Hello There
I am Neal Pritchett, and these are my pages. I was born
on the day after Sputnik, which was launched on October 4th, 1957. This
was the first satellite ever launched into orbit, and all it could do was
send a monotonous beep back to Earth. Today we navigate, communicate, entertain
ourselves, and map out the best places to blow up our enemies, via a collection
of satellites cluttering the Earth's orbit. I have lived all of my life
(47 years) in Milwaukee Wisconsin
, the home of beer, Harley's, and Summerfest. This is also the home of Jeff
Dahmer, Cryptosporidiam, and is one of the most segregated cities in the
nation. Unfortunately, most of the brewers have moved away or gone out of
business, and Harley's are made in Pennsylvania now, though the engines are
still made here. There has also been a loss of most of our traditional heavy
industry (AOSmith, Allis Chalmers, Harnischfeger, and others). We have recently
been rated as one of the ten worst (number 8) cities for freeway congestion.
Our official motto is "A great place on a great lake" (they paid some one
to write that) We actually have a wonderfully odd history and at one time
this was a remarkable city. Sadly the city has grown dull and stunted, the
residue of a great city after greatness has left it. Attempts are being made
to revive it, but they may be too little, too late.
I am an A+ certified computer technician, and had worked
several years for G.E. Medical systems, the producers of medical imaging
devices like Cat scanners, and MRI machines. I had no direct part in the design
and production of these cutting edge machines, but worked on maintaining,
and upgrading the 100+ computer network, along with the mainframe and telecom
connections. I had previously worked as a production and phone support
tech at Milwaukee PC. Previous to my certification I was a bartender and/or
waiter for over twenty years. I have also done network and telecom cabling,
and am certified as a Microsoft preinstallation specialist. I will attempt
to go into business for myself soon, part time of course, doing cabling,
and repair. I hope to earn my MCSE in the near future, which is why I have
a computer network set up at my home. My present occupation, and my advancement
in it would have shocked me a couple of years ago, but it just shows what
might happen when you apply yourself, particularly in a rapidly evolving
field. My father was a well known local musician (jazz guitarist George Pritchett), who taught
guitar, made two record albums, and toured with the Buddy Rich band back
in the seventies. He died from a variety of things related to his lifestyle,
at the age of fifty six. I could not resist putting a couple of pictures
of myself on this sight. The one below is a bit more revealing than the one
above, perhaps too revealing. It was taken by an MRI machine, which is one
of the products of G.E.Medical. A couple of years ago, volunteers were needed
for a series of test and calibration scans. There is no radiation danger
from and MRI, as there is from a CT, but there is an intense magnetic field
generated within the "bottle" of the machine. If there is any metal in your
body from accidents or from medical procedures, you may not be able to get
an MRI scan. The little metal bits holding the soles of my shoes on made
it feel as if an invisible hand was grabbing them when I first entered the
machine; interesting.
I had also worked as a phone support tech, customer service,
and cash management clerk for a company called Metavante. You may not have
heard of Metavante, but almost certainly use it's services to one degree or
another. The parent company of Metavante is the M&I Bank. Metavante does
electronic banking, bill pay, and electronic funds transfer for banks, companies,
and individuals. It is an interesting company, though I had been hoping to
be getting a more technical position, more in my field of expertise. In truth
their are many technical positions there, and I did promise myself, and my
boss, to give the place a year before looking for greener pastures. That
promise was kept.
One thing that I feel obligated to say is never use any
bill pay service offered by any bank. There are some advantages, and sometimes
it is nice to have a bill pay service in your corner when a payee claims
that payment was never received. Still, I have seen it go wrong for too many
people, and when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong. Metavante is buying
up the customer base for most of the bill pay services. It owns a number
of branded services, and provides the rebranded bill pay service for hundreds
of banks.
I am presently doing computer support and admin work for
P&H Mining. This is the old Harneschvager company. We build cranes, excavators,
and other gigantic machines, primarily for the mining industry. It is as
fascinating in it's own way as G.E. Medical was. This are some of the largest
and most powerful mechanical devices ever built, exceeding locomotives in
many cases. I suppose that a shipyard might build bigger structures, but
some of our products can be pretty awe inspiring. it is also, frankly, pretty
satisfying to be working once more for a company which actually makes something.
The mining industry has become pretty politically incorrect
over the last few decades, which makes me feel that much better about my
present job. The PC crowd likes to moan about saving the planet, but are
generally among the first to whine when gas prices go up.
Most of my favorite things (boats, guns, computers, cameras,
radio gear) are listed on this site. What is not listed is my love of travel,
flying, geology, chemistry, astronomy, and just about every other branch
of science. The world is full of wonderful fascinating things and it is
unfortunate that we live long enough to be aquatinted with so little of it.
I am pretty conservative, believing in freedom and the related virtues of
intelligence, responsibility, common sense, and self reliance which freedom
makes necessary. This web site is a reflection of the fact that right now
I have no life. If I ever do manage to get a life, this site will be updated
less frequently. The gun collection shown on these pages was started by me
about eight years ago when I returned to college. I had been a firearms enthusiast
for years, had competed in amateur pistol leagues, and had become quite knowledgeable
on the subject. I had formed a plan by which I might make enough money selling
guns at shows and out of my home so that I could devote most of my time to
my studies. This plan never did work out. The Feds, who have been vilified
lately by some of the gun press, were perfectly nice, and even friendly and
helpful; the city was another matter. The city of Milwaukee has no gun shops
within it's limits. The shops that sell in this area are all just outside
of town, in the surrounding communities. I put up with an amazing amount of
grief from these people, to the extent that I still have a bad taste in my
mouth about our local government. The result of that whole mess was that the
stock I had acquired to sell became a pretty nice personal collection which
is shown on this site.
By a stroke of luck, the assault rifles and high capacity
pistols which I bought have risen tremendously in value, because of some of
the laws which our trusting friends in the democratic party have passed to
tell us what we may be trusted to own. If I did not already own these guns
I could not afford to buy them at their current prices. My interest in computers
dates way back to the mid seventies. I can still remember my first days
at college, when we had time sharing computers with core memory. I also
remember how exciting the first small(?) home computers were, and how little
could actually be done on them. I have a whole closet full of old computer
junk (boards, chips, drives, cards, etc.) which is useless, but which I have
a hard time tossing out because it cost a fortune when I bought it. It is
not easy to throw out a $700 drive, even if it does only hold 20mb (and besides,
you never know when you might need one).
My latest folly is an attempt to learn Novell, and maybe
even acquire a copy, and build a machine for it. I also feel I must learn
Front Page, even if I do not plan on using it for this site. Other projects
are an intranet, and helping my brother with his computer network. My time
and energy have been monopolized by my computers the last couple of months,
though I never seem to have quite enough time (or money) to do what needs
to be done. I have also been spending a considerable amount of time fixing
and upgrading computers for people I know.
I am determined to get my MCSE over the Winter (I had
initially planned on having it by the end of Summer). I am finally taking
it seriously enough to set up a rigid study schedule. Microsoft gives you,
as an MCSE, a little card with a magnetic strip and a hologram on it, and
makes several technical resources available to you. There is also the rather
pretentious privilege of being allowed to use the "mcp" or "mcse" suffix after
your name on correspondence or letter heads, as if you were some sort of
minor nobility (which in the computer world may not be too far off of the
mark). I have found a source of relatively cheap computer parts, and am planning
on revamping several of my computers over the next month or two. I hope to
update this site accordingly. I have tried to take advantage of the seminars
Microsoft offers to interested professionals. One of the other workshops
tackles Office 2000, and there are a number of them dealing with various
facets of Windows XP, and Windows 2000. I have a copy of Windows XP server
which Microsoft sent me as part of the OEM program I am a participant in,
but which I have not yet had the time (or the machine with which) to install.
I may just leave this until I get a little better with the products which
Microsoft has already released to the public (sigh).
Thank goodness for little computers