ageofknowledge wrote:Hi Gman. Yes we were neighbors but you were in about the 6th grade when I was at Meridian High School. I was at the Ranch in Eagle for about 1 1/2 years. Mostly orphans there but a few like me were there as an alternative to the juvenile system. My foster dad there was the boxing and wrestling coach for Texas A & M for a few years before he started working with young people. He COULD handle me when he had to. The teachers were cool in Idaho. I took a lot of shop classes, welding, agriculture, band and got good grades. I ditched a lot though to go to bars and get high during the day. Bars would let us high school kids in back in those days. Probably not today. It's probably a suburb today.
Back then, it was a very different world than Los Angeles. I could have caught a case for crunching that football players car in with a Chrysler Superbee about 40 miles an hour backwards *CRUNCH* and the resulting fights we had with with jocks and maybe some drag races but that was all I did. I never got caught or in any trouble in Idaho. Mostly because there were so few people back in those days and so much ROOM. One year after leaving Idaho I was in boot camp.. lol. With my attitude, I got to be the crash test dummy for a couple of SEAL led "marching parties"... haha. Thank God I gave it up at 23 and started following the Lord. Never looked back. Had a great life AD but the devil finally caught up with me last year and brought me down. Now I'm messed up and lost it all. Lost my job/career, then my money, then my friends, then my health. All I have left is some family (that doesn't want me around to be truthful), my life, my faith and a truck. That's all I have.
Hmmm, maybe not too far apart. I'm 44 and you are 46? I'm sorry to hear about your predicament.. Sometimes we all go through hell it seems. I know I've had my share as well. I lost everything here when I moved to CA. Lost my car in a car wreck, job, and house rental all in one year. Had no family because my mother died earlier and my new step mom didn't want me around. Sounds like you had it hard too. I wouldn't get down to hard on yourself though. An MBA? That beats me.. You seem to be a well educated guy with full of promise. Sometimes we have to taste the bitter to appreciate the sweet...
Have you ever thought about moving back to Idaho? It has really changed a lot there now.. In fact I'm even considering it. Construction is everywhere and the State is not bankrupt like California here. Just a thought anyway.. Where you born there?
The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects as false - Galileo
We learn from history that we do not learn from history - Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. -Philippians 4:8
ageofknowledge wrote:Hi Gman. Yes we were neighbors but you were in about the 6th grade when I was at Meridian High School. I was at the Ranch in Eagle for about 1 1/2 years. Mostly orphans there but a few like me were there as an alternative to the juvenile system. My foster dad there was the boxing and wrestling coach for Texas A & M for a few years before he started working with young people. He COULD handle me when he had to. The teachers were cool in Idaho. I took a lot of shop classes, welding, agriculture, band and got good grades. I ditched a lot though to go to bars and get high during the day. Bars would let us high school kids in back in those days. Probably not today. It's probably a suburb today.
Back then, it was a very different world than Los Angeles. I could have caught a case for crunching that football players car in with a Chrysler Superbee about 40 miles an hour backwards *CRUNCH* and the resulting fights we had with with jocks and maybe some drag races but that was all I did. I never got caught or in any trouble in Idaho. Mostly because there were so few people back in those days and so much ROOM. One year after leaving Idaho I was in boot camp.. lol. With my attitude, I got to be the crash test dummy for a couple of SEAL led "marching parties"... haha. Thank God I gave it up at 23 and started following the Lord. Never looked back. Had a great life AD but the devil finally caught up with me last year and brought me down. Now I'm messed up and lost it all. Lost my job/career, then my money, then my friends, then my health. All I have left is some family (that doesn't want me around to be truthful), my life, my faith and a truck. That's all I have.
Hmmm, maybe not too far apart. I'm 44 and you are 46? I'm sorry to hear about your predicament.. Sometimes we all go through hell it seems. I know I've had my share as well. I lost everything here when I moved to CA. Lost my car in a car wreck, job, and house rental all in one year. Had no family because my mother died earlier and my new step mom didn't want me around. Sounds like you had it hard too. I wouldn't get down to hard on yourself though. An MBA? That beats me.. You seem to be a well educated guy with full of promise. Sometimes we have to taste the bitter to appreciate the sweet...
Have you ever thought about moving back to Idaho? It has really changed a lot there now.. In fact I'm even considering it. Construction is everywhere and the State is not bankrupt like California here. Just a thought anyway.. Where you born there?
Thanks Gman. I appreciate the kind words. I was born in LA. I think I'd love to go back if there were some employment opportunity. But with my condition.. I have deformed hands and am all messed up. It would take a lot of meds and surgery to put me back together and I just got Medi-Cal finally like a month ago. They don't fix anything actually. They just stop it from getting worse. So no surgery. Who would hire me? I'm smart as a tack but how would I function? I worked for 25 years in Fortune 500 companies and went to school at night most of that time... lol. Now I can't get a job and if I could.. could I do it anymore? Tragic. Count your blessings. Most people don't appreciate their health until it's gone.
ageofknowledge wrote:Thanks Gman. I appreciate the kind words. I was born in LA. I think I'd love to go back if there were some employment opportunity. But with my condition.. I have deformed hands and am all messed up. It would take a lot of meds and surgery to put me back together and I just got Medi-Cal finally like a month ago. They don't fix anything actually. They just stop it from getting worse. So no surgery. Who would hire me? I'm smart as a tack but how would I function? I worked for 25 years in Fortune 500 companies and went to school at night most of that time... lol. Now I can't get a job and if I could.. could I do it anymore? Tragic. Count your blessings. Most people don't appreciate their health until it's gone.
Age... I'm sorry to hear this.. But, a lot of the newer technologies are going into voice recognition devices anyways so you probably won't need your hands after all. The voice recognition technology is really spreading fast in the corporate world. Many people, like you, suffer from many debilitating disorders such as arthritis and carpal tunnel so you are not alone.. My girlfriend suffers from carpal tunnel, but now uses voice recognition software for most of her typing.
Also the new Windows 7 comes with voice recognition software. It even types for you...
The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects as false - Galileo
We learn from history that we do not learn from history - Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. -Philippians 4:8
ageofknowledge wrote:Thanks Gman. I appreciate the kind words. I was born in LA. I think I'd love to go back if there were some employment opportunity. But with my condition.. I have deformed hands and am all messed up. It would take a lot of meds and surgery to put me back together and I just got Medi-Cal finally like a month ago. They don't fix anything actually. They just stop it from getting worse. So no surgery. Who would hire me? I'm smart as a tack but how would I function? I worked for 25 years in Fortune 500 companies and went to school at night most of that time... lol. Now I can't get a job and if I could.. could I do it anymore? Tragic. Count your blessings. Most people don't appreciate their health until it's gone.
Age... I'm sorry to hear this.. But, a lot of the newer technologies are going into voice recognition devices anyways so you probably won't need your hands after all. The voice recognition technology is really spreading fast in the corporate world. Many people, like you, suffer from many debilitating disorders such as arthritis and carpal tunnel so you are not alone.. My girlfriend suffers from carpal tunnel, but now uses voice recognition software for most of her typing.
Also the new Windows 7 comes with voice recognition software. It even types for you...
I know all about them. I'm a computer engineer in addition to being an MBA Lol.. I implemented voice recognition systems for lawyers at a Fortune 500 company as far back as the mid 90's. I've mastered and been certified in so many operating systems (Microsoft, Novell, Unix/Linux) over so many years I don't even get excited anymore about a new one. Windows 7 is superior to both XP and Vista. It's a winner and after they get a service pack out will be one an operating system you can standardize a business on just like XP was. But that's all easy to me. If it's computer related and used in a business, I've worked with it or something similar to it over the past 28 years.
Honestly I can still use my hands somewhat, I just can't grip and the fingers look like roller coasters on one hand. But I have scheduled my first rheumatologist appt today. Medi-Cal takes time to work so I have to wait until the end of the month to see him but he's supposed to be good. I'm on the waiting list so might be able to see him sooner. My hope is they will figure out exactly what kind of arthirits I have and give me a treatment plan to stop the damage from getting worse. Then I can see where I'm at after that. I'm also talking to disability organizations to figure out how this employer preference works for companies of 15 or more. I'm trying to stay off SSI and get rehabilitated so I can return to work. It's overwhelming because of the slow medical care, cuts in medical care that are occurring (dentistry is limited now to tooth extractions only, no visual, copays being implemented, etc...) in California but one day at a time.
I wouldn't mind innovating and prototyping new ways of doing things and then selling the products to companies. I wouldn't mind starting and managing businesses. But I'm finishing another graduate degree in ministry at the end of this year and am positioning myself for that too. I can't do them all but I would like to do at least ONE of them and not just be a poor disabled beggar my whole life. Peace.
