Military Time, Schools Attended, and Experience Gained
brief points this page makes
Early Interests, Through 1981
As a child, I was always interested in two things: music and taking things apart (putting them back together was another thing entirely) These two interests led me to take both paths in life, starting with guitar lessons in 1968, and time as a jet mechanic while serving in the U.S.M.C. (Getting disgruntled there, I later transferred into the U.S. Army, where i decided driving a truck would be a better career path. Oh! Well, live and learn, right!)
Guitar lessons lasted about three years, 'till i was about 11 years old. I continued to play, and, in high school, attended every auto shop class the school offered. Upon graduation, in three years, as a junior, I enlisted in the Marine Corps, enrolling in Jet Mechanic School. I worked as a flight line person for about a year and a half, then, transferring into the army, attended heavy vehicle school and got transferred to West Germany, where I drove a 5 ton truck for two years. This duty required drivers to maintain their assigned trucks, performing lower lever maintenence and always assisting mechanics on higher lever jobs. In addition to working the "day job" with the army, I also played music at night, both with a country band, "Country Sunshine" and as part of a folk duet.
Post Military Life - 1981 through 1985
After being released from the army, I puttered around working as an electronic/mechanical assembler, garderner, and other things. It was while working at Sears Auto Center, doing tires, that my friend Jerry Thornton and I decided we weren't going to find a million dollars on the ground (this was before california had started the lottery) so we needed to get our careers started. On Jerry's suggestion, I quickly determined that I could use all my shop experience working as a drafter, drawing technical drawings (blueprints). Soon, I enrolled in the California Academy of Drafting, where I received my certificate in Electronic Drafting.
This marked the beginning of my career "working behind a desk". As a drafter, I found joy at being able to apply what I'd learned in the shop, onto a sheet of paper. This was fun - drawing, and getting paid for it. All this while, I'd still maintained an interest in music. It wasn't long before I met a nice girl who was in her last year at school (i later married her!) Her brother, Tom, also played guitar, and it wasn't long before we had started a band together. This gave both of us experience at small business dealings, and we had fun for the couple of years this lasted.
Back To School in 1985
My career progressed, but during the summer of '85, I found myself unemployed, and decided to use my G.I. bill to go back to school - as a music major! I studied for a couple of years, receiving G.I. benefits and working a part time drafting job. When I lost my job, however, I tried to find something else, but only found that there was a folk group, "Schanachie" who was looking for a singer/guitarist. I auditioned, got the gig, and soon found myself traveling the country playing music - and using the small business experience Tom and I had gathered over the years. The group was doing well, and, in 1989, we embaked on our tour of europe. Yeah, we were on our way up, or so we thought. Working on the cruise ship, touring Ireland and other countries, it seemed it would never end. I found, however, that the same things that we read about breaking up a well known group that's been around for years, can do the same to a small, relatively unknown group like ourselves. I left the group, now knowing what I was going to do.
Back To The Electronics Industry
After leaving the group in '90, I found myself looking for a job again, and found one as a drafter. Problem was, the industry was now moving toward computer aided drafting (CAD) and I only had experience drawing with a pencil on a piece of vellum. None the less, I soon found work, and, soon got moved to working on a Macintosh computer doing technical writing and drawing component specification documents. Due to their heavy work load, I found that the I.T. folks were pretty slow in responding to problems, so I would take it upon myself to try the repairs I thought I could handle. This was the start of my Systems Administration (sys admin) experience.
Noticing this, my department was looking for someone to assist our own administrator, and I was offered the job. They sent me to U.C.S.C. extension school, and for two years, I worked towards a systems administration certificate. I'm sorry to say I stopped short of receiving my certification, but I had aquired enough knowledge to keep, and later attain another sys admin job.
Through out all this time, I still maintained my interest in mechanical/technical matters, as well as music. I still enjoy tinkering on cars or other projects and playing my guitar in front of a gracious audience - or ANY audience, for that matter!
All this has come to make me the bon vivant who I am today.
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