Family - Narrative DRAFT

My testimonials and resume should give you a feeling for my life as an employee. My innovation at HP got the marketing manager of the San Diego Division promoted to head of marking for the entire company. I was highly respected throughout the aerospace industry and its subcontractors. Besides being a lead technologist, I managed about 15 people locally and another 15 remotely. I was earning about $80 per hour. Even though I was an employee of Data Systems Division of General Dynamics (GD), the Convair Division selected me as its representative to investigate the Hyperknowledge technology developed by a company in The Netherlands. Its president was mathematics child prodigy and astrophysicist Ken Happel. I convinced GD to rescue Ken and the top 5 technicians, but not before the company disappeared in bankruptcy. One stayed with me in the Escondido house until his family arrived.

As GD was dismembered, the Data Systems Division was sold to CSC with the promise that CSC would market the technical skills and products of my Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CADCAM) department commercially. At last we would not be limited to seven GD divisions. Within six months the entire technical staff was laid-off.

I agreed to help Ken Happel make a $3 million Hyperknowledge-based software company (Omnigon) a reality. We were doing well until six months later the SEC ruled that the venture was too risky for an elderly investor. We got temporary funding at the rate of $60,000 per month from minor investors and continued working in anticipation of another major funding source. Certain U.S. government security agencies would not allow foreign money to be part of the investment, so that made the investor search more difficult.

As a contractor, I was one of the first to feel the financial pinch from delayed payments. Later the payroll bounced. I give-up on the company sooner than most. The job prospects for them were so bleak in San Diego that they had no where else to go. I had a master bedroom to re-build, or lose my only buyer for the capital gains house.

The combination of no income and no time to seek it forced me to cash a $20,000 IRA and take a large tax and penalty loss to sustain me and pay for the re-build. I determined that the 15 acres would wipe me out before they could be sold, so I abandoned the land speculation venture at a loss of over $87,000.

Burned-out, I moved-in with a Libertarian friend, Jim Lorenz and his mate, Catherine just east of Balboa Park, so we could pursue political projects in earnest. I dug-out the basement and built shelving so I could get my van and one of their cars in the garage. I helped Jim maintain their 9-apartment complex in partial exchange for room and board. She took a job in Salt Lake City. They put the house on the market. Soon thereafter she was diagnosed with cancer of the Pancreas. Jim commuted for awhile, but soon realized that the selling price would be less than the loan. Jim moved to Salt Lake City, married Catherine and comforted her until she died. I stayed until the house was foreclosed upon.

Mary offered the best housing option: room and board in exchange for organisms, house improvements and maintenance. Later I paid $300 to $400 per month in rent to subsidize the completion of her BA in economics.

Living cheap placed little demand on me to generate income. I became semi-retired. I earned enough to get by doing political things for $25 per hour that I'd normally do for free. I did some desktop video work for Richard Byer's real estate loan/client matching software before they went bankrupt. I lost $100 out of pocket and $200 labor on that deal.

I invented and manufactured a door slide latch for the Caravan and Voyager. The doors won't stay open on hills and can close unexpectedly. Sales were disappointing, but when a woman admitted that she had to have her daughter's ear stitched back on after the sliding door closed on her head, and then said she'd have to think about buying a latch for $7, I gave up on that product.

I maintained the Freethought Forum on AOL for Truth Seeker, Co. until I subcontracted the work to a young friend, Ben Casey to give me time to transition the Truth Seeker Journal to the Internet. I now have a number of political and commercial ($40-$60 per hour rate) Web clients. I can retain these remotely. Only one requires a direct dial-in, so that's the only long-distance charge I'd have if I moved.

I helped Dr. Charles Thomas fix his Reappraising AIDS newsletter mail list mess, and found myself with the job of maintaining the list and bulk-mailing the newsletters for which I charge my political rate.

I developed a HTML tutorial to help train Mary, Ben and other Synergy Enterprises subcontractors to program in HTML. I trained Mary to register and market the Web pages. I developed other tools to facilitate Web page development. I got Kit up to speed on CGI scripts for Web page forms. I am now concentrating on installing our own server at Truth Seeker and putting Web pages on it that will generate income long after the programming investment is made. (Generating income in direct proportion to the labor invested is not a way to build wealth.) Next on the list is animations for Web pages for fun and profit.

Eventually I hope to modify my Enterprise Integration book to cover distributed product development and manufacture via the Internet. That should sell in this market a lot better than a book that told large, complex companies how to do more efficient product development.

I write a lot of political letters-to-the-editor and articles. Many of the letters are published throughout the nation. Many of the articles area published in the Truth Seeker Journal and various libertarian publications. I've even gotten paid for a few.

I have recently revised and categorized a list of over 1,500 media receptive to faxed or emailed letters, press releases and articles. It will be used for commercial as well as political purposes. I created and am the national distributor for the LIBertarian LETters to the editor (LIBLET) distribution network. A smattering of the political literature I read or scan are enclosed (read, trash or leave somewhere for someone else to read).