Jan. 08, 2006 - Well... so much has changed in the 18 months that I
haven't updated this thing! Mariana Barquet and I had a great wedding in
Farmland, Indiana on June 25th, 2005. We got married in a small
ceremony with just family and close friends, and had a really great
time... check out the pictures on the main page.
I am still working for iDirect Technologies, which has continued to have
tremendous growth. After nearly two years working in the TAC, in
November I accepted a new position as Sales Engineer for Latin
America. I will be involved in the pre-sales process, doing
technical presentations and network designs, and continuing to travel a
lot in Latin America and use my Spanish. Part of taking this new
position is that Mariana and I will be moving to sunny Florida.
We purchased a house in Homestead, Florida, which is about halfway
between Miami and the entrance to the Florida Keys. Being close
to Miami was a requirement, so that I will have easier access for
flights to Latin America... and being close to the Keys is just a nice
bonus. The new house will be done at the end of January, so start
planning your trips to Florida beginning in February 06!!!
We also just had a new addition to our family... for Mariana's birthday
we have added "Bora", a new puppy, to keep Scooby company. They
are two beautiful little dogs, and you can check out their pictures
from the main page also.
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Ok... I left Marconi in December, and now have a new job. I work
for a company called iDirect (www.iDirect.net), where I set up IP
networks over satellites. I'm living in Virginia, near
Washington, D.C. I am new to satellite stuff, so I'm doing lots
of training and learning every day. Check back soon for a new
update!
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I'm still working for Marconi, for the office in charge of Latin
America. Since January, I've been working in Bogota, Colombia, in
charge of technical support for the projects that we have going on
here. I am supposed to be moving to the Ft. Lauderdale area at
the end of October... but I was only supposed to come to Colombia to
help out for 2 weeks... so who knows when I'll really end up there!
I've been with Marconi now for over 3 years, and sadly have seen over
41,000 people be let go by the company. I've had some great
experiences, and now have visited 11 countries outside the US! (And I
know them all... Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ireland,
England, Holland, Spain, France, and Italy!!!)
The product that I'm working on mostly at the moment is called a DSLAM
(Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexor), and it is sold by Marconi
to telephone companies. The phone company can then install the
DSLAM along with their telephone equipment, and offer "DSL" service,
which is basically the high-speed internet service that is available
today from most local phone companies.
Other than that, I've got a nice 3-bedroom apartment here in Bogota,
and I really like living in Colombia. The people are very
friendly, and it's a beautiful country. I miss all my family and
friends in the US, but I've been fortunate here to make good new
friends and I'm learning a
lot. My Spanish is getting much better also, as the level of
English spoken here in Colombia is not so good, so I've had to improve
my Spanish just to get by in my day-to-day life!
