About Me
Mt. McLoughlin, Oregon 2017
After graduating from college in Oregon, I joined the Navy and was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center for 4 years in the Public Affairs office where I was in charge of the Admiral's enlisted staff. In addition I was also the station manager for the base television station.
When I completed my obligated service, I decided to change careers and become a technical writer. I had read an article by a technical writer about what her career entailed and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to combine my interest in science and technology with my writing skills. I was able to get a job with (then) AT&T (which became Lucent Technologies and then Alcatel-Lucent) where I spent the next 17 years writing customer documentation for telephone switching systems.
During that time, I also taught myself web design creating interactive Cold Fusion® web pages for an Oracle database in addition to creating and managing a website for a bulletin board that utilized PHP to access a SQL database.
Thanks the downsizing that happened as a result of the Alcatel and Lucent merger, I was thrust into the ranks of the unemployed, eventually getting a job working for McDonalds (yes, the hamburger place) as a tech writer. After 6 months, I wound up back in the telecom business at a small privately held company about 5 miles from home. While it had the advantage of being in an industry I preferred and allowed me the opportunity to become fluent in Madcap's Flare and Capture programs, I found the small business atmosphere not to my liking. For instance, their website was an embarrassment so the marketing director asked me to design a new site for them which I did...in Drupal. It was a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, it will likely never see the light of day because the company owner decided it would require the IT department to maintain it behind the scenes and he wanted something so simple his marketing director (who has no formal training in web design) could maintain without any help whatsoever. I think her only option at this point is to go with something like Weebly (which I pointed her to when she wanted to do create her own, personal website for her real estate business).
When the opportunity came in 2014 to move on to a much larger software company, I jumped at it. I worked on documentation for software management. Here, at least, I felt like an asset to the company rather than a necessary expense. The atmosphere was also much more open and engaging than my previous employer. I didn't mind the longer commute since I had a more flexible work schedule and the opportunity to work from home when I needed/wanted to, a benefit not allowed in the other job. In fact, in just about every way, the benefits of the new job outweighed those of the old. The downside was that as the company acquired other companies and changed its focus, they would restructure and have periodic layoffs. After four years, my job, along with about 60 others were eliminated. Fortunately the job market was much better than the last time I was laid off so there were a lot more opportunities.
In addition to my day job I also volunteer for a non-profit animal welfare organization (Fox Valley Animal Welfare League) maintaining their website, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest accounts. I occasional foster cats and kittens for them as well as other rescue groups and for several years I was also the chief cat photographer for another shelter I volunteered for.
This website contains bits of the things that I am most passionate about, writing, animals, genealogy and even a bit of cooking.
When I completed my obligated service, I decided to change careers and become a technical writer. I had read an article by a technical writer about what her career entailed and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to combine my interest in science and technology with my writing skills. I was able to get a job with (then) AT&T (which became Lucent Technologies and then Alcatel-Lucent) where I spent the next 17 years writing customer documentation for telephone switching systems.
During that time, I also taught myself web design creating interactive Cold Fusion® web pages for an Oracle database in addition to creating and managing a website for a bulletin board that utilized PHP to access a SQL database.
Thanks the downsizing that happened as a result of the Alcatel and Lucent merger, I was thrust into the ranks of the unemployed, eventually getting a job working for McDonalds (yes, the hamburger place) as a tech writer. After 6 months, I wound up back in the telecom business at a small privately held company about 5 miles from home. While it had the advantage of being in an industry I preferred and allowed me the opportunity to become fluent in Madcap's Flare and Capture programs, I found the small business atmosphere not to my liking. For instance, their website was an embarrassment so the marketing director asked me to design a new site for them which I did...in Drupal. It was a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, it will likely never see the light of day because the company owner decided it would require the IT department to maintain it behind the scenes and he wanted something so simple his marketing director (who has no formal training in web design) could maintain without any help whatsoever. I think her only option at this point is to go with something like Weebly (which I pointed her to when she wanted to do create her own, personal website for her real estate business).
When the opportunity came in 2014 to move on to a much larger software company, I jumped at it. I worked on documentation for software management. Here, at least, I felt like an asset to the company rather than a necessary expense. The atmosphere was also much more open and engaging than my previous employer. I didn't mind the longer commute since I had a more flexible work schedule and the opportunity to work from home when I needed/wanted to, a benefit not allowed in the other job. In fact, in just about every way, the benefits of the new job outweighed those of the old. The downside was that as the company acquired other companies and changed its focus, they would restructure and have periodic layoffs. After four years, my job, along with about 60 others were eliminated. Fortunately the job market was much better than the last time I was laid off so there were a lot more opportunities.
In addition to my day job I also volunteer for a non-profit animal welfare organization (Fox Valley Animal Welfare League) maintaining their website, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest accounts. I occasional foster cats and kittens for them as well as other rescue groups and for several years I was also the chief cat photographer for another shelter I volunteered for.
This website contains bits of the things that I am most passionate about, writing, animals, genealogy and even a bit of cooking.