July 20, 2017

Back to remote work

Here we are halfway through 2017 where i will try to get into the habit of writing more often in this blog.

Family life is good, minus a few health issues i wont get into here. Since the last post i returned to Outbox for another 6 month stint, followed by 6 months at Belron Canada as a functional analyst. Now i'm taking some time off to get my online presence in order (company website, blog, LinkedIn) and working on updating my coding skills (mainly Bootstrap and responsiveness so my web apps work well on mobile). Also i have finally decided to go full remote and only accept work i can do online with minimal to no fixed office work. I've done it on and off for a few years already but now we have decided to move out of the big city to live closer to nature and travel more.

This means a shift in my work contacts (most of them are Montreal office based job recruiters) and finding alternative revenue streams. I'm building up a list of remote work job search sites that have potential and making contacts with like minded entrepreneurs. Also i'm looking at drop shipping as a revenue source.

The next month or two won't be easy but i'm not one to shy away from a challenge!

March 27, 2016

2016 already, the future is here...

I really need to write more often in this blog, 4 years since the last time!

Where to begin... got a baby boy now who is 1 year old, last one i promise, 3 kids is enough for me! We're home-schooling them (and sometimes road-schooling too) and it's working out great so far. The girls are ahead of the curve and our little guy is all action so far, he's too much fun.

We did a road trip in the autumn of 2014, bought a camper and hitched it to our minivan and drove around the USA for 3 months. Check it out here (funketravels.blogspot.com), look for the posts in 2014. I worked on the Nolinor contract during the trip, visiting the local Starbucks mostly for coffee and internet connections while my girls did their lessons with my wife in the camper. Worked on average 15 hours a week, the rest was driving and admiring the many fun places to visit in the USA!

Right now i'm between contracts, having finished a 7 month contract as a Functional Analyst at Outbox Technologies (AXS). It was parachuted into a fast growing company with barely any support since the director of dev that hired me quit two weeks after i got there with no replacement planned... big thanks to the project manager for me helping out. Not easy but i made  it work and helped out the team sort out their documentation and make their work process smother. I worked as best i could with the team in the Los Angeles office, coordinating the work of the design team, the product manager and the developers there. It was challenging and often frustrating, but that's the kind of work i'm attracted to it seems!

I finished the contract 6 weeks ago, since then i spent some time at home with the kids and 2 weeks ago we landed in Costa Rica for 5 weeks of sun and adventure. See the same link as above to find the blog posting for this trip, updates every few days.

Well that's it for now, taking advantage of a rare speed burst in the internet connection here at the house we are renting.

April 3, 2012

April already!

Time to start looking for my next contract. Will be finishing the FDS system for Nolinor by the end of this month, then strait to the next contract. This time looking for some business analysis work, hopefully for a fun company not to far from home. If anyone is actually reading this blog and need a seasoned business analyst give me a shout by email or phone!

March 1, 2012

Winter is back!

After a lukewarm winter and a spring that seemed within reach, winter is back in force... not very cold (didn't even crack -20C this year... pfff) but lotsa fresh snow these last few days. Oh well, you can never count on winter being over until the end of march anyways...

Been busy since the last post, started another contract in october with Nolinor, this time to build them a Flight Data System. Very cool stuff, and will help their operations immensely. The SMS is doing well but a revision might be in order this year, hope so, they are a fun client and it's nice to see those 737s up close :-)

Several projects are in the works here at the Funke Ideas headquarters, some might even make it to a browser near you later this year! Speaking of headquarters, i've finally finished the basement office and work there 4 days a week (and weekends sometimes). Got all i need down here, even a treadmill to keep me in shape and give me a welcome break from staring at this screen all day... i'm hoping to do some 10K or more races this year, if i can keep up the training, not always easy!

April 19, 2011

Been a while...

Alright, haven't blogged in a long while... so here is where i'm at: got a second wonderful daughter last year, working now on two contracts (MD Physician Services and Nolinor Aviation) and continuing renovations on our house... busy busy!

The full time contract at MD Physician Services is all about business analysis for their websites and physician centric intranets (they are a Canadian Medical Association company). They offer financial services, drug and general medical databases, eLearning tools, etc. I deal mainly with the business people in the Ottawa office, the dev team here in Montreal and some of the third party suppliers. It's an interesting view into the medical industry and i get to work with some fun people.

The second contract, part time, is for Nolinor Aviation where i've built them an intranet that implements a Security Management System (SMS). This basically permits employees of the airline to fill in reports about incidents occurring on the job. Managers can then analyze the reports and set up appropriate mesures to correct the problems reported. Some statistics, user management and data entry is also available to directors and admins. Pretty cool project for some nice folks.