My Life [8]

Coping with COVID-19

By Jim Rix

My Life [7]

In healthy retirement

By Jim Rix

I now reside in South Lake Tahoe, where I manage my 5-unit apartment building (formally SoftRix’s offices) and my house in Tahoe Keys as a seasonal vacation rental.
    My older son, Leland, and daughter, Vanita, live just 30 minutes away, over the hill in Carson Valley, south of Carson City, Nevada. Both are teachers. My youngest child, son Marlon, is an accomplished woodworker/cabinet-maker in Clovis, California. From them I have one grandson and five granddaughters.

My Life [6]

Getting Cousin Ray out of prison

By Jim Rix

Early in the 1990s, while SoftRix was taking off, we learned that a distant cousin of mine, Ray Krone, was on death row. My mother assured me he was innocent, and since she was an objective thinker, not subject to the whims of bias, I decided to look into it. I visited Ray and examined court records, soon becoming convinced that my mother was right. Ray was innocent and we provided significant assistance to secure his release. But, hey, I offered in Chapter 1 to practically give you a copy of my book about that. Go read it.

My Life [5]

From contract programming to software ownership

By Jim Rix

When I began contract programming, around 1980, computer software lagged far behind computer hardware. Skilled programmers were consequently in high demand, and contract programming was quite lucrative. I contracted with companies like Advanced Micro Devices and Intel, two semiconductor manufacturers, as well as companies with federal aerospace contracts.

My Life [4]

I become a computer programmer

By Jim Rix

Following my stint as a high school mathematics teacher, I took a job at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, in Sunnyvale, and began a career in computer programming. After seven months at Lockheed, I was offered a better position at Tymshare, Inc., another computer company. Tymshare transferred me to Seattle, Washington. That lasted a few years, after which I was laid off and sold furniture for a while at Levitz Furniture. I don’t think I had realized how versatile I could be.

My Life [3]

Marriage and teaching

By Jim Rix

After being graduated from TUHS, I entered San Jose State University, on a football scholarship. For my football promise, I’d also received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland, but I didn’t pass the entrance exam in English. At SJSU, I even had to take bonehead English. Halfway through the semester, the teacher told me she didn’t know why I was in the course. I guess I had had a bad day when I took that exam.

My Life [2]

High School Days

By Jim Rix

“After being graduated from TUHS.” I know that Chapter 1 said the next chapter would begin that way, but let’s pause a bit before we proceed to pick up with the autobiography I sent to the teacher who is writing her own biography of her days in Tulare. Maybe I shouldn’t have given high school such short shrift in what I sent to her.

My Life [1]

Early lessons

By Jim Rix

Today is my 77th birthday, a week after Moristotle’s, and only five days after that of our Tulare, California, high school classmate Donald Richert. I mention Don because Moristotle – I’m going to call him Morris from here on because he hadn’t yet become Moristotle….I mention Don because Morris has told him and me (and more than once) that he can remember first meeting us, although neither Don nor I can remember meeting Morris. Don and I, Morris says, were playing Roshambeau (or Rock Paper Scissors) on a school activity bus the summer before we three entered high school. Maybe we were playing it with too much gusto to remember, but just enough gusto to make a memorable impression on Morris? Anyway, we have remained in touch for some of the ensuing 64 years. We remember each others’ birthdays.