Who Am I and Why am I Here?

A Writer’s Life

I’ve always wanted to write… I used to fantasize about being a famous writer sitting in a coffee house hearing bits of conversation and weaving them into my latest novel.

In my career as an engineer and project manager, I did a fair amount of writing and even had a couple of articles published, one in college and another later on. I wrote many reports and tried to make them interesting. I took an English for Technical Writer’s course and did well at it.

All along I read. My earliest memories include my mother reading to me: The Little Engine that Could, Mother West Wind, Old Brer Rabbit, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and many, many others. She’d read Heidi and I’d have to have my milk and cheese.

Reading fueled my imagination, which I used daily as my dog Blackie and I would skip around “The Hill” jumping from rock to rock, climbing every cedar, juniper and pine tree around.

Growing up in a small, logging community in northeastern California in the middle of the last century, I learned to entertain myself. Only when I turned 5 and began going to the “picture show,” did I learn that there was entertainment other than books, the radio and my own imagination.

But books. Oh how I loved books. I always had a box of them beside my bed. Later, as I got older, that turned into a box of comic books under the bed. All were dog-eared and tattered from constant use and abuse. Only the Mother West Wind set survived intact. My daughter has it on her shelf today.

The photo shows my very first book, a 1946 edition of Nursery Rhymes that has been taped together. I knew those rhymes by heart, but I still loved having them read to me, over and over. I can’t imagine how bored my mother must have been with the constant repetition. Still, at bedtime, she’d always asked what story I wanted to hear. Then she’d read it as if for the first time. The woman was a saint to put up with me.

I’m a slow, plodding reader. I cannot skip over words. I can only skim when doing research and looking for some particular information. I tried to learn speed reading several times, but the habits are too deeply entrenched. So I plod along enjoying the taste, the sound and the feel of each word. I love to see the phrases and how words are strung together. To savor them, to hear how they sound. What wonderful pictures they paint in my mind.

Reading on the screen or on my Kindle, I can click a word and get a definition. That slows me even more, but I don’t care. I love books and articles with words I must look up, not many, but one or two per page is nice. I like for what I read challenge me; to introduce me to new ideas. Most books I have are highlighted and decorated with numerous underlines and marginal notes.

As with most men and women today, my life has revolved around my family and my career.

After a couple of years studying engineering at UC Berkeley (affectionately known as Cal), I enjoyed a brief stent working for Lockheed Missile and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California. There I learned about solid-state circuitry.

Semiconductors had just come upon the scene and were replacing electronic tubes in many sophisticated devices. This made small-scale circuits possible. The circuits of the missile guidance system I worked comprised 3-dimensional arrays. The connections were welded under a microscope, and then the whole circuit was tested, potted to protect it from vibration and moisture, and tested again before installation in the guidance control module.

After Lockheed, I joined the Air Force. They sent me to basic training followed by technical training as a medical admin specialist. (Leave it to the military to place people into careers that have little or no relationship to their past experience. That didn’t bother me. I was looking for a change and adventure.) The Air Force assigned me as an administrative clerk to the hospital at Tachikawa Air Force Base in a western suburb of Tokyo.

Wanting to further my education and get accepted into the Officer Education and Commissioning Program (AECP), I studied English and other subjects at night. Thanks to the University of Maryland and the military, classes were free. I took full advantage of that and finished the elective courses I needed.

In my spare time I showed movies on the hospital wards at night. This paid me a few dollars and allowed me to see movies for free, though seeing the same ones over and over got old fast.

I also taught English to a group of young Japanese men and women at the Lutheran Service Center just off base. There I met a young Japanese lady named Yoko Asami. One year later, she became my wife.

Yoko and I have been married 52 years and have two children (Bob and Laura) and one grandson, Ethan. The kids are both married. Ethan (14) is our son’s son.

After two years in Japan, I returned to the States to study Photographic Science at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. Completing the requirements took two years. I then went to Texas for 3 months of Officer Training School followed by an assignment to Eglin AFB where I managed the testing of photographic equipment and supplies.

Air Force life bored me, so I took my leave after two years and went to work for 3M in St. Paul, Minnesota. My first job saw me traveling to photographic processing facilities in various parts of the country. I’d help with technical issues and look for ways to improve the processes and cut costs. I loved the work, but the traveling was hard on the family.

Later I worked in another division of 3M as a product development engineer on a line of large format reader-printers. These large machines produced engineering-drawing-sized prints from microfilm and microfiche. That job required me to travel to Japan several times each year, an aspect my wife and I dearly loved. She accompanied me on some of the trips.

After 15 years with 3M, I decided to strike out on my own. My wife and I started a Japanese Patent translation business. We worked as a team. She translated the text and I proofed it and did the graphics and formatting. We worked together out of our home for twenty years. Now we marvel that our business not only fed us and kept a roof over our heads but allowed us to send two kids to college.

At the ripe old age of 62, I was invited to join the Technical Communications translation group in a major medical device company. I managed the translations of technical literature into 15 languages. Since the company had a steady stream of new devices and updates, we kept busy creating new and revised documents.

Retiring in the Fall of 2011, my wife and I began fulfilling a life-long desire to travel. To date we’ve spent 371 days on the road and taken 31 major trips, including several to Japan and a couple to Mexico. My 92-year-old aunt has dubbed us “The Gad-Abouts,” a tag I dearly love.

Since retiring, I’ve spent many hours catching up with friends on Facebook, some of whom I’ve known since high school. One of the friends I met again on Facebook is Rasheed Hooda, who introduced me to Holly Jahangiri and later to Medium. You may recognize them as fellow Medium/Illumination writers.

Rasheed suggested that I join Illumination as a writer, so I did. And, as they say, the rest is history.

At this writing, I’ve only been on Medium a month, but in that time I’ve met many interesting people and have had a lot of fun. I’m having a ball reading what others write, doing what I can to encourage them, and writing a little myself.

To see my words not only in print but also read by others is a great thrill. I do love getting feedback through claps and comments. But to post a comment and spark a bit of discussion, that gladdens my heart the most.

The one thing I’ve always found lacking in books and magazines is the ability to interact with the author. Sometimes I want to yell “Right On!” Other times it is more like WTF. To have the ability to reach out and say something or ask a question, that’s the cat’s meow. It opens up a whole new dimension, and is something a book or magazine can never do.

Whenever I read something that speaks to me, I love to leave a comment. And on Illumination, I find a wealth of well-written poems, stories and articles on a vast array of topics. I’d love to read them all, but time just does not allow it. My wife constantly reminds me that I must take more breaks.

But I become so enchanted with reading and writing that I lose track of time. I need to set an alarm to remind myself to come up for air.

Thanks to Medium and Illumination, at the age of 75, I can call myself a “professional writer.” I’ve actually received my first payment for work I’ve done as a writer/encourager. Hallelujah! I’m on Cloud 9!

So, Dr Mehmet Yildiz this is my bio. I hope it gives you, my fellow Illuminators and my other Medium friends a better idea of who this Bob Jasper is.

Questions and comments always welcomed.

Happy Reading, Writing and Connecting!

The following stories also tell a little about me and people I knew growing up. The one missing is my father. I’ll tell you more about him in a future story.