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 Being Retired now, I thought that it was time for a new name to this Blog |
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Talk about perks, my career had one of the best I can think of! I traveled in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I was a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and taught classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2-way radio communications. I knew that when the time arrived that I would retire, and I have. I've always said that if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out! I can't handle the heat anymore. I was qualified to deliver approximately 32 different classes, but about half of those were 'Legacy' classes, and were not in demand anymore. My students were technicians, those who maintained, programmed, calibrated, and repaired 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 traveled, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where have I been? Some of the places I've been (I can't list them all here, the list would be too long) are pretty interesting. 1. Hawaii - Four times, Oahu, Maui (twice), and the Big Island 2. BangkokThailand, twice 3. Frankfurt Germany, twice 4. Algiers, Algeria 5. Melbourne Australia 6. Bismarck North Dakota, Summer & Winter 7. Los Angeles, Too many times to count 8. Washington DC, Too many times to count 9. Seattle three or four times 10. Texas, all over the state 11. Florida, all over the state 12. New Mexico, HOME! Several times  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
| Locale: Bloomington, Illinois Week of: 7/4/22 Though this is considered an off week (no delivery because of the July 4th holiday), I still had work to do. We all do, but mine was an organized type of work. The content manager blocked my schedule for this week so I could spend it working with one of our technical writers. We were to work on a course that is a prerequisite for a course that I am the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for. We had a one-hour meeting using Google Meet Tuesday-Friday, with a goal of covering all 12 modules in the course. We achieved our goal and then some. She shared the Course Storyboard with me so I could mark it up as needed, delete inaccurate text, and arrange things so it flowed smoothly. Let me backtrack a little, and explain a little bit about this course. Being a prerequisite course, it was divided into two separate paths. One path is for what we call the M Core/L Core. These are both Cores used mainly with Trunked Systems. I'm not going to go into what a Trunked system is vs a Conventional System, which often uses the K Core. It's the K Core that I am the SME for. Some of the slides are identical, some have minor or major differences. The problem with this course is that Trunked data/graphics/demonstrations were used at times in the K Core portion. Plus, the flow was not consistent, often we'd see a subject covered in detail, only to come back to that subject later in the course. When that subject was covered later, it may or may not match what had been covered earlier. Another thing that's being done with this edit, is to create a new prerequisite course that applies to the K Core only. So, I deleted any slide that was used in the M/L Core content only. As a result, we lowered the modules from twelve to about six or seven. The next step is for the writer to rework everything with custom animations. She'll send it to me for review and suggestions. Corrections will be made by her (yes, corrections will be necessary), and I'll review it all again. She wants this completed by mid-August. I don't have a free week until late August, I am delivering classes for the next six weeks. That doesn't matter to me, I'll do the reviews during an evening or on weekends. I told her to give me a deadline each time, and I will get it done. I like deadlines, believe it or not. I think I work better with one, because I will front load the work so it's completed early, then spend some reviewing the suggestions. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my job? I'm not being sarcastic in saying that either. In Closing I fly to Kansas on Sunday, and and have about a 70 minute drive to Salina from Wichita. I may visit Marquette Kansas on my drive. It one of those towns where you can get property for free! The catch of course is that you have a fixed amount of time biuild a house. Yes, I would not mind one bit living in Kansas. The following week will be spent in Fort Lauderdale for a four day hands-on only class. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!  Jim Dorrell |
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I'd order it now, but I don't want to chance having it delivered while we're gone, so I'll wait. I did bookmark the page so I can get to it easily. Cross your fingers everyone!
Non-interchangeable parts - now there's a surprise. There are times you can't interchange parts for two editions of the exact same car that vary "only" by model year.