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Jim Bale. Hello there. First of all I would
like to say welcome to this web site and thanks for visiting. I hope that
you find this site to be insightful, interesting, and valuable. I am the
creator of The Southern California Tradeshow and Convention Workers web
site (this web site). I am also the creator of the Teamsters Union
Local 986 web site . I am a huge Blues
Music fan so I created a website dedicated to the Blues. Check it out.
I also have three or four of my own personal sites hanging around in various
locations on the web. All of my sites were created using Netscape
Composer, as the primary WYSIWYG editor. I use Microsoft
Notepad for editing raw HTML code, Paint
Shop Pro by JASC to create just about 99% of my graphics (except
for the borrowed ones) and CuteFTP
for uploading the files. All products that I recommend highly. Again,
thanks for visiting my web sites. I hope you enjoy them. |
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I was born in Detroit
Michigan in 1955.
I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. When I was born my father was a police
officer in the city of Pontiac, Mi.
He decided that a move out west would be beneficial for his family (Thank
God) so we moved all the way to Palm
Springs, Ca. About 5 years later my Dad got his first Police
Chiefs job. It was in the state of Wyoming.
So again off we all went. To Sheridan
Wyoming.
After about 4 years my Dad was offered a Chiefs
job in the city
of Sierra Madre, Ca. He accepted the position and off we went again,
this time back to California. After a few years in Sierra Madre he was
offered the
Police Chiefs
job in the city of Whittier.
At least this move was a lot closer and we were staying in the state
of California.
My Pop retired after being a Cop
for over 40 years. He and my Mom, who is a retired Interior
Decorator, were married
for over 55 years and are living the good life in the
exclusive
desert community of La Quinta, Ca. (Update)
On August 31, 2004, My Pop passed away while snorkeling off of an island
near Tahiti where he and
my Mom were vacationing with friends. Let me just say that he was absolutly
my hero and my roll model for life and I miss him and think about him every
single day.
I have worked in the Trade
Show and Convention industry in Southern California for over 28 years.
I mainly work in the Los Angeles
and Orange County areas but I have
also worked in different places around the country such as,
Reno
NV, Charlotte NC, Houston
TX, Boston Ma, San
Francisco CA, Las Vegas NV, San
Diego CA, Phoenix AZ, Denver,
Co, Memphis, Tn. and Salt Lake
City, UT. But like the old saying goes,
"There's
no place like home".
I am in the freight
end of the Tradeshow
business which makes me a member of that grand old institution known
as the Teamsters Union. Ah yes,
picket lines, mob hits, embezzling
pension funds. Grand old traditions that will probably live on forever.
I was even on the Contract
Negotiating Committee for our last contract. That was an experience
that I enjoyed and learned a lot from. Now-a-days there are organizations
around to help keep the Teamsters and
other Unions
as honest as possible. I have been a Teamster
member for over 30 years.
I have had many of my stories and writings published.
You can read some of them in a trade paper called Exhibit City News. You
can also read some of them on this
website. More will be coming.
Yes, I would love to get paid for creating web
sites or working in a desktop publishing field, but my life took a different
route and here I am. I'm fairly happy but because of the way things turned
out in my life, I now spend a lot of time doing what I like to do, for
free. Which is creating Web
Sites. I call it a "Hobby".
Some folks have a different name for it though. They call it an "Obsession".
Oh well, they say apples, I say oranges.
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Believe it or not,
these sites do cost money to erect and maintain and they also take a lot
of time, especially when you have a site such as this one that requires
constant updating. That's why it is so important for you, as site visitors,
to click on the advertisment banners and buttons that you see on my pages.
These banners are the only way that I can get any kind of return on my
investment in this web site. These banners pay
me a small amount of money when they are clicked. And I mean a very
small amount. So the more you click on them, the faster is adds up.
So when you need to do a little shopping, check here first and use my banners.
This will help out a lot. Thanks.
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We need all
Union
Members to have access to the internet
and the vast amounts of information
that is available to everyone. I know that it will come in time.
We are in the very early stages on what the internet
will eventually become. I am a little impatient but I know that someday
the internet
will be a media for all people. But in the mean time, all of you Decorators
and Teamsters alike should go get yourselves a P.C., or a Mac.
It doesn't really matter. Just get connected. If your waiting for computer
prices to fall below $500, quit waiting. Now you can get a great P.C.
for under $500 . By not having access to the Internet,
you and your family are missing a wealth of knowledge that can benefit
you in business, school and at home. It's probably the greatest gift that
you could give to your family.
The future will have computing and the Internet
involved in every facet of it. You don't want your children growing up
to be reading and writing illiterate,
do you? Well, you certainly don't want them to grow up to be computer
illiterate either. It will be just as important for their futures.
Besides, your family will love you for it, and after your kids get done
explaining the basics of computing to you, maybe they will even let you
use it once in a while. |
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My computer education
has been non formal to say the least. In fact, I failed to make it through
my "Introduction
to Computers" course at Rio Hondo
College back in 1978.
Mostly due to boredom. I can only listen to theory for so long before I
start to snore. I did manage to learn keypunch
while in the U.S. Army in 1974.
The Army has a way of teaching you things that stick with you. But keypunch
was soon phased out for the revolutionary microprocessor.
I was originally tutored in computers by a good friend who also happened
to be a truck driver for Consolidated
Freightways
at the time. He also set up the first C.F. Credit Union
computer system. Of course he no longer works for C.F.
because
they went belly up. He is now with ABF.
I learned about computing during the early DOS
years (Starting
with DOS ver. 3.0) and learned on 8088
and 80286 processors.
My first on-line experience was with a 300
baud modem. It was a file sent to me by this same friend. We then went
into "chat mode" and that was it. I was hooked. Over the next couple of
years, I joined and frequented many B.B.S's(Bulletin
Board Services) that were very popular during the pre-internet
years. These
Bulletin
Boards were actually put up by one person with a P.C. and a modem and
as few as one or as many as several dedicated phone lines. They were almost
always located in the "Sysops"
(System Operators) homes. You would call the number, log-on, and access
files or chat with the owner. They often had only one dial up number so
only one person could access the B.B.S.
at any one time. That meant lots of busy signals. Just like AOL
is today (snicker)
The friend that started me off into this life of cyber obsession is named
Alan. I thank him for sharing his time, patience, books, extra hardware,
and his knowledge, with me. I now try to reciprocate by helping others
when and where I can. |
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It's never enough,
but this will have to do, (For now). Thank you for taking the time
to read this short little bio of myself. If you have any suggestions or
comments about this site or anything else for that matter, please feel
free to E-mail me. Thanks for visiting and I hope that you enjoy my web
sites. And for those of you who are viewing this from a friends computer
or from a library, just remember, the future is now! Don't let it
pass you by! And quit looking over my shoulder! Goodbye.
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Sincerely, 
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