Martin Steele:  

th most all of them. Overall, my experiences made me commit to have my kids go from K to 12 from one home - which we've done so far. Good for them! College I worked my way through college, which is probably not much different than most of the San Jose State University alumni. I quickly decided to become a Business major, but I became afflicted with a malady sometime in my sophomore year. When I had a choice to go to some classes or cut classes, I'd cut instead to sit in the quad to watch (girls, dogs playing in the fountain, whatever). I decided to drop out for a year before I did permanent damage to my grades. It was around this time that I began dating my future wife, Liz. I knew as our relationship became more serious, I needed to get serious about going back to school. Upon my return, I knew I wanted to get into AFROTC, so I really buckled down to get off academic probation. Once accepted into ROTC, I was able to work less at my job due to the stipend I received from the Air Force. Overall, my favorite classes were Art of China (a lasting impression to this day), Marketing, some early science classes, and Rugby (until the SJSU football players joined in their off-season and tried to kill us all). I graduated, was commissioned into the Air Force, and became stationed at Minot AFB, North Dakota. Workplace I am not currently working. I worked for a start-up government contracting company and then I realized the owner was crazy. I worked for Apple Inc. here in Austin. I'm enjoyed it until I didn't!; it has pained me to see how much Dell has changed since I originally wrote my bio. I ended my days on an executive-level tech support team. Another in a series of re-organizations finally caught up with me. Before that I was a project manager with the Engineering Maintenance team (what a great, fun bunch!) but most of my time was as a Training Specialist in the manufacturing environment. I began my career as a Portables (notebooks) manufacturing supervisor. For the first time in my life I found a job that chewed me up and spit me out. I made a lateral move into the training department, and discovered that I excelled in training people. 3 years later, the notebook line of business moved to Nashville, TN., and I quickly learned the manufacturing process of desktop systems. I facilitated classroom training, and created training modules covering a wide variety of subjects. To get here I: worked for Car Tapes, Inc. at Montgomery Ward in Rosemead, CA. I worked at Valley DeCor in Pleasanton, CA. I worked at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in San Jose, CA. I spent a month or so at Memorex in San Jose, CA. I was an Executive Support Officer at the 91st Field Missile Maintenance Squadron, Minot AFB, ND. I worked at IBM in Austin, TX. I managed several Delaware Sub Shops in Austin, TX. I worked at IKON Office Solutions (formerly Texas Copy) in Austin, TX. And for 10 years I worked in a variety of positions at Dell. Military As a kid I always wanted to fly. When the time came, I was accepted into the Air Force ROTC program at SJSU. My boot camp was at Vandenberg AFB, where I was part of the "worst" flight of the encampment. We had the best grades, and had the best athletes - but when it came to have the inspections or drill and ceremony taken into account - we sucked. Upon graduation from SJSU, I spent 6 weeks at Keesler AFB, MS in the Executive Support Officer school. It turned out I was qualified to fly, but almost everyone else was more qualified than me, so I flew a desk. I trained to be an Exec, but I was not prepared to be the exec my first day at the 91st Field Missile Maintenance Squadron, Minot AFB, ND. But I learned ASAP. Over time, our squadron went from laughingstock to the best, and my last year there we were selected as Outstanding Unit Award winners. The best people I ever met were stationed there. Taking the cold into consideration, I can honestly say that North Dakota is a great place to live (though certainly not for everyone). I spent 4 year there and then I separated to join my wife back in San Jose, CA. I was awarded the Commendation Medal for my efforts (as the Awards and Decoration officer - I wrote my own citation, but in all honesty - it was deserved...). We had an opportunity to move from San Jose to Austin over 20 years ago, and accepting that opportunity to move was the best decision we could have made. We finally convinced some family in California to move here, and I think they'd agree this was the best decision that could have been made for their kids where high school is concerned. Both have excelled so far this year, and we're so proud of them, and so glad to have family close too. All y'all need to consider a move to Texas! I have several ways I like to relax. I read, and read almost anything. I also like to exercise - not like crazy, but to the point where I'm relaxed. I would like to put another couple of stamps on my passport too. I'll need to upload some pictures from our river cruise. At this time I stake a claim on Canada, Mexico, Panama, New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Jamaica, Cayman, and that's it for now.