Paul McCluskey:
CLASS OF 1984
Hopkinton High SchoolClass of 1984
Hopkinton, MA
Wentworth Institute of TechnologyClass of 1991
Boston, MA
Central New England CollegeClass of 1989
Worcester, MA
Framingham State College/UniversityClass of 1986
Framingham, MA
Paul's Story
Life
After paying off my student loans, in 94, I managed to move out to an apartment in Framingham South, near the Red Star, yuk. Nice if you like noisy trains, and gangs. Lived there for a year, said, screw this, and bought a house in 1995 in Milford where I now live. The cool side of Milford, off Camp Street. You hardly know you're in Milford!
Still single, no kids (that I know of) living with my trusty new black lab, Bonzo. My good boy, Boo Boo has passed, RIP.
As you may or may not wonder, I still play the drums. They are, and will forever be my single greatest passion. It was the only thing I ever really wanted to do, much to the shock of my family and neighbors. How I wasn't shot for making so much noise as a kid, I have no idea.
I am currently playing in three bands. I am in a "Classic Hits of the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2k" band called The Waynestock Band, waynestock.com.
Waynestock is made up of Jay DeVincentis (lead guitar), Mike Brodeur (rhythym guitar, and vocals), Rob Santone (Bass) and get this... MY MOM! She sings background vocals and plays tambourine, maracas, etc. She's Susie E! She sings the notes we guys can't sing without a vice grip. This is so cool for me, being in a band with three of my best friends in the world, and my mom.
You can find us playing at the Rod+Gun, Sportsman's, Myriad Ballroom, etc., a block party in the fall in the area, and the Snowmobile Club dance in Twin Mountain NH (Valentine's Day). We'll play anywhere they'll pay us. Have a reunion or a function coming up? Send me an email.
I sub every now and then in a band called Kickstand, and I just started a new band, with a female singer, The Missy Maxfield Band. Hopefully, when we're done warming up at the Swallow, we'll play somewhere around here where you'll see us!
I am also taking drum lessons (at 41) from my good friend Marty Richards. Ed Barry will forever be my coach and hero, but Marty is the sh%t. I enjoy the challenge! I also teach drums as well.
I enjoy listening to music and going to concerts. Loved the hair band era as you may or may not remember. There is a band called Aquanett. They play hair band music to a tee. Let's check them out sometime, eh? I usually go to see The Allman Bros. every year. Hey, be a hippie for a day, I say. Can't knock good Blues. I usually can be found at Dante's at Firefly's in Marlboro, playing pool and listening to James Montgomery Blues Band.
Other than that, when I'm not working on a house project, or going on a trip somewhere, I enjoy a relaxing sunny day, fishing in my boat. You can find me on the water at Whitehall, Ashland Res, or A-1 in Westboro, trying to land the big boys.
I also brew my own beer, another passion I have. BUT! I don't have a drinking problem, I hardly drink at all. I have a brewing problem. I enjoy brewing so much, I usually have way more than I could ever consume. I'm always begging my friends to come over watch the Patriots and drink my beer. I hate pouring stale beer out. I know, the beer gods are listening. St. Peter will add that to the list at the gate, GREAT! Oh, you saw that too, did ya?
Just 2 years ago, I took up snow mobiling with the Brodeurs, Jimmy Adams, and the gang. WOW. Now I have something to do in the wintertime. Wondering why I didn't do this in my 20's and all along. Our goal is to snow mobile from Twin Mountain to Ossippee, where my Mom has a log cabin.
Speaking of trips, went to Italy in 2001, going back soon, went to Disney in 2003, been to Phoenix Arizona, a bunch of times to visit friends, Vegas a few times, and Tampa St. Pete area in Florida. Looking to go to Ireland someday (my other half).
Anyway, that's it in a nutshell.
College
Had a brief 2 year stint at Framingham State College, 84-86. There, I learned that college wasn't like High School. You didn't just have to write what the teacher wrote on the board, you actually had to READ the 10 books they made you buy. How annoying B-) However, if there was a major for playing billiards in the game room, sign me up for that bad boy! I think I mastered that one.
Nuff said.
So, I moved to this College with the corny catch phrase on WAAF, "Central New England College, we teach success". They were on Rte 9 in Westboro, right behind the water tower, an affiliate of Worcester Junior College. So, it was either that, or Berkelee college of music, and music didn't pay much at the time (Ha! still doesn't).
While at CNEC, I had an epiphany in Computer Science, and owe my whole career to a teacher named Jane Adams, from Hopkinton (Clinton Street). She was the first teacher that challenged me to do things the right way (flow chart, psudocode, THEN code. Just about every program I ever wrote from then on compiled, first shot).
I was 6 courses from graduation when THE SCHOOL CLOSED!!! What a wierd experience... driving up to your school and there's yellow police-line tape across the doors with signs CLOSED FOREVER. Funny, a business school closes because it can't m...Expand for more
anage its business! Define irony.
As the school closed, they offered to ship all Engineering students to Johnson and Wales. I thought to myself, I would be the laughing stock of the computer industry if I went there. That would be on my resume, and in every job interview I ever had. No thanks. So, I took my Associate's Degree in Computers and Informaton Services in 1989 and ran.
So, here I am, school closed, 16K in student loans. Thinking to myself, what now, pray tell. Enter Wentworth Institute of Technology, actually where I originally wanted to go, but was afraid of a little neighborhood called Mission Hill, now plush condos, I hear.
I was originally supposed to go "2 semesters, max" according to my advisor. Well... CNEC was a 3 credit school, and Wentworth was 4. So, they didn't even accept me in as a Junior! I argued with the Dean for hours, demonstrating to him how all of the courses I had taken were identical to his, and he agreed, but could not loosen the "State mandated" restriction. Fascist slob.
Wentworth was no piece of cake, with a 2 hour per day commute on top of all the work I had to do, and working two full-time jobs. Talk about anti-social. But I stuck it out, went through two lousy co-ops (2 extra semesters, care of the state, thank you very much).
My first co-op was at Raytheon, where I worked... get this... with a highlighter and a computer printout... highlighting duplicate database entries in a database. They call this "normalizing" databases for those playing the home game. This is all done automatically today.
I thought to myself, I'm 30 thousand dollars in debt, and I'm in my first PROFESSIONAL position with a f*cking highlighter! Talk about a sour experience. I marked a calendar every single day I was there. 5 minutes before punching a time card at 9 a.m... every day... 2 - 15 munite breaks... 5 minutes before 5 p.m... standing at the door waiting to punch out, and go to the vast parking lot... every day... with the thousands of other lemmings waiting to dash to their cars! This was a very George Orwellian experience. I thought, this sucks.
So, I ended up graduating in 1991 and took my first job in customer support. I figured the experience I had selling, setting up, and troubleshooting computers for my customers at Lechmere, could lead to something.
And today, I threw out the highlighter to test and verify how customers connect to the Internet through a a lab network that I manage, that consists of 4000 cable modems, a bunch of routers, switches, and hundreds of computers. Now that's a pretty big sandbox.
Workplace
Began my career at Microcom in Norwood. Worked as a telephone support rep, helping people fix problems with modems connecting to remote control software called Carbon Copy, and a remote access server called LanExpress.
After several years in support, and teaching training classes on the new remote access server, became a Quality Assurance Engineer, testing the software I helped support. I worked in an operational lab to test connectivity over modems, and various types of LANs (IBM Lan Server, NetBIOS, Windows for Workgroups, and Novell Netware).
Moved from Microcom to 3Com Corporation (formerly Chipcom) in Southboro on Rte 9, and later on Forrest Ave. in Marlboro. There I began to learn core LAN switching technology. At 3Com, I worked on the CoreBuilder 5000 Platform testing Layer 2 switching, and Layer 3 services. I helped run OpNet, a staged customer network where we tried to use the product how our customers would, novel concept, eh? You'd be surprised how many problems you find when you actually try to use something how it was intended, and equally as important, how it was not!
I then moved to the "Hot Systems" lab, where we staged large customer networks and troubleshot and documented how they were installed, configured, and operated, which helped me to start learning Core Routing Protocols (OSPF, DVMRP, MOSPF, RIP, as well as VoIP, VRRP, VLANs, Trunking, Link Redundancy, etc).
3Com had a massive layoff and closed their entire Northeast Core Networking Division in 1999, so I pursued a startup opportunity, and landed at Broadband Access Systems, on Technology Drive in Westboro. I started May 15 of 2000 to July of 2007.
BroadBand Access Systems led me back to edge technology, learning and testing how residential Cable Modems access the Internet. Learned about DOCSIS technology, as well as how the edge router, participates in various Routing Protocols. I worked in, and helped manage a lab of 4000 cable modems, and hundreds of computers. Pretty cool.
I am a Senior SQA Systems Test Engineer, and working my way to Principal (and that's when the big bucks start coming in, as Louie Anderson once said in a fairly cheesy movie... guess which one).
After a fairly deep round of cuts at BigBand, I now find myself at Motorola in Marlboro. Same tachnology. Now helping to manage a lab of 17 thousand cable modems (expanding to 34K). Hoo ahh. It's not just a job...
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