Memories of Dad’s Career

Dad said when he joined the Navy in 1973 that he was doing it just in case the draft was reinstated, and he wanted to determine what branch he joined, and have some influence on what he was going to do while serving. He wanted to fly jets, so he went with the United States Navy. He ended up serving as a nuclear technician, thus signing up for six years, two years of training and four years of service. He did so well in training that they asked him to serve his first two years of service as a training instructor at the training facility in Idaho. His third and fourth years of service were on a nuclear battlecruiser. He was on a deployment when I was born with several months remaining before he would return home. He told me that the day he was given word that I had been born was the day that he made up his mind that he would not have a career in the Navy.

Once he was discharged, he started going to Lamar University to attain his bachelor’s degree in industrial technology. He worked his way through college and ended up going to work for Gulf States Utilities in safety and training, at least that is my best recollection of events. He said the guy who interviewed him was also former Navy, making the process a bit easier than most.

I know that for a time, he worked in the technology department. He was telling me something about how at one point, they were scrambling to get RAM because it was available for the low price of approximately $400/MB, and they were buying all of the 4MB and 8MB sticks they could get. He brought that up the first time I showed him a phone I had with a Windows mobile on it with 2 GB of storage. This was a few years before the first iPhone came out.

He made his way back to the safety and training department when Entergy bought out GSU and he enjoyed his work there. He used to brag about getting to build computer-based training modules that were used throughout the company. It was a benefit to him and the company because he was able to continue working but benefit the company by reaching more people for a longer period of time than what he invested. He loved the fact that he had put one of my brother’s drawings in one of the CBTs about ladder safety.

He went 20 years without using a sick day and received a pen to signify that milestone. He came to the realization that those sick days that he did not use were more valuable than the company recognition. He stressed to us later in life to use the benefits provided to us rather than to buck up and push through, because our health and well-being were more important. He used to complain to Mom about my brother and I being sick all the time, and shortly after he had received that pen, he said “I was blessed with an ear infection”. He said that was the first time he ever used sick time, and it was truly a blessing that he learned from.

Entergy management decided to move the safety and training department to the Woodlands (just north of Houston), and Dad didn’t want to move to Houston or anywhere near it. They lived just west of Beaumont, where they had been located for 20 years at that point. He looked up on the Intranet at work and found there was a job opening available in vibration and leak testing, so he walked down the hall and said he was interested in the position. He finished out his career doing that, retiring as soon as he was able.

My brother brought this up during the celebration of Dad’s life and I’m glad he did. Dad had bought thousands of baseball cards over the years and had them stored under his desk at work for decades. He brought them home and put them in the storage building on his last day of work. Mom found them a few months later, when he had to come clean about buying them all back in the 90s. I saw the receipts that he had kept for them, and it added up to quite a bit of an investment on rookie cards that didn’t pan out, but apparently it was a vice that we didn’t really know about until later in life.

In 2007, I asked my boss for a raise when I was doing IT work. He replied that I had topped out my income with my skillset. I had a wife, two kids, and a desire to have more. I talked to Dad about it, and he suggested an associate’s degree in instrumentation technology, as he had seen that it was good work that paid well and seemed like an occupation that I would be successful in. He was right.

Dad’s Memorial Service


John Raymond Kunefke, 69, of Baytown, died Friday, August 30, 2024. He was born on September 13, 1954, to Clella Faye Bryce Kunefke and Raymond Theodore Kunefke, in Winnie. In his lifetime, John enjoyed hunting, baseball, traveling, kayaking, zip-lining, and spending time with his family and friends. But he enjoyed his faith and serving God most of all. He taught Sunday School and was Choir Director for years. Singing brought him joy.

Survivors include his wife, Lana Kunefke of Baytown; brothers, Marion Kunefke and his wife, Mila, of Godley; and Bobby Kunefke and his wife, Julie, of Fannett; sister, Janna Kunefke and Kathy Morgan, of Winnie; children, Brandon Kunefke and his wife Christle; Joshua Kunefke and his wife Destiny; grandchildren, Alaina Hutchison and her husband, Devin, Lily Kunefke, Sunni Kunefke, and Justus Kunefke; great-grandchildren, Riley, Blake, Blaine, and Samuel Hutchison; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He is preceded in death by his parents.

Long Time, No See…

I’ve been tempted recently to start writing again.

I’m thinking of sharing stories from my past, but don’t want to give too much away.

I’m making a list of the stories I’d like to share and will try to spread them out.

While I’m working on those, I’d like to share a few books I’ve been reading/listening to via audiobook:

Galaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Ocean Mobius Missions – J.S. Morin

Black Ocean: Mercy for Hire – J.S. Morin

Black Ocean: Astral Prime – J.S. Morin

I know they’re all from the same author and they are tangents of each other, but the writing is very good. The narrator, Mikael Naramore does them SO well.

New Home Automations

I’ve been toying with the idea of home automation for several years. The expense has been one of the highest priorities, as I don’t like spending where it’s not necessary. With some bonus money over the past year or two, I’ve been able to make some additions that didn’t break the bank.

I was looking through Facebook last year when I came across Konnected.io, which is a way to make use of existing security panels and allow the home user to monitor their own home. It reads the signals of doors, windows, smoke/CO detectors, and any other input devices and allows you to sound the alarm or send yourself an alert on your phone. The options are much greater than that, but you get my point.

Konnected works with SmartThings, which is another element of home automation I had already looked into for lighting, but hadn’t taken the plunge. I found that because Konnected was open source, I could buy the modules at a very low cost and flash them myself to save even more money. For around $10/module, which has 6 inputs/outputs (IO), I figured I could put my disconnected security system back to good use without having monthly charges. Of course, I would have to also invest in the SmartThings hub, but with the plan of extending automations, it was worth it.

I bought the SmartThings hub and 4 modules to load up with Konnected, as well as some accessories to get everything hooked up adding up to less than $200. Using my existing home wiring, door and window sensors, and sirens, I now have a working security system that will alert me when something is not right at home… with no extra monthly fee.

It did take some time to figure out how to load the modules for the first time. I did spend several hours making up all of the connectors for the new modules. I took the extra time to repurpose two used Amazon Fire tablets to use as replacement alarm panels using ActionTiles and FullyKiosk browser. The tablets get their power from my new alarm panel.

I left the original smoke alarms connected to the old panel for several months until they began to die… time for a necessary upgrade because they were at least 18 years old… I bought 6 new 12V 4-wire smoke alarms and one 12V 4-wire combination smoke/CO alarm to wire into a Konnected module, so now my phone will alert me if there’s smoke or CO detected in the house.

Shortly after I ordered the SmartThings hub, I ordered several Smart light switches from Innovelli. They were cheaper than most smart light switches, and also didn’t require multiple smart switches to remotely control 3-way wired lights. On top of that, they work as repeaters for the SmartThings hub network, so using them, I would not have to be concerned with their proximity to the hub. The light in front of my house that illuminates my address now comes on automatically in the evening and turns off in the morning. Before, I just left it on all the time.

When I go in the garage, the lights out there turn on automatically for 5 minutes, because many times anyone goes out there, our hands are full, and reaching for the switch can be a pain.

At night, I have several lights set to turn off on a timer any time they’re turned on, as I have kids that have, so far, refused to turn them back off, even after agreeing to do so.

I have more automations, but I feel like I’m getting a little long-winded at the moment.

Have a great day!

Memories

I have written very little on here for quite some time.
Not that I think it is a requirement or anything, but I started this so that I could keep somewhat of a record of what is going on in my life.
A friend of Alaina’s found my blog a few months ago and has been sharing snippets with Alaina. She got a copy of a post where I spent the day with her. For Father’s Day, Alaina gave me a copy of my post, as well as her response to it in a frame. I didn’t realize that a simple post like that could actually stir up memories in her own life.
Have a great day!

Health

For most of my 38 years, I have lived a life of no concern for my health. I have done things to jeopardize my health and well-being, but I wasn’t really concerned about it. I have gotten rid of unhealthy vices, and I don’t feel the need to return to them (other than Blue-Bell). I’ll still have Blue-Bell from time to time, but only if I can retain my self-control.
I have never been called obese, other than being just over the edge of what the obesity charts state, which seems like a really low weight to be considered obese. My cholesterol has been rated a little higher than normal. LDL was even high, but not high enough to warrant medication.
This year, I decided to take action on my weight. In January of 2011, Christle and I had started Atkins and we both did really well until we became pregnant with Sunni. I held the weight off for quite a while before gaining it back with a little extra.
This January, we started the same thing, only a little more slowly. When Blue-Bell started making Rocky Road again, I fell off the wagon for a little while but held off the 15 pounds I had lost in the first 6 weeks of the year. In July, we started back up on the diet, and I’ve lost approximately another 15 pounds to bring my total for the year to 30 pounds lighter. My BMI is around 27.5 now, so that’s great.
I started walking in January, and eventually started jogging. I reached my first goal of jogging for a mile straight, then two miles, then three miles. In July, I started a training plan to run a 10K. I have to attribute my weight loss to both the diet and the exercise. I’ve been running on this training plan for a little over a month, and I’ve already run 5.25 miles, only stopping to adjust my shoes.
The next thing I’ve started is a workout plan using Runtastic Results. I just started my 4th week of the plan, and my jeans are too big to wear. My appearance in the mirror is incredible compared to January. I like the feeling of being healthy. I like the way I look when I’m healthy.
I’d really like to stick with it, and plan to.

Simplify

I’ve decided to go back to the simplicity of WordPress… going to go back to putting updates here.
Not that I’ve been posting any updates anywhere else…
I’ve been thinking about it, though.

Open Carry Long Rifle In Texas

I just saw this story on The Blaze about a guy carrying an AR-15 on his back at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, TX. Apparently several people were scared by this and called the police.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCZBg2i7Rxk&w=640&h=360]
This police officer talking to the Gun Store owner is dead wrong on the charges.  It is completely legal to carry a rifle openly in Texas as long as you’re not threatening anyone.
The legality of carrying a weapon into the mall is void… His gun store is IN THE MALL!!! If people are going to feel threatened by the sight of a firearm (slung across his back with both of his hands full), they should move out of Texas.
The police should have responded to those who called in that he was not breaking any laws.
If a few people can get upset, make a call to police, and take away a person’s constitutional (federal and state) right, then is it truly a right?
I find it absolutely amazing that so many police officers can be so ignorant about Texas laws, especially when the issue comes up so often on national news coverage.
They took his property ILLEGALLY because someone was scared by it.  Police officers are the only people in Texas who are allowed to open-carry handguns. If I call the police every time I see a police officer with a handgun strapped to his/her side because I am scared, or I think I’m gonna die, will they stop letting police officers carry handguns?  I find it even more hilarious that in the above video you can see two men carrying handguns on their waists.
If I find out that this guy does not get off, I’m seriously considering to start calling 911 every time I see a police officer openly carrying a handgun, especially when I’m in Beaumont.

My Computer Experience So Far

My first experience with a computer, if I remember correctly, was playing the Atari with Dad in the living room of the trailer we lived in the early 1980s.  I distinctly remember playing pong, but there may have been other games. While some of you may not consider that a computer, I will take this opportunity to let you know that you are wrong.
In 1985, my brother and I received our Nintendo game system with Mario Bros. in what I consider our first real “house”.  We had a blast playing it and other games, some of which we swapped with the kids next door and across the street.  I never got into the geek mode that the older kids did with games.  I just liked trying to figure out how to complete the games, and learn their quirks.
In 3rd grade, we were introduced to the Apple IIe at school (1986). We did not do much on them.  The only thing I remember doing was drawing a picture using graph paper, translating that into code, and slowly typing said code into the computer to see the drawing in color on the screen.  We saved our code on a 5 1/2″ floppy disk.  There is no GUI (Graphical User Interface) on the Apple IIe.  At least, there was no GUI on the computers at my school…

I found out recently that my old school was torn down a few years ago…  🙁

Dad brought a computer home a few years later.  It was installed with Windows 3.1, or some version close to that. He showed me all of the components on the inside.  He taught me the basics of how it all worked together.  I helped him put together a few that he had sold through his side business. He taught me how to install the Microsoft Windows OS (operating system), as well as the applications to actually be able to do work, such as Microsoft Word and Excel (There was no MS Office at the time).
We upgraded to Windows 95, which was one of the biggest advances I had seen in computer interaction.  AOL came a year or two later.  It was difficult to use AOL, though, because it seemed like we couldn’t call 10 miles down the road without getting charged for long distance service.  It made the potential uses of the personal computer exponentially greater, though.
In the fall of 1996, I went to the local University and learned about HAL (C++), which was the name of the University mail system.  It wasn’t completely isolated from the rest of the world, but it was very limited and text based.  I did, however set up at least 2 blind dates by looking for nursing students on there.
In 1997, I did some computer upgrades for a power company.  We upgraded all of the computers from Windows NT 3.51 to Windows NT 4.0.  It was a cool experience because I learned a little networking (Token Ring, which they were dropping for TCP/IP). I knew very little about these technologies at the time.
I bought a Gateway PC in late 1998 shortly after I moved into my own place.  It was really cool to be able to dial in to AOL (local number) and not have to time my dial-up connection.  I also used Netzero, and some other dial-up (EV1.net) services for several years.
In 2000, I was asked to work at ExxonMobil as a computer technician. I learned about Laser Jet Printers and repaired those along with the computers they were using at the time. I took part in their upgrade from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000.  I was laid off in 2002 because the upgrades were complete, they had fewer positions available, and I was the low guy on the list at the time.
In 2003, the cable company came by the house and upgraded our cable box for who knows what reason (I knew the reason), and I called them that afternoon to come back out and install my cable modem!  THAT was awesome!  At the time there was a BMW Films series that I had been downloading over the modem that took me at least a day of downloading to complete each 7 minute video.  When I got cable internet service I downloaded them again just to see the difference and it only took a few minutes.
I did some data recovery work from 2003 to 2004.  We took crashed hard drives, cracked CDs/DVDs, and even some broken floppies from people who really needed the data stored on them, and recovered the data.  I worked in a clean room, and swapped the platters out.  I did some really neat stuff to recover data off of destroyed media.  The only one I can remember not recovering was a drive that the heads had broken off of the arms.  The person had tried accessing the data so much before sending it in, that the arms had scratched the metal off of the discs.  The drive was filled with metallic dust, and the discs looked like scratched glass.
For a few years in there, I had my own DBA (Doing Business As), doing small computer jobs for individuals.  I built, repaired, and freshened up computers, as well as installed extra phone cables and hookups in their homes.  It didn’t take me long to realize that building computers was turning into a losing business strategy.  The big computer makers were lowering their prices so drastically, that my labor to purchase the pieces and build myself just had little to no profit.
I went back to work at ExxonMobil in 2004 for the upgrade to Windows XP, and worked for several of their sites through the upgrade to Windows 7.  Shortly before the upgrade, though, I changed departments, and started working on the control systems.
I installed my own network cabling in my house for our home network when I installed the CAT6 cabling for our new cable service. The idea of installing my own network infrastructure has always been intriguing. I do not know why, because it is really simple. I just like knowing how everything is built, because if you know how it is built, you can figure out where the problem is when there is one.
Since the first Gateway computer I bought, I have built several computers for myself, family, friends, and church.  I have also purchased a few desktops and laptops. Windows XP was beginning to feel a little stale after a few years, so I started using Ubuntu (Linux) for approximately 9 months solid (at home). It was a pleasant experience, but there were too many things I couldn’t (didn’t want to take the time to learn how to) do there that I could in Windows, and eventually went back to Windows.  Microsoft Windows 7 was the best version I have ever used. Windows 8 (I have had approximately 45 minutes of experience with it) makes me sick to my stomach. On a desktop, it feels like I should be using a touchscreen tablet. On a tablet, it may work well, but I’m not gonna spend the cash to find out if I like it. For the past year, I have been using a Mac Mini, and it is the best desktop I have ever owned.
I’ll write another post about my transition from Windows to OS X.
I no longer work at ExxonMobil (the correct way to spell it, btw), but I have been working on Honeywell, Foxboro, and Emerson Delta V control systems for the past 5.5 years. To put it simply, a control system is a computer system that controls all of the instruments in a refinery or chemical plant, and transmits data to the operators in the control room. It allows them the safety of operating the process without having to be in the danger zones.
It seems that every part of computer technology I have used in the past is in use in some part of the control systems I support today, except for the games.