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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 |
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