Work I've Taken On

Work I've Taken On

This is kind of a Experience Vitae or Functional Resume that illustrates my striving to not only earn a living, but also satisfy my curiosity. Our work shapes our lives through the way we come to understand things, people, our society and government. [Work hard, ask questions, learn, challenge yourself, explore new horizons, expand...]

You could probably (playfully) say that my first work was that of my parent's torment. I read voraciously, and with my mother also selling encyclopedias, I had ready reference to sate my curiosity. I loved to experiment (lightning rod to light bulb, chemistry set->blowing up my room, homemade rockets, trains, etc., even cooking!). Plus we had the benefit of being in a military family and living in several places (Texas, Japan, Arizona, before the locations below). I also had the benefit of one grandfather being a farmer and the other running an auto parts store (and perpetually running for mayor). My mother also restored a baby grand piano which required me taking piano lessons for awhile (3rd place in state-wide composing competition); and an uncle gave me a trombone that I learned a bit of how to play. Between the chemistry set, a microscope another uncle gave me and the electronic set my father built me, I had a world to explore!

{1960s}
[Ohio]
Vegetable Seller		Selling excess vegetables from our family garden around the neighborhood with my wagon.
[Alabama]
Newspaper Boy		Daily afternoon addition (4pm), Sunday morning addition (6am), by bicycle. Pickup, fold, deliver, collect accounts.
{1970s}
[Germany]
Candy Striper		Summer working with rehabilitating children in the burn ward of the hospital. Bandage changing, hydrobaths, rehabilitation exercises.
Newspaper Boy		Weekly newspaper delivery, 50 apartment building, 3 stairwells each, 3 floors (5 flights).
Flyer distribution		Doorstop delivery, as above
Dog Walker		...
Babysitter		...
Lawn care		Apartment building lawn mowing, sidewalk edging
[Texas]
Fast Food worker		...
Hotel Maint, Barback		General repairs, Bar stocking, Nacho prep cook, pool cleaner
[Virginia]
Auto Mechanic		Bought a inoperable English sports car, took it completely apart, rebuilt engine, transmission, body and interior restoration. Drove it for a couple of years. Even road rallies!
Stock clerk		...
Mover		Packing, loading, forklift driver
Policy Advocate		Represented the nascent NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) locally and on radio stations.
Estate Maintenance		General house and grounds maintenance, historical artifact sorting
Furniture Store		Delivery driver & touchup/repairs
Chemistry Lab Tech		Chemical inventory, solution prep for classes, solids purification (zone melter operator)
[Ohio]
Photographer		Custom photographer, artifacts, people, hand-tint, corporate brochure photos. Also custom film/print processing.
Photography Instr.		Creation and instruction of specialized classes in the art of making interesting photography
Political Fundraiser		Door-to-door fundraiser for local political causes.
[New York]
{1980s}
Electronics Tech		USAF, Electronic Warfare Tech; repair of EWS microwave equipment and development of techniques to increase operational life and cost reduction
Electronic Consult.		Design and fabrication of items of need or for sale, including the first pocket guitar amplifier, and video conversion for early Atari computers. Custom circuit board layout/fab.
Simulator Tech		B52 flight simulator engineering technician; repair, maintenance and flight testing of B52 aircraft simulator.
E/S Engineer		Electrical and Software engineer, working on development of testing for high density ICs, Development of radiation sensor simulators (incl. mech.). QC program and tech. manual development.
PC Network Consult		Building and maintenance of small business computers and Networks
SoftWare Tutor		Tutoring at continuing ed college in electronics and software programming.
SW Engineer		Development of machine diagnostics and development of new state of art checkweigher with realtime production statistics.
Director / Builder		Board member for development of community science center; planning, donation appeals, building, exhibit design and fabrication. (Carl Sagan on Advisory Board!)
Disaster Response		Red Cross disaster response, local and national; disaster assessment (damage id and resource allocation)
{1990s}
Marine/Acoust. Eng		Development of equipment (electronics, software, mechanical) for ocean deployment and monitoring of whales via acoustics. Work included development of equipment in conjunction with first large scale ocean warming studies (ATOC)
Engineer, Crystal.		Development of software and electronics for real-time xray crystallography.
[NY/France]
AltMed Engineer		Development of equipment for alternative medicine use (electronics, software, mechanical)
[California]
Engineer		Development of circuit board testing. Development of next generation video software for gimbal-stabilized aircraft optics platform. Flight management software development for the UAV (drone) outfitted with the designed video.
Historical Bldgs		Helped create a group to try to save an old worker's church from destruction and rebuild it. Work included historical records, non profit creation, fund raising, community appeals.
{2000s}
Water Sys. Analyst		Analysis of community water system and development of recommendations and budget. Later, board member of ops.
Web Server Dev.		Ran a webserver and maintained a slew of websites.
Engineer		Development of wine process controls (electrical and software), including first fermentation monitor (CO2).
GH Gas Analyst		Analysis of carbon budget and greenhouse gas emissions for town of Willits, then County of Mendocino - reports distributed via Energy Working Group. Developed recommendations for GHG reduction, as well as County 10-year plan energy components.
RenEnergy Consult		Design, build and config. Of off-grid rural renewable energy systems. Including development of solar power systems, solar ranch vehicles, hydro electric, etc.
Solar Utility Eng.		Developed and presented preliminary cost estimates and plans for a large-scale (11MW) solar electric utility-power facility.
Broadband Analyst		Participant in community effort to analyze needs for rural broadband networks (internet access, both house-hold and community-wise such as hospitals, libraries, schools, etc.) and push for grants and legislation.
Developer		Design and building of the off-grid utilities (water, septic, roads, solar) and then that of a partially-underground curvilinear net zero house made of steel and concrete (earthquake, fire-resistant, passive-energy). Concurrent, the learning about and remediation of soils, the habitat restoration, and the planting of a variety plants and trees to understand and adapt to climate changes.
Plant Breeder		As a small cannabis farmer, learned to grow, then breed, developing several new varieties.
Rural Road Maint.		As a board member, the examination of rural community gravel road system and how to better maintain against high traffic. Also to update the governing documents and create policies for operations, and to increase revenues and find grants to fund.