Who is Charles Harmon?

Who is Charles Harmon? He is a senior citizen. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, his home has been in Southern California since he was 18.

It seems like mostly young people are on the web or internet. Let me phrase it another way – many older people like me don’t want to have anything to do with the web or don’t know much about it or use it themselves. That was my mom and dad. But in later years we did get my mom to use a Mac a few years after it came out.

I am the exception when it comes to older people. I got involved with the web when it started back in the mid-90s. As a programmer and a business partner I created my first website in 1997 with Microsoft Front Page 97.

I’ve been heavily involved in computers since 1964. Originally as an assembler for a very short time, then as a student, a digitizer, technician and lastly as a programmer. Now as a website creator and owner.

A quick 21 step rundown of some of my life. Is this a crazy and confused life or what?

1. At age 16 I talked around the world on my ham radio(Amateur Radio station) in late 1950s – 1970s.
2. My southern Army sergeant didn’t like me, being from California and the wrong race, so he busted me!
3. Well I got back at him with my own top secret military communications vehicle and locked him out.
4. It was exciting jumping out of airplanes 38+ times as a paratrooper in the Army’s 101st Airborne.
5. I repaired TV, radios, other electronic equipment in high school repair shop.
6. Knewing electronics in high school electronics, I assembled electronic test equipment instead.
7. I turned down a prime job as Air Traffic Controller when I was 21.
8. Went to 7 colleges and universities – taking classes I liked, not needed.
9. I was president of the Amateur Radio Club at Pasadena City College.
10. I got/have a rare lifetime 1st Class Radio Telephone License from the FCC in 1968.
11. Oh my gosh! I turned down a job as broadcast engineer at a local radio station.
12. I was a computer operator for 4 years and quit to graduate from college.
13. I left a good Sr. electronics technician job to become a programmer/analyst trainee.
14. To increase my salary I switched jobs 3 times to double my salary so I could qualify to buy my 1st home.
15. I Programmed in PL/I for Southern California Edison for the first solar power station.
16. I created and tested/sold a database for thoroughbred horseracing systems in the 90s.
17. Trading stocks, commodities(futures) and options in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s was fun.
18. I bought 7 houses with “no money down” techniques. Maybe next is building a house in the Philippines.
19. I had over 80 websites I created for myself – most for some of the domain names I had.
20. Now it’s time to make $$ from a travel site, a quote site, and a cybersecurity site.
I’m on the 21st step and I will tell you about it in late 2020 (oops Covid-19) or 2022.

In early 2000 I got involved with my younger brothers when minicomputers first came out. They are obsolete now (minicomputers, that is). I wrote a series of Thoroughbred horseracing programs that picked winning horses. However, both my brothers died shortly thereafter and I decided not to sell them like I was planning.

I do have one program I wrote in Visual Basic that took me about a year to research and write. It has great promise, I believe, because it would pick longshots that probably few others would consider. I’ve personally made good money betting on longshot horses, so this was a labor of love project.

But… I never had a chance to test it and unless someone is interested in mystic or ancient “science” it might be too much for them to believe it has any merit. It is based on this ancient science, and with some common sense and a few selective rules it might be a real money maker. But I’ll need to find someone interested in horse race betting to test it, after I get it out of my “no time to pursue” file. So this has been on hold since 2004.

Finally about 2003 or 2004 I decided to give the internet a try myself and I’ve never looked back.

Fast forward to today, Mar 4, 2013. My mom’s birthday had she lived, but she too passed away about a year before my two brothers.

Fast forward again to Jan 28, 2020 and we’re, my partner and I are looking forward to opening our new Shopify store featuring custom products for dog lovers. Well this never happened due to Covid-19. There was no or slow delivery for products we wanted to sell. Well better luck next time.

I could write about a lot since I’ve had so many experiences over my lifetime, but I won’t. I did have a 5 page mini biography up for several years, but took it down some time ago. It had too much personal information on it. It was sort of like a resume, of which I’ve written many over the years as I had a lot of jobs and was a Programmer consultant for a number of years. Below replaces my biography and actually has more info on who is Charles Harmon but in a different form.

This list is sort of like a list of things to do before one dies, but are the actual things I did or accomplished. They were not generally planned in advance, but just kind of happened during periods of my life. They are not necessarily in order, but mostly follow certain time periods in my life.

Who is Charles Harmon: Schools and education (partial list)

Wilson Jr. College (Chicago, IL)
Pasadena Jr. College (Pasadena, CA)
University of Wisconsin
Austin Peay State University (Tennessee)
UCLA (Downtown LA, Westwood, CA)
California State University – Los Angeles
Riverside Community College (Riverside, CA)

Large Corporations (I worked as a programmer/analyst, consultant, or senior Electronics Technician)

(The few smaller companies I worked for are omitted)

Transamerica Insurance – Programmer
Western Bancorp – Programmer
Carte Blanc – Programmer
Xerox EOS – QC Technician
Bendix Electrodynamics – QC Technician
Hoffman Aviation – Senior Electronic Technician
General Dynamics – Contract Programmer
Lockheed – Programmer
Sony Corp – Contract Programmer
Deutsch Corp – Programmer
Southern California Edison – Programmer
Federal Reserve Bank – Contract Programmer
Los Angeles County – Contract Programmer
Tetra Tech – Computer Digitizer

(my start in working with computer programs and graphics)

Optical Research Associates – Computer operator ( a small company that got me interested in programming and computers)

I programmed in COBOL mostly, but also some C, BASIC, Visual Basic, PL/I, HTML, plus some obsolete languages.

Also I programmed a little bit of Assembly Language for ATM’s when they first came out.

Age 13 – 16

I liked to draw and paint using Tempera paints. I got good at drawing people’s faces and also liked to paint rockets and space scenes.
Reading was fun so I read all the books in the local library on electronics and astronomy.
High school electronics – I already knew most of it, so I and another Amateur Radio Opreator repaired electronic appliances in our high school repair shop.
Later when attending college, they offered the same course I had completed in high school. So I went into computer science since computers were new and I thought they would be an upcoming popular invention.
I followed the new inventions of the maser, the laser, transistors, semiconductors, IC’s (integrated circuits, i.e. chips) and almost everything electronic.

Age 17 – 19

I got my General Class Amateur Radio License and still have it over 50 years later.
I built many radio transmitters from scratch and kits.
Was a member of the Civil Air Patrol where I talked to people over shortwave from an airplane.
In 1957 I built a pocket transistor radio when transistors were only a few years old.
I talked to people in over 100 countries over my transmitters using voice and CW (code).
I operated (with a partner) my high school electronics repair business. We repaired radios, TVs, electric appliances, etc.

Age 20 – 22

In the military I operated a mobile radio station where I handled secret coded messages.
I jumped out of airplanes (C-130’s, Caribou’s, and C119’s). Was on a list to jump from a helicopter (HUEY’s) for a year, but when the call came to jump I was in Chicago for the weekend and decided not to take the 11 hour drive back to the post. I was lucky. The helicopter crashed and several people (all of them) died in the crash.
I operated the Post’s (Army base) Amateur radio station handling phone patches for the military men overseas who wanted to talk back home.
After I got out of the military, I did the same thing but from my home in Pasadena, CA where I had friends talk to their families in Argentina and Peru over phone patches.
Regularly I talked from my car and home to New Zealand, Australia, and South Pacific Islands over my shortwave Ham radios.
Sometimes I even talked to people in Russia during that Cold War period over my radios on phone and code.

Age 23 – 31

Got my first job, assembling computer parts for Burroughs mainframe computers.
Went back to college for years – day school, night school, part-time, full-time. I took 2 yrs. of Real Estate, 2 yrs. of Computer Science, art, engineering, etc.
Got my First Class Radiotelephone License. I can operate commercial radio and TV transmitters anywhere in the USA. I have a rare lifetime license.
Graduated from Jr. College with a Computer Science Degree.

Who is Charles Harmon

Got my 2nd Job as a precision assembler assembling mirrors for oscillographs.

My 3rd job was a computer digitizer for a geophysics engineering company.
Participated in laser experiments and built my own neon/argon cw laser in the 1960s.
My 4th job was a computer operator for optical research engineers.
Designed their logo and brochure which they used for many years.
Bought my 1st Corvette – a new 1969 with 350ci / 350 hp engine
A year later bought my 2nd Corvette – a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray … which I sold 11 years later for a $10,000+ profit.
Ran computer programs to analyze rocks from the moon.

Operated FAX machines in 1968 when they were new back in those days.
Attended UCLA night school. Took Accounting and business law.
Graduated From California State University, Los Angeles.
Learned FORTRAN, already knew BASIC, COBOL, etc.
Job #5 was a QC technician at Xerox in Pomona, CA where they made the first night lights for helicopters and military, that division was sold to Bendix Electrodynamics.
On my 6th job at Bendix Electrodynamics I became a QC Technician testing accelerometers (used as a speedometer) on rockets for early space missions.

Age 32 Up

Quit my computer operator job to finish my last class at Cal State. Couldn’t get a programmer job after graduation so I resorted to betting on horses (I had done 2 years research on that by that time).
Became a Senior Electronics Technician my 7th job, analyzing and repairing aircraft navigation computers for jets.
By good luck I was offered my 8th job, a computer/analyst trainee job at TransAmerica Corporation Worked there 2 yrs, but it started a 30+ year career as a programmer/analyst.
Learned PL/I at Southern California Edison. Worked with engineers with programming for the first solar power system in the Mojave desert.
Took one of the first classes on Black Holes at UCLA. Black Hole theory was new at that time. That class was the best, most interesting class in my life.
Attended many real estate seminars, but first I borrowed $600 on my credit card and attended Al Lowery’s RE Seminar. Two months later I bought my first house – “no money down”. Then bought six more houses/townhomes over the next few years under the same terms – using none of my own money.

Continued researching (and betting) on horseracing systems until 1995 using mainframes and PCs. I had some success, made money, many $1000s over the years. But this is an endeavor that requires constant learning and adapting in order to make money. A very small percent of bettors can make money long term. It is definitely possible to make money betting on thoroughbreds, but it is a never ending battle to keep up with winning techniques.
Sold some of my horseracing research as a database. Published an article in a horseracing magazine.
I’ve traded stocks, commodities (Futures), and options, with some success overall, but definitely not up to my expectations.

2004 – to today (2021)

Created and managed over 80 of my own websites. Original websites were HTML, and then quickly changed to WordPress shortly after it came out.
I bought over 700 domain names and still have some parked at my registrar. Some have websites on them, others I took down.
I’ve built websites for others and manage websites for others plus paid programmers to build websites for me.
I have had at least a dozen PCs, 1 MAC, several laptops, several hand held BASIC computers, etc. over the years. Three computers sit on my desk right now.
See some aged domain names below For Sale.

There are a lot more things that I’ve done or forgotten to mention.

During those and later years I’ve had 3 Corvettes, 1 Porsche, 1 MG, 2 BMWs and about 20 other cars and a pickup truck.

Plus an SUV I’m driving right now. (I still have a 1989 Corvette and a 1997 BMW 328i Convertible). Next car might be a 2020 or 2021 Corvette or a Tesla.

More Recently

I’m working on this site (very slowly – April 2017) so some of the links/pages might be removed or changed location.
This site of mine is about people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Do you have a story to tell?
I’ve gone on two African safaris with Safari Kay.
My astronomy blog was taken down because I sold the domain name.
Removed about 700 posts from my Wish Good Luck site -thanks to Google penalizing that site. Google, as is typical, never said what the problem was and halted my AdSense on the site.
See some old comics and ads on my comic nostalgia website.
This site reviews PLR suppliers.
I put up a site about India.

This new site about colors replaces an old site.
Lastly, 2018 – 2021, I have the good fortune to have a great partner. We’ve created TravelESP.com plus WanderlustQuotes.com, revised WeddingFervor.com and my other blog Yolky.com.
~~We will soon be opening our new Shopify Store, LittleToeBeans selling custom T-shirts and other items for dog lovers.~~ Doggone it! Covid-19
I will build you a custom website. Contact me Here for a special offer.

That’s a very brief list of some of the things I have done. Not enough, but I gained a LOT of experience and knowledge in the process.

A Few of my Domains for Sale

I still have a lot of the domains I’ve accumulated over the years. Many are for sale. You might be interested in one for yourself. Contact me or click the name below or on the page where mentioned. You can also buy one from my sites where listed.

Note: Just the domain name WishGoodLuck and a limited number of articlees are For Sale, NOT the articles unless you are willing to pay at least 2 Grand for them.