My name is Jim Bale. First of all I would like to say welcome to this web site and thanks for visiting. I hope that you find this site to be insightful, interesting, and valuable. I am the creator of The Southern California Tradeshow and Convention Workers web site (this web site). I am a huge Blues Music fan so I created a website dedicated to the Blues. Check it out. I also have three or four of my own personal sites hanging around in various locations on the web. All of my sites were created using Web Page Maker, as the primary WYSIWYG editor. I use Microsoft Notepad++ for editing raw HTML code, Paint Shop Pro to create just about 99% of my graphics (except for the borrowed ones) and CuteFTP for uploading the files. All products that I recommend highly. Again, thanks for visiting my web sites. I hope you enjoy them.
I was born in Detroit Michigan in 1955. I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. I was adopted at the age of 2 months and 3 weeks by Jim and Dolly Bale. My name at birth was Robert Francis Cooper. Once I was adopted, my name was changed to reflect my new family. I do not know my birth parents or much about them except that my birth Mother was only 16 years old and un-married when I was born. My adoptive father was a police officer in the city of Pontiac, Miwhen I was adopted. When I was around 7 years old, my Dad decided that a move out west would be beneficial for his family. So my parents packed up me, my younger Brother, John and my younger Sister, Mary, and moved all the way to Palm Springs, Ca. Moving from Michigan to Palm Springs was like going from the freezer into the oven.
About 5 years later my Dad got his first job as Chief of Police. It was in the state of Wyoming. So again off we all went. To Sheridan Wyoming. After about 4 years my Dad was offered a Chiefs job in the city of Sierra Madre, Ca. He accepted the position and off we went again, this time back to California. After a few years in Sierra Madre he was offered the Police Chiefs job in the city of Whittier. At least this move was a lot closer and we were staying in the state of California where I have been ever since.
(Update) On August 31, 2004, My Pop passed away while snorkeling off of an island near Tahiti where he and my Mom were vacationing with friends. Let me just say that he was absolutly my hero and my roll model for life and I miss him so much and think about him every single day. He was only 76 years old. There were still a lot of good years left for his Grand Children and Great Grand Children to get to know their Grandpa and Great Grandpa.
After I graduated from High School in 1974, I joined the U.S.Army. I did my Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, My Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Lee Virginia and then went on to Furth Germany for my permanent duty station. Furth is right outside of Nurnburg. I loved living in Germany and especially loved Christmas in Germany. I would love to go back for a visit some day and take my kids. We will have to see if that ever happens. I was Honorably Discharged in 1976.
I have worked in the Trade Show and Convention industry in Southern California since 1981. I mainly work in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas but I have also worked in different places around the country such as,Reno NV, Charlotte NC, Houston TX, Boston Ma, San Francisco CA, Sacramento CA, Santa Clara, CA, Dallas Tx, Las Vegas NV, San Diego CA, Phoenix AZ, Denver, Co, Charleston WV, Memphis & Nashville, TN. and Salt Lake City, UT. But like the old saying goes, "There's no place like home".
I am in the freight end of the Tradeshow business which makes me a member of that grand old institution known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union. Ah yes, picket lines, mob hits, embezzling pension funds. Grand old traditions that will probably live on forever. I have been a member of the Teamster Union for over 37 years.
I have had some of my stories and writings published in different Trade Magazines and Newspapers. You can also read some of them on this website. More will be coming. They are not real interesting to anyone that is not involved in this industry but if you work in Trade Shows, you will understand and get what I am saying.
Yes, I would love to get paid for creating web sites or working in a desktop publishing field, but my life took a different route and here I am. I'm fairly happy but because of the way things turned out in my life, I now spend a lot of time doing what I like to do, for free. Which is creating Web Sites. I call it a "Hobby". Some folks have a different name for it though. They call it an "Obsession". Oh well, they say apples, I say oranges.
Believe it or not, these sites do cost money to erect and maintain and they also take a lot of time, especially when you have a site such as this one that requires constant updating. That's why it is so important for you, as site visitors, to click on the advertisment banners and buttons that you see on my pages. (like the one on the left for Amazon.com) These banners are the only way that I can get any kind of return on my investment in this web site. These banners pay me a small amount of money when they are clicked. And I mean a very small amount. So the more you click on them, the faster is adds up. So when you need to do a little shopping, check here first and use my banners. This will help out a lot. Thanks.
We need all Union Members to have access to the internet and the vast amounts of information that is available to everyone. All of you Decorators and Teamsters alike should go get yourselves a P.C., or a Mac. It doesn't really matter. Just get connected. If your waiting for computer prices to fall, quit waiting. Now you can get a great P.C. for under $500 . By not having access to the Internet, you and your family are missing a wealth of knowledge that can benefit you in business, school and at home. It's probably the greatest gift that you could give to your family. Next to getting sober.
My computer education has been non formal to say the least. In fact, I failed to make it through my "Introduction to Computers" course at Rio Hondo College back in 1978. Mostly due to boredom. I can only listen to theory for so long before I start to snore. I did manage to learn keypunch while in the U.S. Army in 1974. The Army has a way of teaching you things that stick with you. But keypunch was soon phased out for the revolutionary microprocessor.
It's never enough, but this will have to do, (For now). Thank you for taking the time to read this short little bio of myself. If you have any suggestions or comments about this site or anything else for that matter, please feel free to E-mail me. Thanks for visiting and I hope that you enjoy my web sites. And for those of you who are viewing this from a friends computer or from a library, just remember, the future is now! Don't let it pass you by! And quit looking over my shoulder! Goodbye.
