Another Driver

KDB turned 17 yesterday; she passed her driver road test today! The test was challenging. Although we read in the manual that one could not use a car that has a center console between the student driver and the examiner, we were guessing that rule was outdated since most cars have consoles today. KDB was scheduled to take her test at 9:30. Once we arrived, we found that meant that it was ok for her to get in line at 9:30. The line was more than half an hour long. When we got to the front of the line, the examiner said that, if there is a console, there must be an emergency brake control near the console that he could use to stop the car in an emergency. Well, that ruled out our Lexus. The examiner said we would not be able to rent a car for the test because insurance on a rental car would not cover a test. He did say we could return before 1 PM that day instead of rescheduling. So I asked an instructor in a Drivers' Ed car that was in line. He would allow KDB to take the test in his car but there was an outrageous charge: $110 for about 15 minutes in the car, and the $110 had to be in cash. Furthermore, he had a tight schedule and could not afford any time to allow KDB to drive the car to get familiarized with it before the test! Well, instead of disappointing KDB by rescheduling sometime in the not-too-near future and having to wait in line again, I went to an ATM in Quakerbridge Mall, got the cash and set her up for the test. She had some difficult since the car handled so differently than the Lexus but she passed!

A Miracle of Modern Medicine

Last month, blood in my urine lead to the discovery that I had a kidney stone that was 7 to 8 cm in diameter. Using a non-invasive procedure called ESWL, the Urologist was able to reduce this relatively large stone to sand sized particles that I passed without too much pain. ESWL concentrates sound waves on the stone and crumbles it with that sound! It's an amazing procedure and I'm sure glad it worked so well.

Colorado Skiing for Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week, we flew to Denver, drove to Avon, Colorado and skied Vail and Beaver Creek. We started at Vail which opened a couple days before we arrived. After a couple days there, the compacted powder was beginning to form some ice so we switched to Beaver Creek on its opening day. This gave us better powder. All week we had blue skies and sunny days. Although new fresh natural snow didn't arrive till the morning that we drove the 100 plus miles on I70 back to Denver, we had some great skiing. The week was so delightful that Valorie and KDB are both sold on our next ski vacation being out West. Incidentally, the day after we drove back to Denver, 275 miles of I70 was closed because of low visibility in blowing snow.

KDB's Photography Career Continues

KDB had a one-person photography show at Princeton Day School over the last few weeks. Additionally, one of her photos will be featured in a new Photography textbook. Meanwhile, she is busy with 11th grade and preparations for taking the SAT.

Valorie's 2005 Landscape Design

To give some idea of Valorie's 2005 gardening, here is our side window box and a view of the front yard over the rose bush.

Storage Space available near Princeton NJ in Skillman

For any who live near Princeton, Hopewell, Rocky Hill, Skillman or Belle Mead, NJ, I have some rental storage space that is becoming available. If you know anyone who needs to rent a storage shed or garage in the Mercer county or Somerset County area, have them contact me or send them to NJ Storage Rental.

Hurricane Katrina Rescue and Relief efforts

For information on how you can help the Hurricane Katrina Rescue and Relief efforts, go to http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/katrinadonations.shtm.

A specific charity that I feel looks attractive is the Mercy Corps. While they primarily work outside the US, the similarities between the devastation in the South and that seen after the Indonesian tsunami are inescapable, so they are responding to the affected area. They have dispatched a team led by the same man who led the team to Sri Lanka after the Indian Ocean tsunami.

They are providing immediate relief through a partner organization that was among the first responders. In a couple of weeks though, the crisis will have abated and people will face restarting their lives with no home, no job and no stability for their families. Mercy Corps will be working to provide paying jobs clearing debris, rebuilding communities etc. similar to the help they provided in Indonesia. This lets the people who have lost everything begin to buy what they need and rebuild their lives with dignity, giving them a hand up rather than handouts.

Mercy Corps is also looking to get the children into school which provides the stability they need in their lives. This will be an ongoing mission long after all the news networks have returned to their regular programming and this disaster is no longer in the front of our minds. If you do not yet have a favorite organization to donate money to, please consider Mercy Corps.

You'll find the Mercy Corps site at http://www.mercycorps.org/.

Daniel Pentecost's blog also has some good info on what you can do to help with Katrina.

Columbia University

KDB is back at home after 4 weeks at Columbia University where she took a creative writing course. She also got to know Manhattan and the subway system as well or better than I know it!

"Rock & Leaf" on World Tour

Kristina's "Rock & Leaf" photograph (see May 7, 2005 post below) is on a World Tour being on display in South Africa and Australia this month. This fall it will return to the USA for a tour through the USA, Canada and the UK into 2007.

Photography Workshop in Rockport Maine

This past weekend we traveled to Rockport, ME and picked up KDB after she completed a two week Photography course that was recommended by her High School Photography teacher. We spent a few days exploring that part of Maine. It's a pleasant area, especially this time of year. Although it was generally hot while we were there, one of KDB's first days in Rockport, the temperature was 51 while it was 91 in Princeton! We had a couple great lobster dinners while there.

Wedding of George Budelis and Julie Marie Adams

This past Friday my nephew, George Edward Budelis, married Julie Marie Adams at the Geneva Farm Golf Club north of Baltimore, MD. Here is a photo. Wish I had been a little more to the left so that it would have given a better view of Julie.

Mobil NECC Reunion

I worked at Mobil in Princeton for many years and was volunteered to organize the 2005 Reunion of NECC (Mobil's NorthEast Computer Center). On May 1, we had a pleasant get-together at Winberies in Princeton's Palmer Square. The photo below is courtesy of Mel Callahan. The actual photo is much better quality - I reduced the file size so you wouldn't have to wait forever for it to download to your PC.


Clockwise starting in the shadows on the left are Brian Callahan, Bob and Nancy Swierczek, Mel Callahan, Valorie Budelis, Linda McDermott, Giulio Solia, Carole Umscheid, Jerry McDermott, John Sawyer, Pete Gerster, and myself. Doris Wert joined us when she was able to get away from her church. I wish I could have readily satisfied those who wanted to come but had schedule conflicts. Giulio Solia was volunteered to organize the next reunion.

KDB's Next School Trip - Photography Contest

About two weeks after KDB's return from India, she was off on another school trip. This time it was for a photography exhibition in Chicago. KDB won a prize in the exhibition. In another contest with results posted on-line, she won a prize for her "Rock & Leaf" entry. And, last night she won a prize in the House of Representatives' contest for our Congessional District. In fact, after the awards, she had offers from two parties wanting to purchase her entry. She is a budding photographer.

KDB's School Trip

Our daughter just returned from her Spring Break School Trip - to India! Things have changed since some of us grew up. KDB's grandmother, Louise Budelis, never stepped foot in a plane in spite of the fact that her son, KDB's dad, has flown as a commercial pilot!

The trip was a life changing experience for KDB. She has a much clearer understanding that there are people on the earth who live very differently than we do. She was very pleased to have seen the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala.

The Princeton Packet ran an article on the trip entitled "Study of faiths during PDS trip to India includes surprise encounter". Originally, I had a link here to that article but it's moved and I'm not sure it's still available online. Here is a photo of KDB at the base of the Himalayas near Dharamsala, India.

What have I been doing?

Since 1997, I've been consulting - IT or Business consulting, typically acting as a project leader or program manager but with such diverse assignments as Senior Financial Analyst, SAS Data Analyst, Business InfraStructure Manager and Data Base Administrator. Early on, organizations were requesting 60 to 70 hours or so a week of my time and willing to pay well for that time. In more recent years, as the economy changed, that demand greatly diminished. During slow consulting periods, I have taken what was once somewhat of a hobby and turned it into a profitable venture.

What I am doing now is Telecommunications consulting and sales. Although I still do some IT and business consulting - PC support, database work and analyses, I mainly assist businesses throughout the USA in finding cost effective solutions to their telecommunications requirements. I market basically two ways: on-line and off-line. On-line, that is, on the internet, my approaches are SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click). By off-line, I mean by initially contacting prospects by phone or in-person. Most recently I have been specializing as a "Closer" where others send me leads with whom I use my technical and sales training to determine the most cost-effective solutions.

Originally, I helped residential and small businesses find the best options. Although I now concentrate on medium to large businesses, I still make myself available to assist in personal requirements. I mainly work on such services as T1 and DS3 voice and data, high speed internet access and VoIP phone service.

Technically, I’m an agent for somewhere around 50+ companies. Each of these companies offers numerous plans. So what I do is offer customers a complimentary analysis and then determine the best plan to satisfy their need. Everyone’s requirements are different. About 90% of the time when I do an analysis, I find that, by going to a more appropriate plan, a savings of typically 10 to 80% can be obtained.

Last I checked, I had at least one on-line client in Hawaii. Except for possibly Alaska, I have clients in most states. My off-line clients are generally in NJ but there are a few in NY, MD, VA, PA and FL. NY, FL and PA because they are either associates I had worked with or referrals of associates. In MD and VA cause I have family there and I shared some options with them so that they could participate in the savings.

I like the significant flexibility in when and how I work. I can choose to do all on-line marketing; mainly just working as a closer; or to approach the business from other points of view. I can choose the time and days that I work. Although, during my recent vacation to the Yucatan, a prospect, whom I had been in touch with for some time, finally decided it was time to move on a T1. So I made time during my vacation to handle it. That was a challenge since there were significant periods of time when I was outside communications range, for example, in the jungle or in the water.

My Telecommunications Blog

This morning, I began a blog for my Telecommunications business. I christened it with a few words on VoIP. It is at PersimmonTelecom.blogspot.com and it refers to my recently written VoIP for Dummies web page.

December Vacation

Just got back from Cancun Mexico on Christmas Eve. Almost didn't make it back. In the morning, went on the web to check status of our flight and found it had been canceled because "crew not available". Two (chargeable) calls to the US Airways 800 number in the USA resulted in our being disconnected before making it through the IVR system to a person. Finally, American Express connected us to a US Airways Mexican toll free number that reached an agent in the UK. Although she didn't know what time it was in Cancun, she did see that of the 200+ passengers on the canceled flight, we were amongst the "lucky" few who were put on an earlier flight. We had to cut short our morning plans and rush to the airport. Other than that surprise at the end, we enjoyed the trip - visiting archeological sites, swimming, parasailing, windsurfing, and otherwise enjoying the All-Inclusive hotel. Joe relearned how to windsurf and gave some lessons to KDB. Joe relearned some Spanish and KDB learned some Spanish for the first time. Although internet access and phoning from a Mexico vacation was inconvenient, Joe was able to sell a T1 line while on the trip.


.