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It is traditional to send out a spam-a-gram when leaving, so here it is   (Friday, May 28 will be the last day I can check my email box.   See the contact information below.)

Why am I sending this to you?  It is because we had worked together at sometime in the past.  Perhaps during my time working on Compaq Inline (96-98), in the Market Intelligence group (98), AtHome Showroom (98-99), Athome Store & the other eCommerce solutions (MyStore, SMB, CA, ISCS, etc.) that evolved out of that (99-2007), CTO for IT Office & EA program (2007-2009), or in ITI (2009-Present).

Why am I leaving?  For many years I have wanted to run a business from soup to nuts, to be in total control, to be limited only by my own capabilities.  I am not sure there will ever be a better time for me personally than now to do that.  I realize that I could easily spend a few more decades going along my current path without ever making that jump.  I plan though to take a little break in the summer to spend with my children.  But when their school starts backup in August, this new business will be my focus.

How to keep in touch? You can always email me at my personal email address:  Nathan.price@gmail.com  Feel free to add me to your Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/GadgetNate) or LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nathan-price/2/32/ab7)  networks if we are not already connected.  If you are interested in how my little venture progresses, you can check it out on my personal blog http://www.GadgetNate.com  (I haven’t kept it up to date, but that will change in the fall.)

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I got a lot of supportive emails!  Thanks to everyone!  Here is a sampling:

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Good luck Nathan for your future endeavor.

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Best of luck!  I respect you tremendously for taking the challenge.  Please keep in touch and I hope only the best for you and your family.

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Wish you all the very best for future endeavors. Let be in touch.

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Good luck in your new phase in life….. given your attitude and drive, I’m sure you’ll make it!

Will definitely miss that lovely smile and can do attitude……

Take good care and God Bless you in your new adventure!

Keep in touch!

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Wow !!!!!

What’re you going to do ?

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Those were just a few of the emails.

It is great to have the support of people that I have previously worked with.  I wanted to give a little more details about my plans.  I know that a lot of people are wondering what I will do.

The first thing that we have done is trimmed back our expenses, way back.  We have also trimmed back on a lot of savings and investment that we were doing so that we could live within Sonia’s salary.  The immediate goal is to stay cash flow positive and not have to dip into savings.

I gave my notice 7 weeks ago.  I did not want to make a statement by leaving, and I wanted to give my management time to adjust to this move.  They have been great with this transition.  If you get a chance to work with my current team, I believe you will be happy to work with them.  Over the course of these seven weeks, I have been thinking about all sorts of plans, and what I should do.  My wife suggested I take it easy and spend the summer with the kids.  Initially I resisted this idea.  I kept thinking that I needed to hit the ground running and to start bring in as much revenue as quickly as possible.  But seeing how we have been able to reduce expenses and live within one salary, it makes a lot of sense.  The kids will grow up so fast, and they will be back in school in less than 80 days.

My plan for June, July and the first part of August is to just spend with the kids.   We have some things planned.  A week at Boy Scout camp.  A week of chess camp.  A road trip to New Jersey for a weeding, with many stops along the way.  Of course we are going to do swimming, study math and Hindi, and play lots of games.  Basketball, air hockey, ping pong, monopoly, risk, civilization, etc.

In the middle of August when school starts back up, I will then focus on my business. What is that?  Well, it has been a hobby for 4 years.  It only grossed $2,000 last year.  And it is something that doesn’t seem like a sure when at first, but it is something I am passionate about.  It is something that I think with focus, dedication, that I can be successful with.  It is a language learning website:  http://www.ISpeakHindi.com 

There are several other sites I have done some work on that I want to continue with as well:

http://www.ISpeakSindhi.com and http://www.HabloHindu.com

And there will be more.   I am not sure what the revenue potential is, but I hope it is in the tens of thousands.  It should be an interesting experiment.  I will be documenting my journey here.  So, stay tuned.

He was at the Tiger rank, with the Tiger neckerchief.

After getting his Tiger badge, he changed to the Wolf rank which is signified with a different neckerchief.

We ended up doing three of the requirements yesterday which we had some help.

We visited the Klein fire station and got a wonderful tour of the pumper truck with all of the equipment.

We also visited the KUHF/Channel 8 studios:

They had a piece of art in the their waiting room that was made of old computer equipment:

We got to see the control rooms:

Operate some of the equipment:

After that we went to a UH baseball game:

I’m only at the end of chapter 3, and this is what I have been able to create.  Note, every single graphic on this was produced by me falling directions in the book.  There is no, “just copy this graphic and place it here”, it is literally teaching how to draw all these things and create the scene.  Really great!

Bethlehem is in a Palestinian controlled area.

We had to go through a checkpoint to get there:

And through a massive wall that sections of the Palestinian areas from the areas controlled by the state of Israel:

On the Palestinian side of the wall there is graffiti.  The slogan below “To exist is to resist” caught my eye.

Our first stop in Bethlehem was to shop:

Once our bus arrived at this shop,  street vendors started showing up.  They are VERY, VERY aggressive.   They hand you stuff to “look at” and refuse to take it back, expecting you to pay for anything you touch.  They will follow you, block your way, tell you anything to get you to buy.  If you do buy, they will push more.  They do not make change.

However, we were to meet more aggressive sales people around the church of the nativity.

(I’ll post some more tonight about yesterday and today… I have only a few minutes before the bus leaves)

Mount of Olives

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Pool of Bethesda

On the way to Qumran

saw a camel:

Lots of high tech looking farms:

At Qumran they sell beauty products that are developed from salts, muds, chemicals from the Dead Sea:

Qumran is where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.  There is a set of ruins of a small village:

Masada

Masada is the famous hilltop fortress where a set of Jews rebellion against the Romans held out until the very end.  The Romans finally made it to the top broke through the walls.  The Jews before suffering slavery and torture at the hands of the Romans decided to commit mass suicide. 

The Israeli arm forces have their swearing in ceremony on Masada (except the paratroopers that do it at the wailing wall).  They end the ceremony by saying “Masada will never fall again!”

You can either walk to the top on a very steep, difficult path or you could take the cable car:

The last few people to commit suicide drew lots to see what the order would be.  (The last man would have to kill himself.)

The cable cars were jammed packed:

The hilltop where Masada is located:

Lunch back in Quamran (too many people trying to get lunch at the same time… too long waiting in line!~)

This is the remains of  Jordan Army camp that was used in the war against Israel:  (This served as the set of the Afghan army camp in the movie Rambo 3)

Dead Sea

I took a dip in the Dead Sea.  The pictures are on my mom’s camera, so it may be a while before I can post them.  This should give you some ideas though:

Back to Jerusalem

Recording of the “Celebrate” show on DayStar

As we drive through and around Israel we see farming everywhere.  There are very few places that are not put to use.   This is a common scene:

And a sight to make a Texan feel at home

Visit to the remains of a Roman City at Beit Shean.

Remains of a Roman Theater:

We are traveling with DayStar a Christian TV station.  There are the DayStar singers that perform at various stops.  When they were performing on the stage in the Roman Theater, it was easy to hear them clearly without amplification.

Can you guess what this is?

Maybe this will help:

It is the remains of a Roman toilet.  There is a channel underneath that water would run continuously through, taking away the waste.

In various spots throughout the ruins, the floor was decorated with beautiful mosaic tiles.

On the way to our next stop, we drove by a prison:

Visit to the ruins at Megiddo

On the way through our next stop. we drove by a Arab community.  It is great seeing a group of Muslims leaving in peace, and being accept enough to have a community within Israel.  Notice the minaret that stands above the mosque.

Caesarea by the Sea

remains of an aqueduct:

Something I saw on the Path to Jerusalem

Breakfast at the Hotel (yes.. fish for breakfast)

In Tiberius I saw this painting on the side of a building:

On the way to Capnarnaum I saw two vehicles flying the UN flag marked with UN:

Capnarnaum

This is my mom standing in the remains of a synagogue in Capnarnaum where Jesus is thought to have taught.

Mount of the Beatitudes

We are here with the DayStar TV network.  They had a fundraiser where you could donate $300 and you would get a olive tree planted for you, with your name by it, in this olive orchard ran by Olive Bond.

Next came lunch… And guess what we had:

St. Peter Fish

It was pretty good.  Next we had a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee with a devotional service in the middle.  And we sang the Star Spangle banner and raised the American flag too

Next… Baptism in the Jordan

Here is my Mom after getting baptized:

Here is me getting baptized:

Afterwards

A pretty good day!  Now we are back at the hotel.  We are going to go downstairs, eat dinner, settle up on the hotel Internet bill.  Tomorrow morning we leave this hotel for one in Jerusalem.

Passport control was not difficult to go through.  I had heard stories from my uncle who came several years ago, and my running partner who had come for business many years ago to.  But I did not find it difficult.  They just want to make sure you are visiting, and that you have legitimate plans.  “Why are you here?” – tour  “Are you with a group?”  – Yes  “Where are the rest in the group?” –They are all spread out (we didn’t go through passport control at the same time.)  “Do you have a return ticket?” –Yes  “Can I see it?” –no it is an eTicket  “What is the flight information?”  -Handed the passport agent the travel information the tour company gave to me.  “Where will you be going?” –Handed the itinerary to the agent (Thank goodness they had given those two things to us, and I had them available!)

We met with the tour representative at baggage claim.  It was near there that we took the “Welcome to Israel” picture you see above. 

Then we took a 2 hour bus ride to Tiberius.  We had dinner.  Here is the food that I had:

Then we went to our rooms:

View from our balcony:

At the airport I had exchanged $100 into Israel Shekels.  The exchange rate was $1 to 3.76 shekels.  Here is an example of the money.  (There is an American quarter in the coins picture.)

Now time to take a quick shower, go to bed… Wake up time is 6:30AM and we leave the hotel at 8AM.

BTW, Internet access is expensive here. 

1.50/minute…  which comes out to be about $0.40/minute..  Just like making a telephone call.

This morning went to watch Christopher’s Basketball game.  It was his first game (and second… they had two back to back).  I got to watch Christopher score his first point in a game.  It was great.  Here are some pictures to give you the idea:

My mom came over just before noon and then we went to Bush Intercontinental. 

There we are just at my house before leaving.

We are going with a tour group, and about a dozen or so people are coming from the Houston area.  My mom had different assigned seats so we did not get to sit next to each other.  The plane was completely packed, so I didn’t bother asking about adjusting seats.  And I think it might be a good idea to meet some of the people on the tour too.  I set between Kevin who is an Audio/Visual engineer from the southwest side of Houston, and Carole who is from Katy.

(more updates after we get to Tel Aviv.,  You can check our progress on Flight Aware at http://flightaware.com/live/flight/COA90/history/20091121/2042Z/KLAX/KEWR

Looks like our plane is still on its way from Los Angeles….