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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: Laurel Maryland Week of: 1/23/23} This past week I was in :Laurel Maryland for a basic RF class with new Motorola Employees. This class covers basic RF theory, radio operation, and other RF related topics that help a person new to the RF field understand how radios work. I've taught it for 22 years now, sometimes I feel like I could deliver it blindfolded....  The highlight of this trip though, was meeting 🌸 pwheeler - love joy peace  on Sunday. We spent about an hour walking around the National Arboretum in Washington DC. She's an excellent person to get to know, her personality is one of a relaxed person with a laid back attitude. Being very pretty, bordering on beautiful helps out of course. Like most people, myself included, she feels she could look better. She's fine as she is if you ask me.My trip home was a bit different from most. Class was finished at noon on Friday which is pretty usual. I headed for Reagan Airport, but knew my flight was delayed already. By the time I arrived at Reagan, my flight had been delayed even more. In fact, now it would land five minutes after my connecting flight had left! I resigned myself to the idea of spending the night in a hotel near O'Hare. You might wonder why my other half didn't come up to get me. First, it's a two hour drive which isn't that bad. But, she doesn't drive at night due to vision problems, so I was stuck it seemed. After getting through security I went to the nearest American Airlines Customer Service Desk. I asked about earlier flights, and to my surprise she said there was a flight leaving very soon, and assigned me to a seat on it! I got on board, and the cabin door was closed behind me while I was walking through the first class area to my seat. My Guardian Travel Angel was watching over me, as they have on numerous occasions. Because of catching this earlier flight I was able to have dinner at O'Hare. Noteworthy Restaurants: Mango's Grill Restaurant http://mangosgrillrestaurant.com/ The menu for this place really called me. I had their Pupusas for an appetizer. A typical Salvadorian homemade corn tortilla stuffed with Pork & Cheese. For my dinner, I chose their Patron Platter which had a Cheese chile relleno, chicken enchilada & pork tamale. Needless to say i had leftovers which I saved for lunch the next day. Kabu Japanese Steakhouse https://kabu-japanesesteakhouse.com/our-menus/ This place was next door to Mango's, going there was a no-brainer. I had their Shrimp Shumai as an appetizer, and two Sushi Rolls for dinner,. I chose their Out-Of-Control-Roll, and Godzilla Roll. Both were excellent and fit the bill that night perfectly! In Closing This week, I am in Colorado Springs delivering a class on one of our newer radios. I will write about this trip later once things are done. Until my next entry stay safe, be good, be healthy, and take care of those you love! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Bloomington Illinois Week of: 1/16/23} This past week I delivered an online class to New South Wales Telco in Australia. Due to the time difference, the class hours were 4 pm to 8 pm Central time, Monday thru Thursday. This was 9 am to 1 pm for the students, Tuesday thru Friday. The class was Fleetmapping, and in going through the class materials and their feedback, I learned that they have one of the largest radio systems we've deployed. Plus, they've had their system for over 10 years, so I wondered why they wanted Fleetmapping now since their Fleetmap is already developed. What it boils down to, is their system had grown a lot (of course), and the students were looking to improve things, as well as learning more about configuring the system. Personally, I learned a lot from them, on another personal note, I found that I don't really enjoy delivering in that time frame. Life should be so tough, huh. The class went very well. Not that I didn't have issues or questions of my own, but their participation and questions was awesome. in doing an online class, it is often hard to get students to interact with you, hard to get them to ask questions. I don't see them, I only see their names in the virtual classroom, without questions or participation from them you can wonder if you're alone in the virtual classroom talking to yourself. That wasn't the case here. They asked questions and comments from the first hour and it never stopped. I loved it! It does help the class flow smoother and seemingly faster when this occurs. When the class was complete, several students thanked me for the class, a couple left comments in the chat about how much they learned during the week. That's always nice to hear of course. For my part, I make sure to thank them for their time, and allowing me to share knowledge with them, and for helping me learn also. I don't say that to get on their 'good side', I mean it. After all, if it wasn't for them and so many other customers asking for training, I wouldn't have a job! In Closing This week, I am in Laurel Maryland delivering a class on Basic RF Principles and Theory. I will write about this trip later once things are done. Until my next entry stay safe, be good, be healthy, and take care of those you love! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Montebello, Ca Week of: 1/9/23 Last week saw me visiting Montebello California, which is part of the Los Angeles Metroplex. It was an interesting week that really showed me what teamwork and sharing knowledge could accomplish. I knew this already, but it was nice seeing it reinforced. How did that happen, and why? Let's go back in time to the week before. Our RF Systems are constantly evolving, with new equipment being added often. These systems use an Ethernet network to connect sites together, which means that an Ethernet Switch and Router are used for network connectivity. I've delivered this class numerous times so was not worried. Until.... Well, I need to go back in time a bit more. About 4 years ago, yep, FOUR years, our systems were updated to use Juniper Routers instead of the smaller, less powerful Routers manufactured by us. Despite this happening 4 years ago, we never delivered the class to a customer that actually had them installed. At least I hadn't done that. Well, this customer in the LA area does have them; as a result, it was necessary to change the course materials and add Powerpoint slides and hands-on activities for the Juniper Routers. Most of our courses are taken care of by a team in Krakow Poland, but this course is not. It fell to the Master Instructor for the course to make the necessary changes. There's a story behind all this that really shouldn't be shared here, so I won't. Just realize that he knew I would be there last week, and worked very hard to complete the edits. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday with him in Schaumburg going over the changes, but there was still a bit to do. He ended up sending me the new files late Saturday, which meant I would deliver the class without the benefit of giving them a thorough review to update my knowledge. However, thanks to working with him those two days, I was able to answer every question asked by the students, and the hands-on activities were completed rather quickly too. As you might guess, the class went well, the critiques from the students were very good, and everyone seemed satisfied. I know I was happy, and without Dan's help during the week prior to the class, things might have been a bit different. Also, I will return to this same customer the week of March 6th to deliver the same class to a new group of students. Life is good, it's always good, no matter what goes on. You all know my penchant for dining out when traveling, so where did I eat that I should talk about? Let's see.... Noteworthy Restaurants: Brew Kitchen Bar https://www.brewkitchenbar.com/menu I dined here on Sunday, the day I arrived. I was blown away by their Fish Burger. It was Pollock, almost an inch thick! The fish was fresh from the fryer because each of the first 5 or 6 bites resulted in steam rising from the meat. It was the best Fish Sandwich I can recall having, and I've had quite a few in my time. I also had their Elote Egg Rolls, and while they were very good, they just couldn't hold a candle to the Fish Sandwich. I will dine here again on each of my visits to this customer this year (I'm scheduled to be there 4 more times too!) Daikokuya Monterey Park https://group.bishamon-ten.com/menu_daikokuya_montreypark This is a very small place, but don't let the size fool you. I saw their Asparagus Pork on the web, and wanted to try it. With that, I had their Daikoku Ramen. It was very tasty, and just what I wanted on a rainy Los Angeles night. I ordered the half-size bowl, it was still huge. So glad I didn't order a full bowl. I also ordered a half-size of their Mixed Poke Bowl for lunch the next day. Except it became my breakfast.  I wanted to dine at this place because I really enjoy dining at Mediterranean Restaurants http://www.hcarmenian.com/online-menu/ But I opted for Mexican food instead, and that was a mistake. Not that it was bad, it was Friday night, and while they weren't that busy, it seemed I never saw my server except when she took my order, and brought me the check. The food was warm, everything came out at once, you know the drill.... A very average place, but since I can't brag about them, I won't mention their name here. Needless to say, I will have to try that Armenian place in March! In Closing I am home this week, delivering an online Virtual class to a customer in Australia. Sunday I will fly to Maryland to deliver that basic RF Class I teach. I will also meet 🌸 pwheeler - love joy peace Sunday and see what we can find to talk about! Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Bloomington Illinois & Schaumburg Week of: 12/19 & 12/26.22 These past three weeks I've been home for the most part. The Director of North American Training sent us an e-mail telling us to relax as much as we can, maximize our time with family, and wind down as much as possible. Yeah, right. I have things that need to get done, this is about the only time to do that. But I did maximize my time at home, I did spend time with family & friends, and even managed to have a nice, quiet, Christmas. However, I still managed to get some work done every day. You might wonder why I wanted to get work done during this period. The answer is quite simple really. I have an upcoming class with the Kentucky Emergency Management System. The customer has requested that this 3-day class also cover something called 'consoles' for this small system. I don't teach consoles, so needed to buff up my knowledge a bit. I studied, access our small (It's called a K Core) remotely to improve my knowledge. The training materials for this course do not have sufficient slides, or hands-on activities for consoles in it, so I worked on improving those too. Don't get me wrong, there are slides on configuring the consoles, but the slides are very dry, very 'sterile'. I tried to improve that. There's also some vital information missing from the slide deck, so I added those Now you're probably wondering why I had to do all this, why wasn't it done already? Well, good question. For the most part, our course materials are prepared by very good curriculum developers in Krakow, Poland. They are writers though, not technicians. They get their information from the Engineers who build and develop these systems. Sometimes even the Engineers are wrong in their information (I've corrected them on several occasions), and I have to say that the manuals are missing information we really need. Why? There are two reasons really. First, the changing business model. Like most every company that deals with technology, there's a huge interest in providing services. I'll let you figure out what that means. Also, though, the Engineers forget that us 'peons' don't have the background and knowledge they do, and assume that what is provided in manuals is sufficient. It's not. So we dig for this needed information. I spent this past Tuesday and Wednesday in Schaumburg being cross-trained by my co-worker Dan. I hadn't planned on being there Wednesday, but the boss said to satay the night, so I did, despite having nothing with me for that. No toiletries, no clean underclothes, etc. Yeah, I don't know it all, I never will know it all. In our Networking classes, a new router (manufactured by Juniper) has replaced what we were using. The command line interface is quite involved, the configuration file is immense; there's just a lot to know/learn. My co-worker Dan has been feverishly working on updating both the slides and hands-on activity guide for this class. He and I are doing this networking classes for this customer. The Training Department has over 30 weeks of training to deliver for them in 2023. I'm still waiting on some of course material, and may not get it until after my class begins Monday. It's okay, I know enough to deliver the class, having the new hands-on activity guide would be nice, but I can get things done without it. In Closing I will be in Los Angeles next week, staying in the Montebello area and teaching class nearby. I get a week home after that, then it's all travel, other than 2 weeks of vacation in late February! Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Ft Lauderdale, Fl Week of: 12/12/22 This past week I was back in Ft Lauderdale to deliver a Networking Class that focuses on the Networking used in our radio systems. This class was a little different than most others in one way. I had eight students total, only one was a customer, the rest were Motorolans supporting customers around the country. It was definitely interesting, and fun. Part of this class involves configuring routers that send data across the network. These routers are small, babies if you will, compared to the routers used to route traffic across the Internet. They work the same as those routers, just on a much smaller scale. One of the settings in the routers is to disable what's called the Boot Monitor mode. You have to follow a certain procedure to enable it, and it's not hard. During a break, the one Non-Motorola student removed his base card, the one that contains the router configuration and such. I immediately noticed that this card was set to allow entry into the Boot Monitor mode, something we don't teach in class. I know how to do it, I know what it's for. I held the card for a moment and removed the jumper. This guy already knew about the Boot Monitor mode, he just didn't know exactly how to enter it. One of the Motorola students who did know mentioned how to do it.... so I answered that the jumper was removed and it wouldn't enter that mode. The student tried to anyway, and to my surprise, it did enter the Boot Monitor mode! Well, that wasn't right, and I knew someone had reconfigured something in the startup that allowed that. This occurred on Wednesday, so after class on Thursday I stayed late and spent an hour reading the depot manual. I found what I was looking for, and disabled it. I also wrote a short note describing what I'd found and sent it to everyone who delivers this class. Why? We share knowledge! And, the man who edits this class didn't know about it, he of all people should know this! I was surprised too, because Dan knows an awful lot about Networking in general. In fact, I tell my students that he was there helping Bill Gates with the early Microsoft development (I know, Microsoft is not about routing and such, but you get my point). The class critiques were good, except one Motorola student selected the wrong boxes. What do I mean? The students grade us on our knowledge, ability to deliver the class, etc. This person chose 'Very Dissatisfied' for all six boxes, then proceeded to praise my delivery and knowledge. He just selected the wrong box by accident is all. Thank God for small favors too, because the praising tells anyone (like my boss) who sees the reviews (he looks at almost all of them) that the wrong box was accidentally selected. All in all, a very nice last delivery for 2022. I didn't visit any new restaurants this week. In fact, I had dinner in my room two nights. One, I was tired. Two, I started trying to eat less and limit my weight gain. I'm now at 225# and would like to be at 210 max, and ideally less than 200#. That's not easy when you visit nice restaurants. In Closing I am home for 3 weeks, my only real time home for any length of time through July right now. Some classes may be cancelled or delayed, those dates will most likely be filled in too if that happens. Look for a Notebook entry about my 2023 first half schedule. It's a bit insane compared to just 6 years ago. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Wilkes-Barre, Pa Week of: 12/5/22 Last week I was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania delivering a class on one of our hand-held radios. This class includes radio disassembly/reassembly, programming, checking its operation to ensure it meets Motorola Solutions Specification, tuning it, as well as submergence checks/pressure checks. Yes, this radio will survive if dropped into a six foot water depth for two hours! (I still find that amazing.) But this customer isn't doing all that. Essentially all they do is ship a faulty radio to the depot for repair. They do not perform any checks whatsoever. This meant that about 75% of the class would not need to be covered. After all, why train them on something they'll never do? Yes, they might (a BIF might here) one day get around to doing that, but I seriously doubt it. Why? Because they would need to invest in some test equipment and adapters. To set up one station for doing those tests they would need to purchase about $75,000 worth of test equipment! While they might need just one in Luzerne County where Wilkes-Barre is, the whole state is doing the same thing. So again, doubtful that they will do this in the near future. Wilkes-Barre is a somewhat depressed area, an area that needs a bit of TLC. TLC in the form of major road maintenance and more. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice area (not an area where Jim wants to live), the people are really great, other than a bbit of "I come first" when driving on the roads. But it is a little too far north for a person of my age, so given my choice, I wouldn't live there. During the week I had another of those distractions from our support team. The Department of State wants another class, a class only two of us are qualified to deliver, and the other instructor can't travel for health reasons, so it will be up to me to deliver it. It looks like I will spend two weeks in Frankfurt, Germany! Yeah, I'm already excited about it., EXCEPT.... To do this will tire me out for a couple of days. Doing an international class requires a free week before the class (for travel and jet-lag adjustment), and a free week after for the same reason. So, four weeks in this case since it's two weeks of deliver there. With my schedule the way it is, (and part of it will not change most likely), I don't have four weeks free until November! So the way it's scheduled right now, I will be in Los Angeles in late July. Fly from LA directly to Frankfurt on Friday, start class the following Tuesday, with class ending on Friday. Then teach Monday-Friday the following week. Fly home when done and have a blessed week of recovery before flying back to LA on Sunday. Yeah... I know. I do have a tough life. (NOT!) Along with this, the Senior Training Manager in our Asia region wants me there in February/March, but that won't happen. Between January and March, I have 5 weeks of 'No-Delivery'. Two of those are vacation I've asked for, one is the week of Memorial Day, one is a week to work on course materials for a special class in Kentucky. Yep, the first half of 2023 is 'chock-a-block' full. Sadly, I will not be going to the Philippines, another instructor is. That's fine though, I can't do it all, can I? Getting home Friday proved to be more of a challenge than I imagined. On the drive from Wilkes-Barre to Harrisburg, I stopped at the Yuengling Brewery Gift Shop. It's a large place, I had a lot of fun spending a bit of $$. The flight to Atlanta, so I could connect to my flight home was unewventful. However, once there we found out that we couldn't leave because the Bloomington area had dense fog, It was so dense that officials were advising people not to drive! The small planes that service Bloomington (and other airports of similar size) do not have the necessary instrumentation that allows them to safely land in dense fog. So, I ended up spending the night in Atlanta. Because of delays in rescheduling/checking on the morning flight, I didn't get to my room until after midnight, I managed to grab about 4 hours of sleep before going back to the airport. I arrived home about 10:30 am, and instead of resting more, I went to an Estate Sale because a friend of ours had her eye on some furniture there, and my van would be needed to get it to her house. No rest for the weary, I managed to nap at 5 pm or so for a couple of hours, but needed to get up and repack to head to Ft. Lauderdale... Yeah, I was pretty tired yesterday. Today is a new day, all will be good. Historic/Interesting Places Visited: https://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm I discoveredf Steam Town National Historic Park while browsing Google maps one night. Being a National Historic Park, I knew I had to get there. Google Maps said it closed at 5 pm, so I had time to get there after class was done. But again, I have to say EXCEPT... Google maps was wrong, it closed at 4 pm. What time did I arrive? 4 pm. I did manage to see the park a little, but was told to leave by a couple of Park Rangers. Now I need to return there because I was unable to get a stamp in my National Parks book. Maybe on one of my trips East I can do that. Photo's From Visit:  In Closing Right now I am in Fort Lauderdale delivering a Networking class. I will arrive home Friday, and have three weeks to relax. Except, I will be working on course materials and improving my knowledge on our 'new' Juniper Router for those LA classes. But I'll be home, that's what counts! Then 2023 starts with a bang!. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Bloomington, Illinois Week of: 11/28/22 This past week I was home and finally got some work done. I have upcoming classes in Kentucky (April), and NYC (Long Island Railroad, but not until May), and Los Angeles (Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communication System in January) that requires me to prepare course materials, or become much more familiar with a new device (Juniper Router) that has been added to our systems. I was going to spend my week working on adding a Powerpoint module to an existing course for the upcoming class in Kentucky, but my priorities were changed last Wednesday when I was tasked with creating three short videos for use by some customers. This requires creating short videos (less than 10 minutes in length) using Powerpoint slides and narrating with a lot more information than provided on the slide. I finished one, but once again had my priorities changed when I learned that the customer in Los Angeles has that somewhat new (to us) Juniper Router in it. We have some information on it and its configuration, but not a lot. I'm fine with the basics about it, but really need to know it indepth. The problem is, that device is locked down pretty well, so there's not a lot we can do when it comes to hands-on activities. Fortunately, a co-worker (Instructor) prepares all materials for this course, and he's hot on getting the course materials completed. Friday one of our training consultants called me and said that the Asia-Pacific Training Manager wants me in the Philippines in January/February twice for 2 sessions. With my schedule as solidly booked at it is, I couldn't do those classes until July at the earliest, so another instructor will probably be assigned. It's nice to have a senior manager ask my support team to send me for this class, though she did say another instructor would do if I wasn't available. A second call came in Friday, this time the State Department wants me in Germany again for about 2 weeks of classes. We'll see what the future holds, huh! Despite these minor distractions and excitement, I did manage to get a bit done. I did more than just that video (I had to prepare the Powerpoint slides to support that first). I managed to add in a little cross-training on a course I've long wanted to deliver. I also worked on that module for a class with the Kentucky Emergency Management. Again, we'll see what the future holds, and how many changes occur to my schedule between now and the end of the second quarter. Right now I'm scheduled for 90 days of delivery in that timeframe. A few years back, 90 days was 15-20 days from a full years delivery! How things can change! In Closing Next week I will be Wilkes-Barre Pa delivering a basic radio class, followed by yet another Networking Class in Fort Lauderdale Then 2023 starts with a bang!. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Bloomington, Illinois Week of: 11/21/22 This past week I was home doing almost nothing. Our boss sent an e-mail to everyone thanking us for a tremendous year, telling us to relax all we can before the push to end the year. Next starts off hot n heavy for me. I have the first week of January free (No travel, not teaching), and two weeks of planned vacation the week of February 20. Other than that, I'm delivering every week through April 10th! Of course my schedule can change on a moments notice, but right now I will be in Schaumburg, LA twice (January and March), Kansas, Colorado Springs, Tennessee (Twice I think), Maryland, and Kentucky. Ten weeks of delivery in the first quarter, it would be more if not for that planned vacation. In Closing I will be home to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, then off the following week. My last two weeks of classes in 2022 will be a portable/mobile radio class in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, and yet another Networking Class in Fort Lauderdale Then it starts all over for me. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Madison, Wisconsin Week of: 11/14/22 This past week I was in Madison, Wisconsin delivering that basic Networking class once again. I had five students originally, but one dropped out Monday at lunch when his wife tested positive for COVID. Of the remaining students, three of them has as much Networking knowledge as I do, if not more. The nice thing though, is they didn't try to run the class, they remained students throughout the week. That's harder to do than you might think, but they seemed to have mastered that part of things. Once again, it was a fun class, made that way all the more so by their willingness to learn, and help the one student who wasn't as up-to-speed on networking knowledge as they were. We did cover a little extra in our discussions, but for the most part, we remained on topic. As of now, I will return to Madison in May of 2023 for the second Networking class. Madison is a nice place, a college town/city, with a lot going for it. It's small in size, and that suited me just fine. I enjoyed my meals at night, except for one. Let's just say I didn't choose wisely as far as my meal is concerned. However, I did experience a few excellent meals! Noteworthy Restaurants: Takumi Japanese Restaurant https://www.orderonlinehub.com/takumijapaneserestaurant I really enjoy dining at a Japanese restaurant, and Takumi was what I longed for this night. I had their Godzilla Roll as an appetizer, and their Shrimp Tempura Udon for mt meal. It had been a bit cold that day and the Udon noodles and Tempura really warmed me up. Erin's Snug Irish Pub Restaurant https://www.erinssnug.com/dinner It was my last night in Madison, and an Irish Pub sounded perfect to me. And it was. I will admit that my appetizer and dessert were definitely not Irish, but my meal sure was. Guinness Stew! Nice and hot, topped with a housemade puff pastry and baked. Definitely worth the visit. The dessert was Bread Pudding, and was good, but not fantastic. Then again, I'm spoiled when it comes to bread pudding.'' Buck And Honey's https://monona.buckandhoneys.com/monona-buck-and-honey-s-monona-food-menu There were 3 or 4 appetizers on the menu that I wanted, so I opted for their appetizer combo. Bacon Wrapped Dates, Sassy Curds (Local Cheese Curds), and Firecracker Shrimp. I should have ordered two of these and nothing more, it was that good! Instead, I did order dinner, and had their Seared ahi Tuna Salad. This is a very nice place, I don't think I could have gone wrong no matter what I ordered. In Closing I will be home to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, then off the following week. My last two weeks of classes in 2022 will be a portable/mobile radio class in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, and yet another Networking Class in Fort Lauderdale Then it starts all over for me. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Schaumburg, Illinois Week of: 11/7/22 This past week I've been in Schaumburg delivering a more Advanced Networking Class. Well, it's not that much more advanced. The basic class teaches students the subject of IP Addressing, how TCP works, what a switch and router are and how to configure each, as well as backing up and restoring each. This week's class teaches them just about the same subject, except the discussion is centered around their operation in our radio systems. Plus, in the basic class, an older Cisco router is used. In this one, we use a Motorola Router, and soon, a Juniper Router. So same subject in some ways, but we cover the material in a more in-depth manner. It was a fun class, even if I did get the impression that someone was 'taking' cables they shouldn't (my impression was wrong), or that someone had taken one of my USB drives (again, I was wrong). I really enjoy delivering each of these classes and try to impart that feeling to my students. With three and a half days of all hands-on activities in this class, it's a fun class to deliver. If you don't mind doing the hands-on activities yourself. I enjoy doing those activities which makes it all the more fun. Noteworthy Restaurants: Buffalo Wild Wings https://www.buffalowildwings.com/menu/ If you've read any entries in this blog at all, you know I typically do not dine at a National Chain restaurant. I sort of make an exception when in Schaumburg, because having lived here for 15 years, it's like being home. NOT! Okay, it's a place I'm quite familiar with, and at times I make an exception. Let's leave it at that. This particular night I was in the mood for Wings. But I didn't have them. Why? Because I found they have a Green Chile Cheeseburger! They label theirs as a Bacon Smashed Hatch Chile Burger. This was a no-brainer in my eyes. And as fate would have it, I ordered an appetizer, the Hatch Queso. You can never have too much Hatch Chile if you ask me.Fat Rosie's Taco & Tequila Bar https://media-cdn.getbento.com/accounts/b4b148424bd38e72d3c74dc5c074a855/media/FeX9P0J7SbCDdAYMbAma_FatRosies_L_Dinner_11x17_08192022B.pdf It was Taco Tuesday, that's what I wanted. Where else should I go besides here? It was good, not spectacular. Fa Rosie's Queso Dip and a couple of Taco's, plus a nice Margarita set me up well. In Closing I will be in Madison Wisconsin next week, then celebrate Thanksgiving the following week. Only two more weeks of delivery this year before having three weeks off for Christmas/New Years. Then it starts all over for me. 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'. 