Bizarre Bradyisms

KF7EQZ

This past weekend I went and attended a free Ham Radio class on the BYU campus for about 5 hours.  The idea is that there is a pool of 391 questions that the FCC has published along with the correct answers.  When you take the test, you are randomly given 35 questions of which you must answer 26 correctly.  This means that you can memorize the questions andanswers beforehand and then perform a quick brain dump during the actual test.  This is how they design the class.  You don’t actually get to use the radio or understand all the technical aspects of why things work the way they do.  Plus, the questions themselves are really not that difficult at all and I was able to breeze through the test without trying much at all.

After completing the first level (Technician) test, I was informed that I could keep testing up through the 2nd (General) and 3rd (Extra) level without having to pay the one-time FCC test fee of $14.  I wish I would have known that before hand and could have crammed for those tests as well, but I didn’t.  So, I still took the test anyways just to see how I could do, and got 19/35 (just 7 short of passing) without even having started to look at the material.  Not too shabby, but I think I’d like to purchase a radio first and start getting some actual experience with it first before I try and gain the additional privileges associated with the higher levels. 

This afternoon, I received my call sign.  I am now KF7EQZ (please don’t stalk me) and can use the 2m band and the 70cm band up to 1500 watts (although equipment to do so would cost a fortune).

Remnants

Well, I have now been unemployed for two weeks. When I first submitted my resignation, I had left my last day as yet undefined because I knew it would be difficult for me to judge how quickly my replacement could be found and trained. A tentative date was set for September 15, but it just so happened that after someone was hired, I was able to train him quickly and was asked if my last day could instead be September 4th. I was okay with it, but was surprised nonetheless.

With all of my free time, I’ve been studying a lot as well as reading and learning to play the guitar again.  I’ve even been down to see my school counselors at BYU to decide how I can finish a degree as quickly as possible.  After reviewing my options, I’ve decided to drop my Information Technology degree (which would take me another two-and-half years of day classes) and instead pursue a Bachelor of General Studies with an emphasis in Management because I can finish this completely online without too much stress by this same time next year. 

This means that nothing is here holding me in Utah and I can go wherever my heart desires.  I’ve been sending out resumes left and right all over the country and even a few places internationally as well.   Thanks to all of my friends who have invited me to their parts of the world.  I’m doing what I can and not sure where exactly I’ll end up at, but the kind gestures have not gone unnoticed.  I know most of you don’t understand exactly what I do for work, but if you happen to know of any openings, let me know or forward on my resume for me.

Also, I’ve been working (again) on my Cisco certifications and making some real progress.  I have set a goal to have my first and most difficult test completed by the end of October.  Then, only three will remain and I’d like to have to have those completed by July 1, 2010.  This will give me my CCNP and then I can begin working on the dreaded CCIE test.  The CCIE will probably take me at least a year or two to achieve because each test costs ~$1500 and you have to actually fly out to California to test with Cisco themselves.

Anyways, it has always been fun for me to go back and look at some of the work I’ve done at my previous jobs and see what remnants have been left behind. For example, I can go to a number of websites I’ve designed and implemented for some companies 5 years ago and they are still around just as I left them. Also, people never seem to change passwords or review their permission schemes because I can still login to various servers that I’ve worked on previously and things are still humming along just as I’ve left them. I guess that might be saying something for how happy the customer was / is with my work (no bragging intended).

The image to the left is a screenshot of what I created for my most recent job one day for kicks because I was stressed about other things I didn’t want to worry about.

I’ve always enjoyed the custom error pages that some websites create to have displayed when people access an old link (HTTP 404) or don’t login correctly (HTTP 403) and wanted to create one of my own. I got the idea because the advertising company we shared office space with (Kassing Andrews) did something similar for one of their clients based off of dictionary definitions.  I thought it was kind of funny and went with it.  I wonder if they’ll keep it for very long or if they’ll improve upon it somehow.

Family In Town

My sister Tess is going back up to BYU-I this semester and I was lucky enough to have her and my parents stop here in Salt Lake for a couple of days to visit with all of the family who live in the area. I love having them all in town and really needed to see them for support after having decided to quit.  We were able to spend some time together up at my Grandma’s house and then also down in Pleasant Grove with my Mom’s sister Melanie. In fact, we all got together and visited the Kennecott Copper Mine with a lot of other extended family as well (none of us had ever actually been).  The mine was really cool and just amazing to think about how much has already been done and how much they still had planned for mining in the area.  Afterwards, most of us went to lunch out in the Sandy area and then me, Tess, and my parents went for short hike back up to Battle Creek Falls to get some exercise for the day. 

 Finally, at the end of the day we were able to attend Jon Schmidt’s annual concert that he does at Thanksgiving Point.  The opening performers were interesting to say the least.  I think they were a quite talented as performers, but they were an “emo” type of group and the music was really loud.  Probably not the best idea because people who come to a Jon Schmidt type of concert are not those who would enjoy their style of music.  In fact, a lot the people in crowd (especially my family) were covering their ears for the majority of their songs. Finally when Jon made it on stage things got a lot better.  He played his popular songs that he is known for and the Thanksgiving Point special where the waterfalls in the background of the venue slowly start to turn on while he plays the song “Waterfall”.

What I was excited to hear was his new “Love Song Meets Viva La Vida” which is the arrangement he put together between Taylor Swift’s “Love Song” and Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” which was quite popular this past summer.  I was sad to hear that he was unable to release the song on his new CD because Sony (yet another strike against Sony in my book) was not returning their calls to allow them to licence Coldplay’s song.  However, he and his co-performer Steve Nelson were able to perform it at the concert nonetheless.  Additionally, Jon allowed some guy use the concert as the opportunity to propose to girl who of course accepted and I also enjoyed the improvised jam session he did with a random person in the audience who turned out to be really talented.  Overall, it was fantastic night.

Dirt Roads

 This past weekend I took off from work a little early on Friday and drove up to Flaming Gorge for a short camping trip.  The summer has gone by way too fast and I’ve haven’t been able to go camping nearly as much as I’ve wanted to.  In other years, my excuse for not going has been that I couldn’t get anyone to come along with me.  Now that I’ve decided to just do things on my own with or without others, that excuse no longer applies.  It was actually kind of fun to go alone.  Although it is a lot of work to plan for just one person (food, cooking, tents, etc), I enjoyed the peace and quiet.  Plus I got to test finally test out the camp-stove I was given for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad) and use my new tent for the 2nd time as well as my cast-iron cookware.  I stayed at the “Lodgepole” campground just outside of the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  This worked out well because the campsite hosts were not there all weekend and there was nowhere for me to pay for the campsite, so I didn’t have to spend $14 a night (ridiculous prices if you ask me). 

I visited the dam itself and took their free tour which was neat, but pretty restricted with what you could see due to post-September-Eleven security restrictions.  I walked through some of the other visitor’s sites and hiked around a little bit.  I also stumbled upon this random dirt road indicating that it led to a “Spirit Lake” and decided to find out where it led.  Twenty miles later down the road I arrived at the lake and the accompanying campsite which was just beautiful.  If I had another three days to spend there, I would have moved my tent up there, but since I didn’t, I’ll have to remember for next time. It is always the dirt roads that lead you to the best places that are hidden from everyone except for the most determined people.  I think that can kind of apply to the “dirt roads” of life as well.  As often quoted by Robert Frost, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

 

PS – When you go camping on your own, you recognize all of the little things you don’t own yourself (or didn’t think about to bring) and have, up until this point, depended on someone else to bring. Such was the case this time with a tarp, a lantern, and garbage bags. I survived, obviously, but this lack of equipment was quickly rectified by a trip to Cabelas after returning home.