Zen emphasizes rigorous self-control, meditation-practice, and the personal expression in daily life, especially for the benefit of others
Ga General availability, the final stage in the software development life-cycle
Programming & Web Design
Ray Idzenga has been involved with computers since the mainframe days of the early 70s; attending the first computer classes in high school and as a specialty of Electronics Technician at Niagara College. Over the years, Ray has programmed in most languages: IBM 370, JCL, Jovial, Assembler, Basic, Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, C, C++, SAS, SQL, php, AJAX, Java, javascript, and HTML. See more about his experience.
Web Design and Developoment is the most recent passion for Ray Idzenga where technology and artistry merge. Web design and development started in 1999 as a way of presenting the genealogy work for his mother. Web design skills are now more finely honed through formal courseware at the Academy of Learning leading to a diploma in Web Design
Leadership Management
The Canadian Armed Forces provided incredible opportunities to develop. The 37 year career started in December 1977 when Ray Idzenga enrolled as a Communicator Research. As a Communicator Research, Ray was posted to CFS Leitrim, CFS Alert (x2), CFS Masset and HMCS Algonquin. Officer potential saw Ray's selection for University Triaining Plan Men graduating from Royal Military College of Canada with a Bachelor's of Engineering Degree (computer)
Commissioned service led to postings at CFS Shelburne, CFS Leitrim, NATO AWACS Germany, CFB Trenton, CFSCE Kingston, Canadian Defence Academy and Kabul Afghanistan.
Ray had spear-headed many innovation solutions throughout his career, commanding larger organizations as he rose in the ranks. He dragged CFS Shelburne out of the old black analog phone ages to a re-designed cable plant with an auto-route selection digital switch. Many enhancements were made on the AWACS operating system based on feedback of a continuous improvement working group. Deployable Telecommunications concepts were seeded and developed as the Deputy Commanding Officer of 8 TIS Sqn - finishing the fiscal year within $1k of a $2.5M budget. Commanding a Technical Training Squadron, Ray engaged many innovative solutions to meet incresing technical training demands to meet force developement needs of the Afghanistan mission. He also co-authored and published many studies leading to viable solutions to the Canadian Forces Professional Development challenges.
Playing Bass
Music has always been an important influence. Armed with a 1972 Fender Telecaster bass, Traynor Custom Special head and two 4X12 bottoms, Ray Idzenga left college to play on the road with Mike Roberts and the Legend touring southern and south-west Ontario. By the fall of 1977, Ray had left that band, played some local gigs with Jack Kingston before putting the music scene on hold in December 1977 to pursue a safer lifestyle with the military.
After a 37 year military career, Ray Idzenga is back in the music scene again. Adding to his instrument arsenal are a new Schecter Bass, Stiletto Custom-4, and fram Mark Bass Combo Amp 300W/500W with an Alain Caron signature Traveler 123 Cabinet . Plenty of quality sound and power for most gigs.
Over recent years, he's found fellow musicians and the time to make music and friends with thanks to web sites for musicians such as Reverbnation and Bandmix. Ray enjoys playing gigs once again and has played some great jobs with the Jaywalkers. AfterShock was revived in version 2.0 and enjoyed playing gigs from Trenton to Brockville but unfortunately disbanded in August 2017.
In the spring of 2016, Ray was invited to join The SwiftKick Band. The SwiftKick Band (SwiftKick) is a 4 piece band of established musicians who have been performing together since 2012. They play a wide range of blues, old rock and some newer rock by artists such as BB King, Eric Clapton, Howlin’ Wolf, Down Childs Blues Band, CCR, Willie Dixon, Delbert McClinton,Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix, The Diamonds, The Doors, The Stones, The Blues Brothers.Etc. More of their music can be found at: https://www.swiftkick.ca/play-list
The SwiftKick Band produced their live CD - SwiftKick RAW released at the Limestone Blues Festival 2017 which inclues six of their original songs.
Genealogy & Family History
The ancestors of this Idzenga lineage stem from Ids Pieters from Sexbierum (Barradeel), Province of Friesland, Netherlands. The register kept by the Reformed Church of Sexbierum show that Ids Pieters and Antje Coerts had their last proclamation on 29 March 1629 when they have been officially married and baptized at Pietersbierum thus entering the Dutch Reformed Church from being former Baptists.
Explore the rest of the story and enter the genealogy database of over 3000 individuals dating back to the 1600s. More popular family names include Aitken, de Boer, Dingwall, McCallum, Cameron, Heerema, Idzenga, de Vries, van Vuure.