I have been using the knoppix live cd for more than four years now and it has worked well to retrieve data off corrupt hard disks that will not boot windows anymore, read and write to file systems not natively supported by windows like xfs ext2 and ext3. I however have had problems using knoppix in Windows virtual pc as it would not capture the mouse.

Due to the inconvenience of having to hard reboot into knoppix to work on my projects then hard reboot again to access windows I started exploring my options as I am setting up a development environment to work on linux embeded OS’s on FFS (Flash File System) and modify my different linux based images. More rational to setup a colinux environment includes the tediouse process of creating a new dynamic vhd and imaging it with the image I want to work on each time
The Flash File System is used for routers, phones, usb devices and pretty much anything that uses flash based media

More on my reasoning and need for this environment later.

Here I will explain what I did:

First we downloaded and installed colLinux-0.7.5.exe
During the install when prompted to select a root filesystem I selected Gentoo Deluxe.

I then installed WinPCap_4_1_1.exe

I jumped ahead and configured my newly created network adapter in Windows by setting the ip address in properties>tcp/ip>options> to
read IP= 192.168.11.10 ; SUBNETMASK = 255.255.255.0 I did not set the gateway as the documentation said it may cause problems.
We will use this adpater later!

After the install I started it from the prompt in the directory I installed my colinux in, by typing
colinux-daemon.exe @colinux.conf
I seen that it worked and knew I must set up the conf file in the colinux directory for everything to work properly and make some adjustments to get internet and connect to my windows host.
So I exited the terminal and opened my conf file in notepad++, my source editor of choice.

To jump ahead again: I downloaded colinuxSwap_1024Mb.bz2 unzipped it to my colinux directory with winZip Made sure the unzipped file was not in its own subdirectory but directly in the colinux directory which is not neccasary depending how you set up your .conf file. Some may opt to put there mounted partition.fs files in a folder named drives and the swap in its own folder but I liked placing the swap in the root colinux folder as all other installs and filesystems will use the same swap partition

In the conf file I set the parameters for gentoo as outlined in the colinux get started wiki My first feet was to accomplish getting the host connection working so I commented out and disabled the swap partition in the conf and made eth0 = tuntap

Know that I specifically chose not to use the xml configuration, which is good as it has been deprecated.

Here is the current .conf

#########################################
#gentoo.conf for colinux

#########################################
# The default kernel
kernel=vmlinux

############################################
# File contains the root file system.
# The name of the root file system I used yours may be different
cobd0=C:\colinux\gentoo-root

################################################# Swap device, should be an empty file with 128..512MB.
# Inside coLinux run “mkswap /dev/cobd1 ; swapon cobd1″
# You can comment this out if you havent downloaded or created it yet
cobd1=C:\colinux\linux-swap

##########################################
# Tell kernel the name of root device (mostly /dev/cobd0)
# This parameter will be forward to Linux kernel.
# Take not this is slightly different than the standard linux hdaXX format
root=/dev/cobd0

############################################
# Initrd installs modules into the root file system.
# Need only on first boot. Should exist from installation
initrd=initrd.gz

############################################
# Maximal memory for linux guest Defaults if commented out to ?
# notsure, but it wont hurt it is just the memory allocated to colinux
#mem=768

##############################################
# Slirp for internet connection (outgoing) on second linux adapter.
# Inside running coLinux configure eth0 with this static settings:
# ipaddress 10.0.2.15 broadcast 10.0.2.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
# gateway 10.0.2.2 nameserver 10.0.2.3
# just using tuntap nto connect to windows host first
#eth0=slirp

##############################################
# Networking (tuntap as private network between guest and host)
eth0=tuntap

##############Did Not Change####################################
# Setup for serial device
#ttys0=COM1,”BAUD=115200 PARITY=n DATA=8 STOP=1 dtr=on rts=on”

# Run an application on colinux start (Sample Xming, a Xserver)
#exec0=C:\Programs\Xming\Xming.exe,”:0 -clipboard -multiwindow -ac”

I then rebooted but when doing that I also added the service for colinux this is the cmd to install the service from colinx directory dos

CMD colinux-daemon.exe @gentoo.conf –install-service “CoGentoo
Then if it hasn’t started do a
CMD colinux-daemon.exe @gentoo.conf

Now move on to makeing network settings and adjustments in gentoo Linux
CMD cd / (change directory) to root
CMD ls (list directory content) to see whats there
CMD cd /etc
CMD ls | less (I call this less is more)
CMD cd /conf.d
CMD ls

Before we edit any of the files here we should probably look at what adapters we have up, do this by:
CMD ifconfig

You may or may not see eth0 thats alright, but you should see
an interface for “lo” this is your local 127.0.0.1
CMD nano net

This opens the net file add the following interface for eth0 based on the .conf file I just specified, and the IP settings in WinPCap adapter
NOTE: Comment out the old one with #

config_eth0=( “192.168.37.20/24″)
config_eth1=( “dhcp” )

ctrl+0
ctrl+x

CMD exit

Now close the terminal window
(for help leave comments or use andLinux)
close the cmd prompt END

winKey+r
start dos cmd
CMD cd
CMD colinux-daemon.exe @gentoo.conf
(Make sure you use the directory and name you gave the .conf)
TERMINAL POPS UP
Runs Boot

CMD ifconfig

your interfaces should now be there

CMD ping 192.168.11.10

Does it work GOOD now

Go back and nano /etc/conf.d/net

And add the slurp adapter by commenting out the old one and
changing the interface number of the host you added last time
to eth2, change the dhcp to eth0 and make the slurp eth1 adjust
your gentoo.conf in the colinux directory to reflect these changes.

exit terminal, close and reboot

Do an ifconfig again you should see eth1 and eth2, eth0 is not in
the .conf file so it will not show up.

ping your home router that goes to the internet from colinux terminal or ping google or somthing typically

ping 192.168.1.1

Now you can get online.

then

CMD emerge world
CMD emerge xorg-x11

fails when downloading eselect, cant find it on any mirror I add and can’t find it on web for wget eather, but if I did you put it in a /portage/ directory not subject to emerg update or emerge –sync as it will just be overwritten the exact method I am unsure of but it has to do with versioning the files and nameing directories to directly corespond to eachother, files must be chmod -x to enable execute also you will unpackage with tar xvf file.tar.gz, this is a problem with not only this install but others as well. Though connections and everthing work, installing the xserver neccasary to display graphical interface in windows with x window protocol over tcp/ip was not possible. Suggestions are to wait untill the mirrors are updated.

I then tryed ubuntu, connected to internet and host by modifing configuration in /etc/networks/ and using other info from google and the .conf I used with gentoo.

I liked the command process and ease of browsing the file structure in this distro better, but had the same problems with apt-get install packages, then tryed fedora.

With fedora everything worked perfectly, I got the x-server up and running with yum and finnaly had a terminal in x-ing but needed to make adjustments on my method of connecting from xing instead of connecting I should have been listening and starting the x-session on startup after all networks had been established in fedora. I made some adjustments rebooted and lost my connection though my configurations were the same. I had just been shutting off the firewall when problems arose, decided to move my configured filesystems and .conf files into respective folders and move them to my external drive, then install andLinux where I may be able to find the neccasary configurations to build my own x-server later. I do not want a full blown gui just x-apps that can be displayed remotely with the x protocall on xing or another x-server listening for and serving requests.

andLinux works awesome but seems slow even though it has a host connection. Remote PC is faster on a local connection, I will have to look furthure into this, but at least I can now work with my different file systems and have samba set up to transfer file back and forth along with a cof0 partition and big ++! I can copy past to my terminal window

further testing and additions to include compiling the kernal and recompiling different distro’s to work with other kernals including dd-wrt. The next feet will be a dual boot with fedora and dd-wrt along with researching the directory and file structure of different linux images and router flash images with my andLinux installation. I would really like to speed up the connection between host and colinux.

I have manny details in regards to the fedora setup that I will book mark here as a number of files had to retrieved with wget

continuing to work with the andLinux ubuntu setup, to first help me resize the partitions on my dd-wrt x86 image and setup a dual boot with a knoppix install on grub. already have a good working grub install but unsur if it is on the member or not, Questioning if I can flash grub within my bios, we will see what happens with this new found knowledge I have.

It has been a while since I audited my day, and it seems like I get more done when I do, I must not be trying hard enough.

The snow this morning was pretty bad causing everyone to drive slow; somewheres between 50-55 on County Rd. 23, except for a couple of trucks driving 60 or more.

My uncle has been staying over since Monday and re-installed Grandma’s washer and dryer in the kitchen so she don’t have to go down stairs. Last night Grandma says “It’s horrible to get old” with a look at me like I should agree and sympathetically I did: considering what things might be like for me when I get old.
All of company left this morning to venture the iced roads, hope everyone’s journey was comfortable, suiting the ever so changing need to see something familiar or changing, and not to forget I hope the drive was also safe and successful.

I don’t get in to all the jibber jabber so much when we have company but I really do enjoy those one on one conversations with people, maybe I am just a little more reserved in multi faceted conversations. Could possibly be that I am still a little childish and have to have all or nothing in regards to attention, If the conversation isn’t real important or turns in a way that don’t interest me I tend to leave, but it’s not hurting me so long as there wasn’t anything immediately important that had to be communicated to me but when I do take an interest I become really focused especially if I find those who are talking to be wise from my perception. That reminds me, my sister, her husband and an older couple that have been friends with Grandma since I can remember were out last weekend; Saturday night to be specific. Dinner was good, and so was conversation about the different “kids” religions, but I wasn’t fond of playing dice this night, so I left for a friend of mine’s house that had gotten parts for my car and was ready to help me install them. Car runs great now, I am glad I found something more constructive to do than go to the bar or something. While I was out at my friends house we also found an old satellite dish that I will use for a bi-quad antenna.

Having company this week was awesome, my uncles significant other made a couple of awesome meals and so did grandma, it seems the act of preparing and eating our meals this carried a significant importance and pride for everyone. My uncle whom I haven’t ok’d using his name on my public web site yet is uploading pictures of everything he did this week on facebook. We will have to rummage up more wood pretty soon as it was definitely used this week. It is nice to see that everyone is making good plans for the future and lives seem to be going in the right direction, which is not subject for speculation. Well could be subject to speculation but I like to believe everything is going right.

I have still been researching trying to decide on a good router but not exactly sure how to use both a directional antenna and an omni-directional antenna on a router with a single sma connection. I don’t want to cross connect signal reception from different points, so if I have 2 antenna I believe I will need to dampen one to a single point in the house so it doesn’t conflict with the other. I am now considering Asus WL-500 I have to make sure it dose everything I need, this project seems to be the only thing I want to talk about recently and I wish I had a little more input on it. Still have to find an rg58 sma to N cable, looked at a couple of sites that cut them to size, but I plan to talk to the second year networking students at my school to see if they can help me first.

I am working on cultural math now as it is due and I am still behind a section. It is interesting though as we are demonstrating how to prove a statement is true and all the different possibilities of the variables in the statement.

Today’s math lecture leads me to think about using the same techniques to analyze movement and direction in a way that uses Boolean math. I am also thinking about how a set of principals can be used to analyze peoples actions that are metaphoric of or a demonstration of there inhibitions and desires that are below the surface. Basically a persons wants and needs deduced by their conduct based on personal insights of an observer labeled as principals, I then proceeded to consider other’s principals that may be different but are limited to deduce from a shared set of possibilities; shared between all observers and principals. Maybe we can find something more than mean, median and mode of a certain group and consider tracing back the possibilities to there underlying root actions and perceptions, breaking it down into concrete terms, variables and symbols, this might allow us to tally up a weight found in different aspects of the process that contributed to the outcome.

I am now at home writing my journal and trying to think of other things that have happened since I last wrote. I do have all of my books now and everything seems to be going well, I did stop at Osceola last friday to take care of a few things, but came back right away. I guess there are more problems that have arisen but that is nothing new. I have been captivated by the spirit realm twice since I last wrote and considered spiritual enlightenment with friends on my mind 4-8 times that I can really count off the top of my head, not considering duration and intermission of my thought focus, but I can say these thoughts were have arose from within without physical stimuli, but may have caused psychosomatic feelings, usually lovely and protective as I must be slightly standoffish sometimes in thought.

Ok enough analyzing my thought process, I had to go up to dairy queen in town to post this as the signal at home is very intermittent. I will probably have some chicken and a mocha iced as it is fairly warm outside. It always seems to snow when it’s warm out, I guess I will take the warmth with the snow over the cold any day. The little bit of shoveling I had to do today was quick and easy. When I get home I have to bring a couple of things downstairs for g’ma as she isn’t wondering into the basement anymore. Still working on math and I will continue writing tomorrow, prolly start out with tonight’s sleep experience and a beautiful good morning.

Stuff I need to work on, ethics write a few questions in response to ethics chap 3 & 4, write a couple questions on Catholicism and the chapter after that in world religions, complete the review for chap 4 in networking, do some ruby, and catch up in cultural math

Good morning Tuesday morning, 5:00am: I am racing to put together the questions for chapter 2 wired in networking this morning and upload it before the drop box closes and class starts at 8:00am. It took a little while but I was ready and out of the house by Seven O’Clock; when I joyfully meet the frigid air and get into my car which really doesn’t have very good heat, just enough to defrost the windows and barely allow me to take my gloves off half way to class on a really cold morning.

I arrived and uploaded my assignment right away, spending what time was left studying for the test. The test went alright, I achieved about 82% out of 25 questions. This was my only class today, so I left for home right away. I wanted to pick up my Ruby on Rails book, but I had not brought enough cash, so I figured I would come back, post yesterdays journal entry and get my book. I have to make my journal posts from school as I don’t get very good reception of my neighbors Wifi some days. Good idea: chew Five Gum instead of smoking and research Android.

So I came back to school and got my book, I then proceeded to the media center to post my entry, then proceeded to start writing my life philosophy for ethics. I was having a hard time retaining concentration so I left to study at the library in Milaca. At the library I researched networking equipment for a wireless bridge that supports dd-wrt and external antenna, I am trying to find the cheapest possible combination for a powered antenna and wireless bridge with a range of 20 meters or more omni-directional from the crest of the house. Here are the links to what I have found so far.
ASUS RT-N16 review $$
Asus RT-N16 dd-wrt wiki
ASUS RT-N10 EZ N (no dd-wrt support) cheaper w/ext. antenna
NETGEAR-WNR834B (no ext. antenna good price
Signal booster with antenna $$

So it looks like for the more optimal performance I would like the Asus RT-N16,
For me to set up internet at the house I have to set up my own line in my name, and there is only one phone line in the house so this could be expensive, The neighbors let me use there wifi which I use right now, but barely. This little gadget may be worth the investment, but I am still going to keep looking, I am not going to settle for expensive or limited capabilities, the 20 dollar netgear has good reviews on range, and is cheap but it is important to have the ability to amplify my signal on an external antenna.

After this all I went home and continued writing my life philosophy, and it really turned into an ancient writing on the wall about how one should live, tending to themselves, family, friends and neighbors. I am going to put a crack in the page somewhere to add part of an ethics paper I did in my technical writing class with a focus on my field of study.

My eyes have scanned a lot of pages today, the math I did along with starting class at 10:00am and leaving at 9:00pm leaves me wore out this Tuesday evening, I decided to sleep at 6:30 I then woke up at 10 O’Clock had a cigarette I have cultural math tomorrow; Wednesday morning.

After a long weekend, It is now back to class on a Monday morning, Ice was bad and blustery this morning but it was still a fairly decent drive. Though I was still wore out, because I partied a little this weekend, and put a few miles on my car. I drove to Anoka, Osceola, and I got lost 45miles+60miles+ (60 mile for missing my exit and being entirely enthused by music), it was dark friday night and all the signs looked the same not particularly demanding my attention. So I was making a beeline for Duluth and didn’t realize I had gone to far until I hit rush city and had to make a U turn when I found out the roads were glare ice. Its all good the darkness and the landmark I was looking for wasn’t there or I should say holiday gas stations lights were off as it was after closing hours. After turning around I finally made it to Osceola. I  went to the gas station a couple of times while I was out there and just for the sake of keeping track I then drove the hour and a half home from Osceola.

Now back to today..
I have a check list:

• Catch up all assignments in cultural math;
• Get my World Religions book and rails book
• Write Questions for World Religions and Ethics
• and complete chapter 2 questions for networking
• hopefully add the SEO Friendly URL Structure for Wordpress plug-in Here
• Get a page or something up to view my category definitions in a nice readable format.
• Ponder creating a plug-in to group categories instead of sub-categorizing
• Setup a display format similar to categories for groups.
• Add a ticket system for website enhancements and not clutter up my journal

Well it seems I haven’t been able to accomplish quite everything on my list today but it has become somewhat interesting. I was short cash to purchase my rails book but that can wait until tomorrow. I did catch up my math but was unable to turn the last assignment into the instructor because he had already left.

I was so entirely focused on what I have been doing today I just took for granted my belief that world religions started at 5:00 but I was mistaken and noticed the students in the classroom so I waltzed in a half hour late and wrote up my questions in class.  World religions left me wondering about gods effect on nature, and the possibilities of heaven, spiritual influences, and the idea of multiple gods, though we were talking about Christianity I couldn’t help thinking, when our instructor mentioned the idea of the earthquakes in Haiti being an act of God that there might be that possibility, but it’s hard for me to believe that an all loving God I grew up with in a Christian home, is capable of this, however I do give considerable thought that lower level gods of the earth, waters, fire and nature, are capable of doing this, but I can’t consider this a bad thing as it is a form of renewal and motivation. It is the balance that we need in this earthly world, because without good there can’t be bad, without bad there can’t be good and the natural cycle of bad and good, shows so many possibilities of good that can arise from the bad we seek, and I say we because we all have that deviant side. It’ those times when you ask yourself, How can all this bad stuff in my life recently put me in such a beautiful situation to spend more time with my passing loved one. Maybe the god almighty lets the others know when certain things have to happen.

The drive home in the dark was good.  

The spirit of man, gods and magik have bled there way into my life through curiosity, and the just need to have some form of understanding of how and why coincidental things happen in life; why at different seasons of the year do I feel a social longing and greater connection with divine entities and where exactly is earths place amongst the heavens? I really would love to explore how karma influences destiny and the spiritual bonds that bind so many together.

Throughout this exploration I have taken time to read a few books on intuition and mysticism but more recently have enrolled in a class not just to satisfy a World Perspective degree requirement but to also, subject myself to more possibly greater influences in different religions. Maybe a little insight through the knowledge and understanding of others will help me find what I’m looking for hopefully making more sense of what I believe.

The course I am taking Comparative Religions, has a home work assignment that requires observing or participating in a religious gathering or organized worship that we  haven’t ventured to ever participate in before: Actually twice once in the first half of the semester and once in the second half.

So at one time I probably would have defined myself as a christian mystic with a belief in Karma, and reincarnation. I have never really given much thought to the possibility of there being multiple gods except as fantasy and mythology. Thus I have decided to look into and attend a gathering and ritual ceremony in the Minneapolis metro area for followers of Wicca, Nordic,  and Celtic traditions.  I think each group shares a similar but slightly different belief and may tend to specific heritages of there own.

Here are links to some of the events I am considering.
Imbolc Celebration Jan. 31st. 2010

Oimelc: February 6, 2010
Open New Moon Ritual

Hopefully I don’t go it alone, though I would because if I don’t, I wouldn’t know what I was missing.

Trying to create a three column layout that sizes by percents can be fairly tricky, so I have put together my best attempt at it for review. I still suggest to use a fixed width for your middle column, but it is not necessary

This layout uses a CSS hack for Internet Explorer due to the display limitations with IE. As shown here using a percentile width for the middle column rather than fixed, wherever your floated left or right columns stop in height IE will allow your middle column to spill over to take up the unused space where the middle column is larger in height than the other columns. This may sound like what is supposed to happen when you have a float, and an inline element, however this inline element should take it’s percentile size from the main div wrapping the 3 columns, which is the case with firefox. By modifying the css height property for the selector #left_nav to read height:10px; you can test this prior stated problem. The only way to fix this problem is by giving the middle column a fixed width. Below is the code and demonstration for a percentile width. I hope this helps anyone pursuing to create a 3 column layout with percents and css.

Notice that the middle column is given the css display property of display:inline-block; if this is not done attempting to clear the floats within the middle column will clear the floats outside of it pushing the middle column below the floats and that is not good. Because of the inline nature of this layout it is a must to have your left and right columns appear prior to the middle column in your html code.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Tags: Firefox, Float, IE, Inline, Margins, Percent, Size, Three Column, tricks

The Job:

Perfect Touch Lawn Care; Otsego, Mn
General labor position, From June 2002 to January 2003

Acquiring The Position:

A friend of mine already worked here and just took me with one day when they were short a worker, I then ended up working everyday and renting a room from the owner of the company (Rick Zobel).

Duties:

Weed whipping, Zero turn mower operation, 1 ton dually and trailer operation, snow removal and maintenance.

Departing from this position:

I decided to leave after a break up with a girl friend and decided to go a different way in life by moving to Rice Lake, Wi where my mother had just secured a new residency. I did however go back and help Rick (the owner) for cash during the summer of 2003. When I left this position I started work at Burger King in Rice Lake, which was conveniently located within walking distance from where I was now living.

Overall:

Experiences at this position were a mixture of business intertwined with personal pleasures, pain and survival. I learned a lot about working on machinery, cars and running equipment I had never run or even rode in before.

Tags: Biography, Employment, Experience, Minnesota, Perfect Touch, Shawn Stark, Work

The Job:

Super Walmart  Maple Grove, Mn; Position: Truck Unloader, from Fall 2001 to Summer 2002;

The Hiring Process:

After placing my application and receiving a call from Walmart, I scheduled for a group interview and was instructed to acquire a drug test from a local facility. I acquired the results from the test and attended the interview, where we took a series of tests and answered questions about our employment conduct, history and selected the positions we were interested in. After attending the interview it was some time before I recieved a call. When I received the call I had already secured a position at Princeton Plastics; I did not tell Walmart personnel this. I jumped at the wonderful opportunity to work for the newly opened Walmart, I thought the team environment was inviting. They asked me to come in for training on specified days, and I proudly agreed to take the position and train at the scheduled times. I was hired as an unloader.

Training:

The training was a series of computer aided lessons with a series of questions at the end of each one of them. A select group of lessons had to be successfully completed based on my position prior to starting work. These lessons included, lifting procedures, chemical spills, MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets), customer interaction, facing and shelf stocking, and others I may not recall.

Duties:

Unload truck, Move product to floor, Stock shelves, Round up late night carts.

The Experience:

This was my first real cultural work experience. I had only had one co-worker in my prior employment who’s native language was not english. This was new and interesting to me. It took me a while to understand those I worked with but I eventually fared alright at it as I am sure the others also learned a little better how to specifically communicate with me.

We would show up, set up pallets numbered and categorized by department, so we could separate the products as we unloaded them by department. I tended to show up early at first and set up prior to the other employees arriving, our lead wouldn’t arrive until a couple hours into our shift some days as he had a second job, this placed a little more responsibility on us as unloaders. I had cleared working overtime with our manager and was coming in early everyday, our lead clearly communicated to me any changes in setup I may need to know because he was aware of the extra effort I was putting in and that I was coming in early. I was also working seven days a week to save up for an apartment, this overtime only lasted over the period when we were bringing in all of the winter holiday seasonal products. Overtime was very good for me, money wise and it also gave me the opportunity to demonstrate my abilities. I became very passionate about work and enjoyed being there. After the holiday products had been received we were specifically made aware there was to be no-more overtime. I was fairly wore out by this time and was ready for a break anyways. I then took a day off for a bad tooth and had the tooth removed the next day as soon as my health benefits came into effect, working with a bad tooth ache was horrible.

Departing From Walmart:

I found outdoor seasonal work with Perfect Touch Lawn Care, and decided to end my position at Walmart as I preferred to work outdoors during the summer season. Other factors were also effecting my work and it was time to end this position, Unload the truck was really becoming a warm job as summer came into full gear anyways.

Tags: Biography, Employment, Experience, Minnesota, Shawn Stark, Walmart, Work

The Job:

Princeton Plastics Corporation, Plastic injection molding and assembly. A manufacturing job that employs a fairly large number of people. I worked here the summer of 2001 doing assembly.

Application Process:

This position was through The Work Connection in Princeton, Mn. The Work Connection required you to do a reading, math and drug test as part of the application process, which I did without problem. The application itself was a standard application, work history, education, identifying information, extra curricular activities, and lifting capabilities. When filling out the application I wrote down that my reason for leaving Minnesota Computers was because of a disagreement about hours, Pam the manager at Work Connection gave me a little point of advice for filling out applications, she suggested that I don’t tell the potential employer anything that might sound bad concerning prior employment. I listened and made sure to pay closer attention how I filled out applications from there on out. Not long after the application process, if not the same day Pam told me she had a position over at PPC (Princeton Plastics Corporation), I was obliged to take the position. I was happy with any job, so long as it payed my bills and fed me.

The Experience:

This was an assembly job, we filled 3m tape dispensers with sand and did a multitude of other assembly duties, including packing (brita water filtration pitchers), Working with the pitchers required plastic gloves and hair nets. This was pretty high paced assembly line work, I mainly boxed and loaded pallets, but I also placed stickers on products and helped prepare the line.

Departing From PPC: (the 1st time)

When I started work at PPC I had also placed applications at a number of other places including the soon to open Super Walmart in Maple Grove, Mn. I had received a call from my mother that Walmart was trying to get a hold of me. I immediately returned the call, as the pay would be better and I preferred to move back down towards the cities anyways, I was just staying up north while I was working over at PPC. I called Pam over at the Work Connection and let her know right away that I was leaving to seek other employment, she told me it was no problem and she would let the management over at PPC know. I did go back to PPC a few years later, so I assume that I worked well there.

Overall:

This was a fun job. I met some interesting people while I was there and was subjected to more policies and procedures I hadn’t been prior, like lockouts, MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) and lifting procedures. Though I wasn’t there long I definitely felt like part of the team.

Tags: Biography, Employment, Experience, Minnesota, Princeton Plastics, Shawn Stark, Work

The Job:

Minnesota Computers, main frame peripherals and parts.
At this company I was a Warehouse Tech / Shipping and Receiving Personnel.
From Fall 1999 to Summer 2001;

Acquiring the position:

Family friends with the owner, offered position in recognition
of hard work I was putting in elsewhere

The Duties:

UPS manual shipping;
Fedex shipping terminal;
Fedex International and Airborn
RPS ground (Before they became Fedex Ground)
Evening UPS drop offs;
Part number research telephoning IBM;
Purchase orders for shipping materials;
Product referb and testing, Inventory, Warehouse cleanup and organization, Loading and unloading trucks, Filling orders which required pulling items from shelves or parts machines, testing, refurbishing, packing and shipping, Also audited and tested receivables. Working here required learning a language of part numbers, models, manufacturers and more.

Experiences:

The atmosphere here was a large change from Dennys, I was now working with majorly men between the ages of 25 and 40, the radio played 93X, there was less social interaction, majority of the work was done independently. It was different but I liked the independent atmosphere and personal responsibility that came with the position. The sales staff were the guys that counted on us to do our jobs with perfection, they didn’t like faulty or dirty product being shipped, and they really didn’t like other sales people selling there stuff out from under them, but I couldn’t do anything about that.

One of the major experiences at Minnesota Computers was inventorying everything in stock, there were electric motors, ink plotters printers and very old terminals we called r2d2’s of which I cant remember the model or part number but they did sell every once in a while along with other types of mainframe peripherals. Inventorying everything required strategically taking every product down shelf by shelf testing it, inspecting it ensuring it was tagged and placing it back on the shelf in an organized manner after noting in the computer system in a very strict way when it was verified on shelf, who verified it and the condition it was in. This procedure took almost a full winter season, The sales staff were happy to see items in inventory that were miss-entered or not entered at all prior.

We often got large shipments of stuff in to sift through for good parts, much of it product we weren’t going to purchase or was just going to the scrap guy but there were lots of good products also, the procedure for this was test audit and make sure the items were entered on the correct purchase order with all the same comments and entry procedure as when we did inventory. So everything was pretty similar, we sometimes had to do a little research to figure out what different products were, who the manufacturers were, the model numbers and build up; we wanted all pertinent info in the system to help sell the product and track it. We took serial numbers down on everything.

The experience at Minnesota Computers was educational, and a great starting place to work up from, I would love to have a job like this now. The independence and small company atmosphere is something I long for today. I’d rather work for an SMB (Small to medium sized company) than for a large corporate company any day.

The hours:

There was controversy over the hours we were supposed to work, The GM wanted us there right away in the morning while the owner wanted us to stay until all orders were complete and he often entered late orders. We went over this a couple of times and were told that if we stayed late we could come in a little later the next day. This wasn’t always true, if we had a large shipment come in we naturaly had to be there early to work on breaking it down and receiving it into inventory prior to the days outgoing orders coming in or we would never get the product audited and inventoried during our busy times.

Departing from this postion:

One day I showed up a half hour or so after the time they would have liked me into work, even though I had stayed late the night before, I was terminated. It was established with me and the only other employee in the warehouse that if we stayed late we could come in late the next day unless we had a scheduled morning shipment or it was specifically specified that we had to be there for a meeting or something.  I don’t know if this had anything to do with our upcoming bonus, or if there were other reasons, the loss of this job happened at a fairly week point in my life as we were having a number of family and some financial problems.

My Regrets:

This position treated me wel and was there in a time of need, the only problem was I had completely given up my high-school education, school wasn’t for me at the time, I was likely to get in trouble and I was so far behind in my education when I started work, that I just said to myself “Why go back your doing just fine” and I was just fine, had everything I needed and was having a good time. I was eventually talked into realizing the importance of an education by some coworkers and friends, but I was now in a position where I financially had to work and didn’t understand that there were probably different programs I could enroll in to take my classes in the evening or something and if I did realize my options, I didn’t pay them much attention. It would have been awesome if they had online high-school like they do now, I definitely would have opted to do that. When we talked as a family about me taking my ged/hsed and going to college I was insecure and afraid, as people around me still mistook me for being 12-15 years old. I just wish I would have had the guts, I had everything else. I became overly socially involved with friends and didn’t consider what I was missing, if at any point I decided to start focusing on my education and career while I worked at Minnesota Computers, I would be a lot further ahead than what I am today.

Overall:

At Minnesota Computers there was always something to do, the warehouse became a second home. This was another job that I spent a lot of time at, working overtime fairly often. The benefits were ok and the owner of the company was nice to us treating us to holiday dinners and more. Other sales people also bought lunch for everyone once in a while, which was cool. This job was also like a small family, I had fun and learned a lot about computer parts, It would have been nice to become a systems engineer while I was still working at Mn Computers though I didn’t I am still pursuing similar interests and am glad to have had the experience working with such interesting people here and learning so much about the different products, testing procedures, and parts manuals. It was at mn computers with a co-worker that I was first introduced to programming, during “dll hell” just around the time ME, windows 2000 and just before server 2003 came out.  Though I wasn’t going to school at the time I was receiving another important form of education in my life.

Tags: Biography, Employment, Experience, Minnesota, Mn Computers, Shawn Stark, Work