About Stephen M. Watts (aka. Reader458)

My wife Julie and I are the proud parents of 3 adult children.  So far, we also have 1 grandchild!  We are extremely proud of each -  they are all unique and care deeply about our world.  We  recently became “empty nesters” and our children are scattered pretty much across the country much like the rest of our family.  The good news is all have been very much involved in online activities so we have lots of ways to keep in touch.  Our children’s trials and tribulations online and offline would constitute multiple volumes if written – as I am sure is true with many (most?) children.

I was employed with Texas Instruments (TI) as an engineering and operations professional for nearly 31 years and took advantage of an early retirement incentive offer in February of 2009 to pursue other interests.  The good news and the bad news is that my interests are diverse.  We’re not in a position to retire (as in exist without income) for good, so that narrows the relevant range of my interests significantly at least for now.

We established a family business in mid-2007 as a platform for business experimentation.  We’ve pursued online educational approaches for primary school participants (prior to mid-2007), online family history (also primarily prior to mid-2007), use of technology to enhance the quality of life of the elderly/handicapped, and most recently have been pursuing an approach to help individuals manage/share/enhance their online identities.  As Julie appears to be addicted to family history activities, we are also continuing to pursue this avenue using a more traditional approach (vs. our more radical ideas on how to do this).  She’s not alone in her interest, so “re-engineering’ the family history “process” may just come later.

I attended Iowa State University for the first 2 years of my Electrical Engineering degree pursuit.  I subsequently received my Bachelor of Science in Electrical (Computer) Engineering in 1982 from the University of Houston while employed with TI as a part of their Engineering Development Program.  TI also afforded me the opportunity to complete my Executive MBA with Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1996.

I exercise fairly consistently to maintain my health.  I have read widely and continue to do so.  I have a passion for computers and technology and believe we are only just scratching the surface on what can be accomplished in the area.  As I have claimed previously in this BLOG, I enjoy writing, and have nurtured a long-standing desire to be an author which I may well satisfy at some point – we’ll see.