I’ve always felt that I could be a columnist (not a communist, although I have been accused of leaning left). This perhaps unfounded confidence stems, no doubt, from the egocentric belief that the world will benefit from my opinions, which I have never been shy about voicing through other means. So when Steve introduced the APPX Blog, and encouraged the employees to write about whatever they wanted, well, I figured this was the opportunity I was waiting for. And what you, our audience, were waiting for as well, even if you didn’t realize it.

The challenge for real columnists, of course, is to come up with something worth reading in time for the deadline of whatever publication they write for. Our APPX Blog is more flexible in that regard, but I’ll try to post something at least 2-3 times a week, maybe more often than that. After all, I owe it to my loyal readers. I do have loyal readers, don’t I?

So, where do we start? I don’t want to use up my list of potential topics too soon, so maybe I’ll just provide a brief bio, as a way of giving you an idea of who I am. Here are ten bullet points to begin with. Perhaps I’ll come up with another ten in a future blog …

1. I was born in New York City, and raised in the Long Island suburbs, in the town of Bethpage, where the US Open was played a few years ago. But I never played golf growing up, and still haven’t figured out how to do so with any level of ability.
2. I’m a graduate of State University of New York at Binghamton, formerly known as Harpur College, now called Binghamton University. Unlike most of the folks around here, my alma mater had no football team.
3. Nonetheless, I’m a big sports fan, and watch little else on TV. I especially enjoy hockey and football.
4. I worked in radio for a few years, had a lot of fun, didn’t make much money.
5. Callers to APPX Software often speak first to my wife, Sue (or Steve’s wife, Brenda). Sue and I have been married for 28 years.
6. We lived in Syracuse, New York for 20 years, before an opportunity to join APPX Software was presented to me in late 1999.
7. Our daughter Kate is a junior at Florida State University, where they do indeed have a football team, although (a) she doesn’t go to the games, and (b) we don’t talk a lot about it, because this is a Gators-dominated office.
8. Two months after getting married, I was invited to join a local Rotary club, and Rotary has been an important part of my life ever since. That will be the subject of future blogs, I’m sure.
9. Brush with celebrity - I share a name with the tall, red-haired announcer on the Late Show with David Letterman. He and I are both Alan Kalter, although unrelated. I got to meet him a few years ago, when we were in NYC exhibiting at a LinuxWorld Conference. He sends me Seasons Greetings cards each year.
10. My title at APPX Software is Vice President - Reseller Services. But, as in many small companies, I have the opportunity to perform a variety of different functions. Some are marketing-related, some administrative-related, and a few technical-related, although everyone seems to shudder when I start pushing buttons.

That’s it for today. Unless the entire APPX blog community, or Steve, objects, I’ll write again soon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 9:44 am and is filed under Al. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.