One Year Later

I am just now discovering that it has been almost One Full Year since I last Published to this BLOG. In the meantime, I am wondering, Has anyone even taken the time to read a thing I have said from the beginning?? When we first started this project, we were all quite excited at the possiblities and practically everyone in the immediate family was contributing in some way, although many were having problems figuring out how to use this new-found medium.

Since much of what I share in the family e-mail is so controversial, and it seemed we were bombarding members of the Northup Family Group with hundreds of e-mails many did not care to read at all, and in fact were simply dropping from the Group, because they felt so strongly about getting so much "Junk" mail, we decided this new art form would be the answer to many of these problems.

As it turns out, this "Answer" has pretty much fallen by the wayside and we are still bombarding the Group with controversial posts. However, One principal difference exists in the Northup Family that was not there one year ago. This change can be visited by clicking on the title of this article. This will take you to a page where you to can sign up with Puzzle Pirates, where as many as 6000 People are simultaneously inter-acting in this Puzzle Game. Each Player is working on his own Puzzle, but each puzzle interacts with every other puzzle, so that there is an entire Puzzle Pirates economy going on. Some pirates build ships for other pirates to sail in Pilly or for transporting foraged or manufactured Goods On Merchant vessels. Others run Furnishers, Real Estate Offices, Tailor Shoppes, Blacksmith Shoppes or Weaveries, so the pirates may be well-dressed and own fancy Weapons or wander the streets in rags brawling with their fists or a fish for a bludgeon and sticks for swords. There are Inns where you can Sword-Fight, Rumble, Drink or play Poker, Hearts or Spades. One hot activity in the Inns is where people peddle their wares or Charts and Maps they have found or won on Pilly directly to the Bawdy, Brawling Public.

For whatever activity you are engaged, you may be paid Pieces Of Eight for your efforts, depending on your skill level. These POE may be traded at Market Value for Dubloons, which in turn may be used to buy various Pirate badges, and for delivery charges of other Commodities. The creators of Puzzle Pirates sell Douloons directly for cash, as well, if you need to have a shortcut to owning your own ship or mansion.

Puzzle Pirates has a requirement that you be 18 yrs of age to play, but it is known that there are a lot of younger children playing so an effort is made to keep the conversation clean, and to use a high degree of respect for your fellow Pirates. This is, for sure a Family Chat Room.

Some of us have been involved in this new Forum for much over One Year, in fact, this world-wide enterprise is presently celebrating it's fifth birthday. My sister, Diana (Oldrosy) got me started in January of this year, so I have a month to go before celebrating my First Anniversary as a Pirate Blaggard, named (of Course) TheGrabber. When I first started, I thought it was nothing short of Hopeless, but I have managed to aquire two ships, a Sloop and a Large Sloop, or Cutter. I also own an Apothecary Shoppe along with my Sister, OldRosy. We deliver Fruit, Gold and Gems foraged from uninhabited islands to Fruit Markets in the civilized world, trade various commodities and mix paint and potions in the Shoppe for sale to Pirates of every Ilk from around the world. Our closest Pirate friends are family, as always, including Nephews, Vyron, Dean and Kevin, my daughter Cheryl and her sons Levi and Francis, and many others. In addition, we have many newfound friends, who hail from Russia, Australia, South Africa, London, Sweden and Alberta, to name a few. It is fun to get on there and visit with these newfound friends. I most recently got to hear Lovely Lass, GreeceFeva and Star Hawk in their actual voices on another medium we use while on Pilly. This is an unrelated Chat Forum held on a common Server, Ventrilo, where you can plug in your headset and chat in RealTime Audio with those you are voyaging with, or just sit and chat like you share a common Living Room. So far, I have not gotten Annod, (Donna's Pirate) hooked up to Ventrilo. Hopefully when I am home for Christmas we will figure it out. Maybe we are due for a new computer for her for a Christmas present, and we will be able to chat better after the first of the year, when I head back out on the road.

For a quick summary of the year in my work-world, we quickly decided in 2008 that the PVSI enterprise needed to be put on hold until I retire in 2009, when I can devote full time to a struggling business. We lost a lot of money in about three years and really stressed all my retirement options to the point I am going to have to figure out a way to make a substantial side income. This at a time, when the entire US Economy is crashing to near Depression levels. My 401K is off over 50% on this year alone, and it was off over 20% in 2007. So I will not be able to rely on that at all, unless it makes a dramatic recovery before the middle of June, when I am planning to hang it up with the former Lucent Technologies, Now Alcatel-Lucent.

I started out right away in January 2007 in Ottawa, Illinois, building Cell Huts at Verizon's facility there, for the first time, taking my own work truck out of the State. It has been a hard year on this truck as it is now over 200,000 miles and off the company's Fleet Plan, so I willl not be able to get it serviced anymore. However, I have been told a new truck will be waiting for me when I get back to Minnesota. I presume they will be buying two, one for me and one for Scott Stangeland, who drives an identicle 2001 F-150 with nearly the same mileage. I worked essentially in Illinois until the Republican National Convention, which was held in St Paul, Minnesota, this year. After the 4th of July vacation, where many Knox and Northup relatives celebrated My Mother's 90th Birthday in our newly constructed PVSI Greenhouse, I stayed in Minnesota to help upgrade the att/Cingular UMTS network for the convention. After that project was over, I helped a little in the Switch installing an additional RNC and a few other modifications, before heading back to Illinois for a couple more months of MPCA Hot Slides. When that project neared completion, I was sent back to Minnesota and immediately from there to Phoenix, where I have been mostly working UMTS 2nd Carrier Overlays for att. We basically get one built per night, and most of this time I have had a helper, so it has been a relaxing time and not too stressful. All the builds are pretty much identical. We add 3 Radios, 3 Amplifiers, two Power cards, and a Channel card. What we are doing is providing a new channel in the 437 MB frequecy to add to the existing 412 MB Channel. Some of the sites get more T-1s and some of the out-door sites get Power Upgrades. We turn the site down, add the hardware, set Power on the new Radio Paths, and turn it back up for integration. I have a Call through Kit, consisting of two Test Phones and an Air Card for the Computer to test every possible configuration of the cell before turning it loose on the Public.

Some time this coming week, the actual date and time still to be resolved, I hit the road for three days back to Minnesota to finish out the year on Vacation. Since we are mid-Winter, I will stick to the boring Southern route. The weather coming this way was perfect and I took I70 out of Denver through Glenwood Canyon, for the first time and once into Utah, I took 191 South through Moab to Arizona . This took me past The Arches National Park and The Monuments, so I got a chance to use my new Senior National Parks Pass. I also visited Joshua Tree National Park the first week-end here. I took my partner up to Tonto Rim to see the Cliff Dwellings and the Tonto Natural Bridge North of Payson one week-end as well. So I have been making the most of my remaining year with Alcatel-Lucent in many sight-seeing activities.