I had the good fortune of spending the past week at Travis Air Force Base in California, north and east of San Francisco. Had a great class, as I worked with folks from Travis AFB, the Hawaiian Air National Guard, and others. The topic, my old standby Exchange, and the students were great.

I must confess a little patriotic pride in this, as this is the closest I'll get to serving my country. When I was a kid, I was in ROTC at Wichita State, and had planned to go into the Army after I got my 4 year degree. As it worked out, I got sick just prior to turning 20, and that illness prevented me from entering the Armed Forces. Oh well. I pursued other interests and distractions, but as we all are, I am indebted to the women and men that make the commitment and serve in the military (and gang, don't forget the Coast Guard!).

When you see someone in uniform, just let 'em know there appreciated. A simple "Thank you" can go a long ways. These folks are putting it all on the line for us and our safety. That debt can never be fully repaid.

-30-

Welcome to my webthing. Here's where I share a little bit about myself and exposemyself to feedback from everybody in the entire freakin' world. I'm generally pleasant, but have my grumpy moments just like anybody else.

Professionally, I'm a Microsoft Certified Trainer & Systems Engineer, into my 10th year with those certifications. I've spent the majority of my career as a contract trainer, teaching Microsoft courses hither & yon in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Today, I'm a full-time trainer with Foss Training in Leawood, Kansas, part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. My areas of specialization are MS Exchange and Security, and in the ever changing landscape of the trainer horizon, I've been tasked with learning some other products as well, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server and Microsoft Operations Manager. These latter two are right up my alley as I spent a number of years teaching for Compaq's ASE program. Prior to my Compaq days, I also taught for IBM in their Professional Server Expert track.

I've been working with computers for almost 3 decades now, dating to my first experience as a young teenager with Commodore PET's and IBM System 30's. Then came the Apple IIc, the IBM PC, and others, including the Amiga. I was a UNIX System Admin in the 80's, Macintish Network Admin in the late 80's, installed Novell Educational Systems through IBM's EduQuest Program in the early 90's, and then one fateful day somebody dropped a box on my desk labelled "Windows NT 3.1". The rest is history.

That's all I've got time for now... more from the trench later.