Pamela's Home Page - Enjoy!
Hi!
My name is Pamela Anne Miller and I live in Goleta
California by the ocean and mountains.
I would like to welcome you to be my guest, learn
a little about me and what I like.
But first lets find a quiet place where the two
of us can get acquainted.
I like the calming sound of running water,
the sweet musty smell of the forest,
and the beauty that we see in all of nature.
I know a wonderful place that is just right, so
lets stop there and chat.
Come with me, if you click on the picture it
will fill your screen with its beauty and you can relax in its splendor.
Isn't this scene from the rain forest of Costa
Rica wonderfully serene.
Picture yourself seated on a branch overlooking
the splendor of this wonder of nature.
Hear the streaming water as it gracefully cascades
to the pool below.
There, now that I have you in a quiet, relaxed
mood, lets talk.
A little about me......
As you know, my name is Pam, my dog
of 7 years was recently killed by another dog but I loved him so much I
want you to share this pic with you.
I am retired and widowed, with
2 grown (sometimes I wonder) sons, Scot is 30 and my youngest, Harvey is
26. They are wonderful kids and I love them dearly........but, I wish that
they would get married and settle down...........and have some nice kids
of their own to keep them busy. ( :
At present I go to school full
time at Santa Barbara City College where I am also a teaching assistant
and tutor for several subjects in my spare time. I have accumulated
about 130 units since starting 4 years ago........suppose I should graduate
again but what for. I am a member of the honor society, something I missed
by .02 points when I went to Engineering school........finally made it
though, not bad for a 60 year classic woman. The kids call me the Renaissance
lady...hmmm.
I worked in the Aerospace industry
as a Mechanical Engineer for 30 years.
During the first 10 years of
my career with Raytheon I was involved in design and packaging of state
of the art microwave tubes, specializing in physics of materials and advanced
processing and production techniques. Then, of course, I had to make all
the wonderful stuff we came up with work in production so we could sell
the darned things. Boy, that was an experience.
During the next 8 years at
Raytheon I tried working at a different division and doing something completely
different. I had been going to night school, working on a Masters in Electrical
Engineering where I met my next boss. He invited me to join his group in
Raytheon designing and packaging hybrid microcircuits. This entailed
circuit layout, design of packaging, prototyping, testing, analysis of
electrical and mechanical failures and debugging the processing steps.
It was fun and interesting and my work then included the first programmable
pacemaker and the first implantable neural stimulator prototype. We had
a young group of enthusiastic people.
I eventually left Raytheon
for a offer one could not refuse with lots of money attached to it and
a responsible position, of Design Group Leader at Teledyne Philbrick. I
had 8 people calling me boss and soon found out how hectic running your
own department could be-whew. During my time there I was instrumental in
changing there entire assembly area and instituting new processing procedures
for cost reduction and yield enhancement. One of my premiere projects was
the design of the first high temperature "down hole" hybrids for oil well
logging. The specifications were absolutely impossible, the units had to
function at 250 degrees centigrade while taking data. Through the use of
state of the art materials and some ingenious processing steps and testing
we succeeded.
My next leap of faith was to
pack the family off to California for a new life and a wonderful location
near Santa Barbara.
I spent the next 11 years
at Raytheon in Goleta, CA, as a Senior Design Engineer doing "state of
the art" black box design for military stuff. It paid well, but was really
boring.
I left there, taking early
retirement, in 1995, when down sizing became the new game in town for saving
money. I had weathered some thoroughly rough times with the loss of my
mate of 25 years to cancer in 1991 so I needed a rest from the hectic
schedule I had been living for some 30 years.
Well, here I am starting a
new life for myself. I thought that I would be independent and all that,
but both my sons have managed to sneak back into the the house from time
to time. I guess that there is no place like home, but my name isn't Dorothy
and this isn't Kansas! I keep sending them back to their girlfriends hoping
that they will start a family of their own.........time will tell.
Some of my artworks:
I presently enjoy art, both
computer and hands-on, music (I sing) and love gardening. At present I
am remodeling my house, the house I have lived here for nearly 20 years.
It's all mine now and I want it to make a statement about who I am rather
than who I was, so it is being done over inside and out, top to bottom........even
the yard. It is a monster of an undertaking and has caused me a great deal
of stress but it will be the way I have always wanted it when done.
I completed a sculpted piece a few semesters ago
that I entered in the student show at SBCC. It was the first sculpted
work I ever attempted, not only was it accepted for exhibit, but won an
honorable mention. Needless to say I was thrilled.
I call it:
Wood Tulip
It is made from Palm fronds.
Another sculpted piece that I am proud of is a bronze mask, yes, also
a first for me. Casting was a hard process and it took months to get it
ready.
I call this:
Death of the Indigents
It is about 12 inches high and in two pieces. The figure of the sun
is a separate piece which is bolted on.
I recently did a Photoshop montage using many
images from the Titanic era (or error, as the case may be). that is me
in the top left corner.
I titled it:
Death
and Rebirth
The viking longboat in the top right of the pic came from a 1904 newspaper
that I found in our old farmhouse on the East Coast.
It is coming to retrieve the souls of the dead. the grave yard is in
Nova Scotia where a lot of the dead were interred.
The iceberg is from a magazine add of some sort.....if I remember correctly.
The clip at the top left is part of the poster from the recent movie...I
loved the story, saw it a bunch of times.
Most of the pics that went into it are available on the net including
the ones of the deep sea submersibles (bottom right) which are from the
Woods Hole Oceanographic institute collection on their web site. I recolored
all the pics, used Photoshop for the most part, love that program.
One last piece for now.........it is a collage from magazines. I did
it in about 15 minutes, then did a watercolor of the whole thing, boy am
I a glutton for punishment.
I am never sure what to call it. I guess somehow it symbolizes my life
and the struggles I have gone through to get to be myself, only the Goddess
knows for sure.
I guess I'll call it:
Cycle of My Life
. 
In case you are wondering, that is sperm in the bottom right of the
pic.
A small piece of poetry seems
fitting here:
"It ain't over till it's over."
My soul has spanned eternity,
I have lived a thousand lives,
Yet I am one and alone in the
universe,
In birth and in death.
Pamela Anne Miller, May 21, 2000
CAUTION!
This site may be changed at any sudden whim
of the woman involved!
The most challenging thing that I have had to
do in recent times is master the skills to make this web page functional.
But whoever said you can't teach a retired person
new tricks is in for a surprise.
I'm very persistent and intend to keep working
at honing my skills in this area.......and in this time of life.
I am not old, I am Classic and the joy I find
in this period of my life far exceeds all its heartaches and sorrows.
Some other quiet places I like-and
some just plain funky ones.
