job history

After my parents died when I was 15, I went to private schools, where I tried to be useful and did jobs like maintenance and cleaning and such.  At the ranch campus of the high school I graduated from, they didn’t have driver training, but I did learn to drive there, on their Ford front end-loader tractor, the old Ford (1951) dumptruck, and the various vans and pickup trucks.  I was the guy who drove around to the various cabins and took the trashcans from them to our landfill, dumped ’em, and brought them back,

I got transferred to the California campus, from which I graduated because some other  guys and I "stole" one of the ranch vehicles and got caught making a beer run, and in California, I didn’t do anything but be a student and write and photograph for the school paper and the yearbook.

My first "real" job was as a security guy at building sites and truck yards.  It was the time of "stagflation"- the early 80’s, and no one was hiring inexperienced kids, so I joined the US Navy.

I was trained as a Gas Turbine Systems (mechanical) engineer, a ten month, a five days a week/8 hours a day program covering theory and operation of the LM 2500 gas turbine in the FFG-7 class powerplant.  I learned about the engines and all thier associated equiptment, then went to the fleet as a Petty Officer 3rd class, where I used my knowledge on a newly comminssioned frigate for a couple of years.  I scored 57th out of the whole Atlantic fleet and was advanced in rank to Petty Officer 2nd class (E-5) and was training to be the ship’s "oil king"; in charge of handling and caring for a quarter million gallons of Diesel Fuel Marine and 40,000 gallons of JP-5 aviation fuel.  I was trained in the use and maintenance of the various hydralic systems in the engineering spaces too.

I got out of the Navy in 1985 and went to Japan with my Japanese wife, where I taught English to students of all ages, from pre-kindergarten kids to adults and senior citizens.  My wife and I ran a weekend school for elementary students, and worked in an English Coffee Salon; letting people practise their English skills, and going over the news of the day in English in scheduled classes there.  I also worked for a pearl dealer, sorting for size and color pearls that we got from farmers in Kyushu and supplying companies like Mikimoto pearls with the raw product to make strands and jewelry.

I came back to the US to get my degree to advance further in Japan, using the money I had inheirited from my father, but also worked as a security guard as a student.  I also was a pie baker, making and baking more than 800 pies a day commercially.

When my student-ness waned, I went to a truck driving school and got my commercial driver’s license and got a job delivering new trucks all over the 11 western states.  I moved from that job to one working for a window manufacurer, deliving windows in Oregon, Washington, and California, using vans and semi trucks.

The first Gulf War in 91 killed the new housing and remodeling market here in Oregon, as did the waning of the timber industry. (Oregon had a long slump, economically, then) I became the night desk-clerk in the apartment building I lived in downtown Portland, being solely responsible for a 303 apartment high-rise building between 11 and 7 am,  working as a gun dealer on the side (I know a lot about guns and such) and in 1993, moved back to Japan.

There, I worked at after-school schools with kids- high schoolers and jr. highers, had private lessons with a variety of adults, and worked for a warehouse services company, handling tons of fish food and aquarium supplies, as well as kids clothes and seasonal goods for the various holidays.  I drove  a forklift, and I was the car pool driver, using a company station wagon to pick up and drop off my fellow employees.

There was a massive earthquake in Kobe in 1995, so for part of that year, I was a recovery specialist, helping my nighborhood and my warehouse company repair and rebuild.  I worked with a local capenter. restoring homes there.  I spoke (it’s gotten rusty) some Japanese- enough to live and work there.

I got divorced in 1995 and came back to the US in 1996 to return to college and finish my degree, going back to the apartment building I worked at before I went to Japan and got my night desk-clerk job back.  The building changed management companies in 1997, and I lost that job; doing various temp jobs afterwards.

I found and got a job working as a custodian and event planner for the Scottish Rite of Portland, setting up and tearing down weddings, company meetings, catered affairs and such and caring for three buildings, but in 1998, wrecked my car and was severely injured, which put me out of work for the next four years.

I returned to employment in 2002, working at first as a crowd management specialist, and then moving to working in a gas station.  That led me to working at the Oregon Zoo, selling and taking tickets for admission and attractions and working a cash register at the gift shop.  That was privatized in 2003, and in 2004, I moved from that job to being a sub-contractor to a commercial distributor of the Oregonain newspaper, the job that I have held for the last two and a half years.  I delivered about 7500 papers a week, weekends and weekdays and now deliver the daily editions of the papers in two counties, covering 50 miles a day driving, and delivering  over 6000 papers a week.  For the last 14 months, I have used and maintained my own vehicle to do this.

I have 93 stops a day to service, going to various businesses and street racks to pick up and drop off the day’s papers.

I have a lot of driving experience- the last time I added it up in the mid 90’s, I had driven 650,000 miles and have had only two or three accidents, and only one serious one.  I have driven everything from a Volkswagon Beetle to semis with double trailers.

I have a BA in Social Sciences.  I have a Certificate in Pearls from the Gemological Society of America..  I took a course at the Rhode Island School of Design in jewelry and metalsmithing, and made and sold my own designs in Japan.  I have owned and used a  computer since 1988.  I have a valid Oregon Driver’s license, clean but for the drunken crash in 1998.

I have traveled fairly widely in the US- 35 states; and have driven in four countries.  I have lived in the US and Japan, and have visited Korea, Ca

nada, Mexico, various Carribean islands, and Cuba.

I have maintained and written a blog which is read all over the world for over two years, and I have a lot of photography experience.

I am versitile, knowlegable, and adaptable. I am a loyal employee.  I am intelligent and capabile.  I have a lot to offer an employer and have dealt succesfully with a wide range of people both in the US and other countries.  I have a lot to offer an employer and will be a good worker for anyone I work for.  I have owned and operated several businesses, selling and supplying a variety of goods and services.  I am polite and well mannered and am looking for a new job.

I am posting this so that my friends can make something of it for me, many of whom are better at marketing themselves and others.  I have a wide range of experiences, and am willing to work hard for any employer.

Can you help me make something of this?

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