Liz McGuire, as seen by Richard Ball, Motor Pool, U. S. Embassy, Moscow Russia, late 1991/early 1992. (Hair isn't buzzed anymore. Glasses are the same. Still use the coat in winter - don't sleep under it very often anymore, though.)

Known on the newsgroups as just "Liz."

(Actually, better known as Liz, the Goddess of Paradox) (I didn't write that part... Of course, I didn't delete it either... )


(Restarting after reading Denn's novella... )


Chapter 1: How Liz Was Prepped For Paradox

I was born in 1969. The next 17 years were mostly irrelevant as far as my relationship with Paradox is concerned. The only relevant bits are: I enjoyed math classes, I believe my Spanish classes were useful (I think knowing a foreign language helps one learn coding), and I think some time in there, I discovered logic problems were really entertaining...

During my senior year in high school, I took a programming class. We learned Basic on Apple IIc's (I think). All I remember is that it was fun (we wrote 'programs' to do neat things like drawing snowmen on the screen and playing music). Unfortunately, and as I recall, they didn't bother to teach us that one could do such things as a job...

When I graduated from high school, mom and dad got me an Epson 8088, with 640K of RAM and 2 5.25" floppies! I also got a software package which included a word processor, spreadsheet (I think), and a database program (which I promptly used to catalog my 45s). However, it was a copy of WordPerfect® 4.2 that I'll credit for teaching me the most useful things I learned on that computer.

The next four years were equally irrelevant to my Paradox future. My ACT scores in math were high enough that I didn't have to take any math classes, so I spent those four years forgetting all the algebra and trig I learned in high school. Instead, I studied Spanish and Russian, and while I don't use either anymore, they proved useful in getting me started with Paradox...

[Side Note: Studied Russian because of my love for spy stories and desire to write spy novels. Took the job I'm about to describe for reasons which, knowing that, should be obvious...]

[Irrelevant-to-Paradox Side Note: I got a decent camera before going to Moscow, because, after all, you don't go that far and not take pictures...]

After four years of college (didn't graduate), I went to work as a driver at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. Before long, I was put in charge of vehicle records. Previously, these existed on paper with some data in a 'word processor' on a Wang (as I recall). I immediately moved these records over to our lone DOS PC and WordPerfect.

Then, a little before my 1-year mark, I became assistant dispatcher at the same time as a new dispatcher took over from the previous one. Together we revamped the jobs, and in so doing decided life would be better if we didn't have to make up data for the financial reports, and the only way that would happen was if we dispatched on computer rather than with paper and pencil. So, we chatted with our boss who said 'we looked into that a few years ago, and there is no software for dispatching.' We returned to the office, sulked briefly, and then I informed my fellow dispatcher that all I needed was some database software, and we could make our own dispatching software. So, we called the embassy's MIS department and they installed a copy of dBASE for us. We made great progress with this, until we got stuck (I forget what the problem was). Of course, we called the MIS folk for help and as fate would have it, their dBASE expert was out, but their Paradox guru was in! And thus begins the fateful story of how Paradox chose me...

Chapter 2: How Paradox Chose Liz The First Time

"But our computer will only run DOS..."

"That's OK; I'll just bring you a new computer."

And so, the Paradox guru brought us a Windows-capable PC, Paradox® 1.0 and a bunch of really thick books (which we mostly ignored). In no time, we'd figured out how to make tables and were using them to dispatch. Before long we figured out how to make queries and reports, but couldn't see any use for forms, and the ObjectPAL manual was just plain frightening, so we ignored it. Over the course of the next two years, we dispatched from monthly tables, archived frequently, ran our financial reports in seconds rather than spending hours making up, I mean compiling, data by hand from paper and pencil logs, and made new 'systems' (ha!) for dispatching 'visits' (president, vice-president, secretary of state - those kinds of visits).

During this same time period, I got my first Windows-capable PC - a Gateway 2000 Colorbook (notebook) 486-SX, 33MHz, 170MB hard drive and 4MB of RAM (I added another 4MB before long). Using this and the computer in the office, I taught myself all about Windows 3.1, and a variety of Windows software.

[Irrelevant-to-Paradox sub-plot: I did a lot of picture taking during those three years (learned in the first few weeks that you never go anywhere without your camera). I also did a lot of travelling outside of Russia to some pretty photogenic locations. With the help of some photography magazines and my friend Jim Yanke, I became an avid amateur photographer, adding two more lenses to my equipment collection, and a number of pretty good photos. You can see some of the better ones on my web site.]


Chapter 3: How Paradox Chose Liz The Second Time

[Part left out of Chapter 2, but relevant: In late March/early April 1992, I bought two kittens.]

In late November 1994, I brought those two cats to America. A few months later, I moved into an apartment in a city 30 minutes north of where I wanted to live and in a complex I wouldn't have chosen except it was the only place I could find that would let me keep the two cats (and thus ends their relevance to Paradox).

After a good 6 months off (wasting most of the money I'd made in Moscow and not getting nearly enough done on my novel), I decided I'd better get a job. So I went out and applied for a bunch of administrative assistant type jobs (thinking the organizational skills learned in Moscow would be suited for this). It so happened that one of the places (not my first choice) was using Paradox for various project accounting purposes. They were also a software localization company. My Paradox experience and my two foreign languages made me suited for this, and they offered me the job, which I accepted.

After a few months, business started to pick up, and they needed more people to work in the software localization department. My boss and the head of that department both felt like I had the required skills, and so I transferred over to software localization and began a long relationship with Lotus Education classes and Lotus Notes in particular.

Then in the summer of 1996 (less than a year after I was hired), my boss commissioned me to design a timesheet database in Paradox to help us keep better track of employee hours. In the process of doing this, I decided I needed to learn ObjectPAL, so I started with the tutorial in chapter 2 of the Guide to ObjectPAL (version 7-16 book, I think), and then proceeded to read almost every page of that book.

While designing this timesheet database, I ran into a problem: I needed to have a drop-down list with only the job numbers for the selected client, but I couldn't find a way to filter the dataSource table. So, first I contacted a consultant who did some work for the project accounting department, and he told me I needed to run a query to get the job numbers (didn't go into much detail). I couldn't believe it was that difficult, so I searched the internet and discovered the newsgroups! I asked my question there, and Brian Bushay gave me the answer - query out the job numbers for the selected client, and use the answer table for the list's dataSource. Well, I still didn't believe it had to be that difficult (sorry, Brian), but since I couldn't find any other way of doing it, that's the method I went with. (For you newbies, yes, this is the way to do it, though it can also be done via a tcursor and scan - check out Kasey Chang's article on this.)

For the next two and a half years (or so), I participated more and more on the newsgroups (until I was addicted and reading every post), and I continued to design databases in Paradox for this software localization company. And then, in December of 1998, I was laid off...


Chapter 4: How Paradox Chose Liz The Third Time

After being laid off, I soaked the company for a bit of money and some Paradox software (hey, they said they weren't gonna use it anymore) in exchange for training one of their foreign offices on localizing Lotus Notes databases (guess they never considered that I was the only one left who knew how to do this ). And I started looking for a new job.

I searched high and low for another Paradox job (don't know why I didn't consider inquiring on the newsgroups), but didn't find one. So in February of 1999, I accepted what was basically a tech support job at a large-scale cookie manufacturer. The cookies were good, the brownies were better, but tech support was not what I wanted to be doing.

Then, in late March (I think) of 1999, someone I'd worked with at the localization company called me and told me they were looking for another Paradox developer! I went through the interview process, landed the job, and I'm still there.

The best thing about this job is that I get to use the Corel Web Server OCX and Paradox to create and run the data-aware section of the company's web site. Designing for the web is different than designing for a LAN, and the challenges make things fun and interesting. With luck, I'll get to add a lot more functionality to the site.

Oh, I also get to have some of my photos hanging on the gallery walls (the bottom floor of the office is also an art gallery), once the new addition to the building is complete.


Chapter 5: How Paradox Chose Liz A Husband

In March-ish of 2001, Tony McGuire contacted me and asked if I'd like to go in with him on a web site for Paradox users. I said sure and we commenced emailing back and forth with our ideas. Somewhere around that time Tony invented PIM (Paradox Instant Messenger) and we spent hours every evening chatting. Then one day in August 2001, while chatting on PIM, I jokingly invited Tony for some German Chocolate cake and a few minutes later he gave me the flight number and asked for directions. He showed up two days later, met my parents, had some cake, we talked for a couple hours and a long-distance romance began. We got engaged in September of the following year and married in January 2003. Life's been wonderful ever since.

The End. For now...