, I really wish I could have done this one in person. My class was for the US Embassy in Lagos Nigeria. Well, it was supposed to be, but my students were together in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. I would love to have gone there, but the Department of State lists Nigeria as a pretty dangerous place to travel to, so there's no way my manager would let me go. Luckily, English is the main language spoken in Nigeria, though there are numerous local dialects spoken also. I only had three students in class, but that was fine. The three of them had decent backgrounds in Radio Communications, and all three were CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Administrators). After our first session on Monday, they told me they had more to learn than they thought. That's the reason you have a class though, is to learn! I smiled at that statement, knowing they probably underestimated what their system would contain, and what it would take to be really comfortable working on it. This was the first class I delivered where I was able to use my 'new whiteboard'! Using this in my classes is important to me. Not because I invested a whopping $50 to get it, but because trying to draw in Adobe Connect (the application we use for our online deliveries) is tough to almost impossible. Like most instructors, I almost have to draw when trying to discuss a subject in detail, so using the whiteboard is almost mandatory. How have I managed to deliver classes so far without using it??? Work remains busy for all of us, and I'm really glad I scheduled 2 weeks of Vacation the first part of October. Right now, other than those two weeks, and the holiday weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year, I am booked solid every week between now and the end of March! I do have this coming week free too, but that's because yours truly has been selected for jury duty next week. I may not be called in at all, but I have to be available, and call in each night to see if I'm needed the following day. So, I will work on curriculum revisions on the days I'm not there, and also review upcoming courses I will deliver soon. One of them I haven't taught since April of last year! I thank God every day for this job. At least I'm still employed and working at a job I love in these trying times. In Closing I will spend next week home as I mentioned, then head to Sacramento on 9/13. After that I have a class with the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), then will head to Sarpy County Nebraska for a class. If anyone is in those locations, let's meet for a cup of coffee! Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
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I then went to Taiwan for two weeks; but, although that was nice, it wasn't 'home'. 
