The Robert Brawn Page

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

(If you link to a chapter, you may use the "Back" button on your browser to come back to this table of contents. You may also read the document from top to bottom without linking. But seriously, who does that anymore?)

Top of page Portrait Contents   <== (YOU ARE HERE) Recent News Childhood

School Church Career Music Investing

Family Favorite Quotes Acknowledgements Bottom of page

Other Related Pages:
(Each will open in a new window)

RECENT NEWS

Robert has launched his own consulting corporation!

I am now the "Principal Consultant" for Reconciling Business, Inc.   I wear several hats on my job, but I believe part of it is involved in proving that "Business Intelligence" is NOT a contradiction in terms!

Our spiritual journeys took an exciting turn in October of 2003 when we attended the Walk to Emmaus retreats. Since then, we have been much more active in our prayers and our devotional time, and we have been much more accutely aware of God's grace in our lives. In 2005, we had the pleasure of helping launch a new Emmaus Community in the South Bay Area.

Lisa and Robert are MARRIED !!!

We married on March 8th, 2003. The ceremony and reception were wonderful and we are delighted with our memories of the day. Heartfelt thanks to the many friends who helped us celebrate!

By the way, if you are struggling with your marriage, you are welcome to ask us about our good experiences with the Retrouvaille program. Or just look them up yourself at www.HelpOurMarriage.com.

I happily accept jobs performing live background music for various social events. My Online Flyer describes my rates and contact information. I also teach guitar lessons, to the extent that I have time available.

CHILDHOOD:

Yep, I had one. I am still a kid, by some definitions. I'm a native of California's Santa Clara County, and until my mid-40's, my only residential addresses outside of Silicon Valley were during my four-year stint at college. My parents sacrificed a lot to give my brother and me a very stable and supportive environment. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

The Good Samaritan United Methodist Church and it's Youth Fellowship group played a very large part in my childhood as well.

Another formative influence was the time I spent as a Boy Scout, especially while my father was the scoutmaster of my troop.

SCHOOL:

For those of you rooting around at Classmates.com, I graduated from Cherry Chase Elementary School in 1973, Mango Junior High School in 1975, and Fremont High School in 1979. All three of those schools are in Sunnyvale, CA, although Mango has since been renamed Sunnyvale Middle School.

After high school, I refused to grow up for a while -- my Peter Pan years. I stayed very involved at my church, started working a few jobs, and attended De Anza College for a few classes now and then.

Finally I became serious about my education, and started scoping out some colleges. In the course of a few different jobs, I shifted my career goal from electrical engineering to software, and I decided that I wanted to work for HP. There were several schools from which HP did a lot of hiring, and my clear choice was the California State University at Chico.

Chico was close enough that I could come home any weekend I wanted, but far enough away that I felt fairly independent. And it had a beautiful little campus and a friendly feeling community. The Computer Science program is very well respected, but it is also widely known that the students know how to party.

As it turns out, I didn't enjoy the parties very much -- too much alcohol-induced stupidity for me. So during the wildest party times, I could be found in a nearly-deserted computer lab, catching up my overdue programming projects. But I did have a social life, making many friends through my involvement in the Women In Computing Club and the Virtual Memory Social Society.

I also played live background music in a little cafe one year, and although it was the least paying job I've ever worked, in many ways it still shines as the most rewarding.

A few more details about the scholastic aspects of my time in Chico can be found in my resume.

I continue to take interesting classes from time to time, but the only post-graduate degree I'm close to is from traffic school.     :-)  

CHURCH:

After our relocation to the Puget Sound, we did a little bit of church shopping, and found ourselves a new church home at the Harbor Covenant Church. We're still newbies there, but we have already performed some music.

I attended the Good Samaritan United Methodist Church nearly continuously from before my birth to age 45. As a kid, I was very involved in the YF (Youth Fellowship), and Camp Celebration, as well as the Good Sam Singers and other musical endeavors. Good Sam is where I started working with sound systems. I was one of the recording engineers in the Sound Of Celebration Studios, also located at Good Sam church.

Good Sam was always open minded enough to accept me, in spite of my personal faith.

Lisa and I rejuvinated our faith journeys by attending the Walk to Emmaus retreats in late 2003. You are welcome to ask us about the program.

CAREER:

Between high school and college, I plugged chips into boards, did some chip layout design, programmed computers, administered databases, and taught the odd guitar lesson.

Although I had already done a bit of summer contracting there, I didn't become a regular Hewlett-Packard employee until July 1988, when I got my Computer Science degree. I started in Corporate Telecommunications and Office Systems (CTOS), which became Corporate Network Services (CNS). Then I transferred to Corporate Administration and Information Systems (CAIS), which got merged into Corporate Financial Reporting (CFR). Then I transferred to the Professional Services Organization (PSO), which re-org'd itself into HP Consulting (HPC).

In February 2000, I transferred into the Human Resources Information Technology (HR-IT) department at Agilent Technologies, the company recently spun-off from HP. There I developed and supported systems used to administer employee benefits. After surviving the first 3 rounds of lay-offs, I was laid off in January, 2003.

As of April Fool's Day, 2006, I am a "Senior Business Intelligence Consultant" for Agile Systems, LLC.   It's a little bit too early to tell exactly what my job entails, but I believe part of it will be involved in proving that "Business Intelligence" is NOT a contradiction in terms! It also involves too much travel.

I recently (2010) incorporated my own consulting firm, Reconciling Business, Inc.. In addition to being the company's Principal Consultant, I also do all of the small business administration and management work.

I am interested in keeping the door open for future opportunities. My resume has been updated to reflect my current employment. Please let me know if you would like me to work for you and travel less than I do now.

MUSIC:

I am eager to play background music during various social events, especially in the South Puget Sound area of Washington State. My online flyer is available at Robert.Brawn.name/LiveMusic/ and it shows my contact information and standard rates.

I enjoy playing the guitar. Perhaps I should use the plural, "guitars". As of early 2005, my collection consists of 3 electrics and 6 acoustics. In my opinion, Taylor is making the very best acoustic guitars available these days, including 5 of mine. If you're near San Diego, their factory tour is quite interesting.

My first solo CD is only half recorded and the project got stalled some years back. I plan to get back into the Sound Of Celebration Studios, but I'm not sure when. I did manage to get one CD-R out in extremely limited production. This was the result of a day of goofing around in the studio along with my brother, John (engineering; producing; and playing bass, piano and recorder), and a good friend of ours, David Wheeler (on oboe, English horn and recorder). I am particularly happy with the downloadable music tracks for "Aubrey" and "Bring A Torch, Jeannette Isabella". I hope you enjoy them.

Here's another music track. This was recorded live during a Sunday morning worship service at Good Sam Church. This track features my (then) girlfriend, Lisa, singing the lead; backup vocals by The Soul Sisters; and dueling guitars by Ben Liu and myself. It's called Our Father. [Many thanks to Chris Larson and Ted Larson for engineering, mixing, and producing!]

I enjoy playing several different styles of guitar music, but I am most proficient and happy when playing easy rock from the 70's. You know   --   all those songs that you don't admit you like, but when you hear them you smile and sing every single word. Especially the stuff made popular by James Taylor, the Eagles, Jim Croce, Loggins & Messina, and that whole genre. But I play a fair amount of Contemporary Christian music (especially when accompanying my wife's great vocals), and I dabble a little bit in light jazz.

INVESTING:

I have been actively trading stocks and stock options since May 1998. This particular avocation started with a Wade Cook seminar. The Wade Cook program was a great way to start learning, but it was also overly optimistic and very sales-oriented, so I recommend at least reading some other authors too. The book I like to recommend to people getting started is "Making a Living in the Stock Market" by Bob Eldridge (conveniently available by following this link to amazon.com, or at many other retailers). Bob also got his start from the Wade Cook program, but he has a slightly different approach that I liked.

I have been a co-founder, director, officer and/or employee of some small capital management corporations (Angel Inn Capital Management, for example), and a very small number of limited partnerships. Although I still fall under the "di minimus" exemption, I have studied for some state exams and would like to become a Registered Investment Advisor someday. I daydream about managing a small family of hedge funds, but I don't have the funds necessary to start the funds, if you know what I mean.

FAMILY:

This is my lovely wife, Lisa. She has two great kids, Sean and Christina. Here is a picture of Lisa and me next to the helicopter in which we toured around Maui before we were engaged. You can find photos of Sean and Christina in most of the albums in my photo gallery.

My parents are Mel and Arle Jean Brawn. They are directly responsible for most of the good things in my life, and unfortunately, a few of my bad habits as well.

My only sibling is John Brawn, who is a much better early adopter than me! If immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then my website sincerely flatters his. John has been kind enough to provide me with a sister-in-law, Joy, a nephew, David, and a neice, Elizabeth. John has also been a mentor in a lot of my favorite hobbies, and a consistent good friend.

The pre-Elizabethan-era family portrait below shows (from left to right) David, John, Joy, Mel, Arle and myself.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called 'cynicism' by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw

"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
Goethe

"Eye wreck ammend ewe dew knot trussed yore spell checker two fined awl yore miss steaks."
adapted from Brendon Hills

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."
Tom Watson

"Television: A medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well done."
Ernie Kovacs

"Life isn't meaningless; It just has a poor signal to noise ratio."
unknown

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
attributed to Elvis Costello

"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."
Goethe

"All's well that ends."
Mel Brawn

OK, those were my favorites. If you would like to see the rest of the quotes I have enjoyed enough to record, you may go visit my quotes page.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

I would like to acknowledge and thank each of the following...

Personal email may be sent to me at rbrawn@gmail.com.