Some things about me

a.k.a. "Who Is This Lunatic, And Why Is He Here?"


Hi!

Since you're reading this, something here has piqued your interest. Maybe you've read one of my subsequent posts, and want to know what kind of nutjob wrote it. Or maybe you agree. Maybe you want to know how I came by some of my more esoteric knowledge, or you just want to know more about the inner workings of my head. Well, pull on your hip-waders, it's about to get deep.

Who am I? I'm a 26y.o. guy, former US Army technician (more on that in a bit), gearhead, computer geek, and general fitness nut. I listen to hard rock, heavy metal, grindcore, trance, house, generally anything that I can 'get into'; high-energy, meaningful, and generally off-the-wall. I'm a commodian (I think I'm funny, but I'm generally... you get the picture). Over-educated, over-opinionated, loud, boisterous and sometimes abrasive. I live between two corn fields somewhere in Northern IL, USA, but have done a pretty good world tour. I like to travel, and love to learn new things. I drive an over-powered 2004 Mustang GT, which I work on myself, and have plans to take further. I'm socially liberal (love is between two people, and if you don't like it, don't watch), financially conservative (why is the answer to everything to throw more money at it?) and politically pissed (more about that in the post titled "If The Monkeys Ran The Zoo"). I over-use parentheses, quotes, smilies and hyphens, and make no apologies about it.

Why should you listen (a.k.a. credentials and brag sheet)? Since the age of about 6, I was tested as being 'gifted' (non-PC now, I know), and have been in all kinds of accelerated programs, teaching me to use this gift/curse. I've been tested with an IQ over 170 (the tester wasn't allowed to report higher, and independant analysis has rated me at somewhere in the range of 210/220). National Honor Society, Prarie State Scholar, 1397 SAT score (with no prep) etc. Year of college at College of Dupage, majoring in General Education. 27 credits, including some Physical Education credits, and I decided it wasn't working. Apparently I was such a genius, I decided to join the military. ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) overall score of 99 (out of 99), GT (General Technical) score of 129 (out of 130) Invidiual line scores (EL/AD/ME/etc) of 134-139 (out of 140). Ended up taking an Aviation post, 15Y10 (formerly 68Y10), Armament, Avionics, Electronics Systems Technician, AH-64D Apache Longbow. 29 weeks of training, managed a 93% overall score, while also leading 11 other trainees. Once I joined my unit, we received an Exemplary rating for our combined unit training (UFTP- Unit Fielding/Training Program), including the highest Operational Readiness Rate (OR Rate, remember that acronym, it comes in later) that they'd seen. 13 months on a government-funded beach vacation (typical government, they forgot the WATER when they sent us to the beach), where we received the AAAA (American Aviation/Aviators Association, if I recall correctly) Unit Of The Year award, with and OR Rate (see? Told you) of 91% overall, highest that's ever been in theatre, as well as Boeing's Unit Of The Year for the same feat. During this, I also managed to take a college course from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), majoring in Aviation Management (closest thing that I could get to Aeronautical Engineering without being on campus).

How did I get here (a.k.a. 'what went wrong')? Born in 1983 to a Chemical Engineer (MS ChemE) and a professional chemist (later to get her MS in Environmental Engineering MS EnvE), expectations were always high for me. Diagnosed during first grade with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), I spent a lot of time explaining my actions, and more time in 'counseling' than any healthy child should. Truth was, I may have been DIAGNOSED ADHD, but really I was just bored. Public school didn't challenge me, so I generally gave up on school. I knew the material (my test scores proved it), but unfortunately most of my instructors graded homework, some even made homework worth more than tests, so I was generally hosed. My PSAT and SAT scores would've gotten me into any school in the States, but my GPA was terrible. No scholarships for me. So, I got a job, and paid for community college myself for about a year. I finished my 3rd quarter (I was on quarters at the time, 3 regular quarters per year, plus an optional summer quarter), sat back and looked at my life. I was working close to 60 hours a week between two jobs, and had a full classload, so my homework wasn't really getting done. So I joined the Army. Spent 4 years of my life there, including a year overseas, before getting discharged. I was good at my job, some would say damn good, but I didn't keep my mouth shut when my sergeants and officers were wrong. This created a problem, so my sergeants and I made a deal: They get me out under the best terms possible, I wouldn't drag them through the mud. It worked out. I left the Army, and worked about 4 months doing outside (retail) sales, mostly working for major manufacturers as a retail representative. It worked like this: My boss schedules me in a major chain retailer (Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, etc) for a specific product line (TomTom GPS, Toshiba laptops, Panasonic cameras, Sony TVs). I show up at the store, and hang out in the department for 4 hours on a weekend, educating consumers about my particular products. At the end of the 4 hours, I could do one of three things: 1) stay in the department for another for hours 2) change stores in the same department, or 3) change departments in the same store. All this was schedule-dependant. After 4 months, I got in a bit of a tiff with one particular store, mostly because I sold more of my single product line in 8 hours a week than the salespeople did (roughly 6 people) in roughly 360 man-hours with all the product lines. I'd come in, sell close to $12000 in TV's in a weekend, and they couldn't compete (which was garbage, because every sale that I made had one of their names on it, I didn't ring people out). So they set me up, and got me to take a fall. No biggie for me, because I was alreadt interviewing to work for an industrial machinery company (sheetmetal CNC equipment) as a field service engineer. They hired me, trained me, and sent me out into the great and wide world. Then, 2 days short of a year later, they found out that they'd underbudgeted their new showroom building by in excess of $10M, and I was 'the new guy'. Later. Did about 4 months working for an aircraft-engine rebuilder near my house, until the bottom dropped out of the market in March, and THEY had to 'furlough' me. So now I work side jobs and collect unemployment, and decided that a blog might be a good idea. My side jobs are varied, from working on cars/trucks/lawn tractors, to reroofing houses, to computer diagnosis/repair and data recovery.

So really, why should I listen? I have roughly 15 years of automotive experience (I started doing glow-plug changes and brake jobs at the age of 10), about 5 years of electrical and electronics experience, excluding IBM-type computer systems, 2 years worth of heavy machinery experience, and roughly 18 years of IBM-based computer experience (hardware and software). I've been to the gates of Hell and back, relatively whole and sane. My knowledge isn't exhaustive by any means, but my thirst for knowledge and experience has yet to be quenched by anything I've done. If I don't know, I'll say so, and go out and do some research.