FAQ with Vicky about her life

[Harleyqueen000000]

Which course have you studied in your college?

[lance_s]

Which course have you studied in your college?

Is this a general question for members of the site?

[stickyvicky]

I studied accounting and business administration! The later when to school for IT, loved it but the accounting positions paid more! So I stuck with that more, I was controller and general manager for several large firms before starting porn at 38 years old! Crazy huh?

[stickyvicky]

Welcome back HarleyQueen! You need an avatar!

[Harleyqueen000000]

Which course have you studied in your college?

Is this a general question for members of the site?

Yes

[Harleyqueen000000]

I studied accounting and business administration! The later when to school for IT, loved it but the accounting positions paid more! So I stuck with that more, I was controller and general manager for several large firms before starting porn at 38 years old! Crazy huh?

Cool ! . Really did you start your porn at 38 wish you could have started sooner

[Harleyqueen000000]

Welcome back HarleyQueen! You need an avatar!

Ok

[lance_s]

Which course have you studied in your college?

Is this a general question for members of the site?

Yes

OK then. I have a degree in Computer Science. Or Computational and Statistical Science to use the official, pompous title.

[WalterB]

I never went to college, but learned Radio Frequency electronics in the Air Force. Among other fantastic jobs, that led me to the Magellan Project in 1987. I was hired as the Radio subsystem Lead Technician, and became the Subsystem Engineer. We launched the spacecraft in early May of 1989. The entire mission lasted 9 years, with the portion of the mission at Venus being 5 years. Got my name in a book, lol.

[WalterB]

Then nothing until I met Vicky in 2006. Now that's a mission that EVERYONE should work on, LOL.

[LizLemon85]

I never went to college, but learned Radio Frequency electronics in the Air Force. Among other fantastic jobs, that led me to the Magellan Project in 1987. I was hired as the Radio subsystem Lead Technician, and became the Subsystem Engineer. We launched the spacecraft in early May of 1989. The entire mission lasted 9 years, with the portion of the mission at Venus being 5 years. Got my name in a book, lol.

Wow, that's awesome!
Now I feel stupid with my few semesters of sociology (I quit early so no degree or anything)

[lance_s]

Then nothing until I met Vicky in 2006. Now that's a mission that EVERYONE should work on, LOL.

Vicky, the Venus of Valhalla?

[lance_s]

I never went to college, but learned Radio Frequency electronics in the Air Force. Among other fantastic jobs, that led me to the Magellan Project in 1987. I was hired as the Radio subsystem Lead Technician, and became the Subsystem Engineer. We launched the spacecraft in early May of 1989. The entire mission lasted 9 years, with the portion of the mission at Venus being 5 years. Got my name in a book, lol.

Wow, that's awesome!
Now I feel stupid with my few semesters of sociology (I quit early so no degree or anything)

Nothing to feel stupid about. We all have different paths to take through life. Academia or college is not for everyone.

[WalterB]

Sociology is pretty important, to my thinking. At least you got some exposure to it. Did you maybe not like it?

Here's some Magellan pictures. I don't like to brag about anything, but I gotta admit, this was by far the best job I ever had.. I got this job primarily by just being in the right place at the right time. I can actually trace getting the job back to a DUI I got in California maybe a year or so earlier. So, actually, that DUI turned into a good thing for me, lol.

Magellan in the Reverberant Acoustics Lab. This is where we blasted the spacecraft with very loud, very low bass sounds/reverberations. This simulates launch conditions and ensures that the spacecraft will stand up to the pressures of launch.
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Magellan in RAL.jpg (105.74 KiB) Viewed 153 times

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Actual picture of the Spacecraft in the cargo bay of the Shuttle Atlantis.
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Actual picture of the Spacecraft just after release from the cargo bay. As it floated away, the Shuttle backed off to a safe distance. Then, when ready, a command from JPL in California ignited the IUS (Inertial Upper Stage,) and sent Magellan off on it's 15 month trip to Venus. The IUS is the large barrel-like item below the spacecraft, with USA on it. It. The IUS fired, pushing Magellan off on it's trip to Venus. Once top speed was reached, the IUS was jettisoned. Then the SRM (which you can see above the IUS) was used to slow the spacecraft upon arrival at Venus. Once captured by Venus gravity, the thrusters were used to stabilize the spacecraft in it's final orbit. We went one and a half times around the Sun while this little bugger was floating around in space, making it's way to Venus.
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Me in our Magellan Control Room the day the Spacecraft arrived at Venus.
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[LizLemon85]

Nothing to feel stupid about. We all have different paths to take through life. Academia or college is not for everyone.

Thank you Lance, I was joking, I think "I helped to launch a spacecraft" is an extremely tough act to follow lol.

[stickyvicky]

That is so impressive Walt! Makes me horny!

[lance_s]

Nothing to feel stupid about. We all have different paths to take through life. Academia or college is not for everyone.

Thank you Lance, I was joking, I think "I helped to launch a spacecraft" is an extremely tough act to follow lol.

I hear you. Most of my work is writing dreary reports which allows some bureaucrat to put a check mark against a box and qualify for a bonus, and that's about it.

[WalterB]

Dang! Let's go talk spacecraft, Vicky!!!!

And, thank you, Liz. I've been lucky all thru life. This was certainly the highlight of all that. In addition to knowledge, hard work will do you good. When something doesn't work, try something else. But keep moving forward. Like I've mentioned, I learned radio electronics in the Air Force, and I liked it. So that's what I always came back to.

[Davest]

I can't match Walt, but if you've sat in a Herman Miller Aeron or Steelcase Criterion office chair, one of the parts I helped put into production was under your butt, LOL. I started college at RIT in the fall of 1980. My dad wasn't interested in helping with college, so I decided to wait until I really wanted to go (since I was paying for it myself) and dropped out after my first year. I took the next five years off to have the time of my life. Was nothing but a parasite off my mom's income for the first three years and then worked on the loading dock at the local K-Mart for the next two. After unloading trucks for two years, sitting on my butt in a classroom seemed like a good idea again. I graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering from UB (the State University of NY at Buffalo) in 1989 and got my PE (Practicing or Professional Engineer) certificate in 1998. I went to work for a company called Lord Corporation a month after graduating in 1989 and retired from there last summer after 31 years.

I worked on helping the company produce parts for everything from chairs to boat engines to agricultural equipment to track pads (that sit between the rail and the concrete in train stations and on bridges) to Mack trucks and eventually, in a non-engineering capacity, parts for airplanes and helicopters.

[WalterB]

That all sounds pretty exciting, Davest. You ever heard of "How it's Made"? It's on Sunday mornings on the Science Channel, if you get that. I think it's interesting as hell how all that stuff gets manufactured and put together.

Sounds like we kinda did the same thing. Started out, took a few years to enjoy life, then settled down. I remember thinking, "Walt you need to get your ass nailed down to a good job, or you're going to be too damn OLD to work, and not a dime to live on." So I got 5 years in with TRW in California (worth $79/month now, lol,) Then hired on with Martin Marietta in Denver for the next 17 years. Didn't make the full 20, but got a decent retirement. So, with everything considered, I lucked out and am doing decently.