-Hello 110mpg  Yamaha C3 Scooter!   Ever since I got my scooter it has been really fun to drive to work.  I can relate to why people have motorcycles (not that my top speed of 42mph is as fast as a motorcycle but I can relate).  It’s been really nice to ‘zip’ around town in a small simple transportation tool.  I’ve had my scooter for 3 months and it’s sometimes hard not having a car, but I’m struggling through it.  My goal is to have this ride through December.

I do use a helmet, gloves, a jacket, and of course cool shades.  I had 1 mishap, which was slipping in some wet grass (my commute was doing some off road, but I’ve since found a slightly faster way).  My commute to work is 3.1 miles in 6 minutes 30 seconds. I don’t take any major roads except when I go to Waterford Lakes and I’m on SR 50 for a few minutes.  Other than that I’ve found back roads to get to wherever I need.

Everyone asks, “What are you gonna do when it rains?”, and I say, “I have rain gear that I’m gonna wear!”  The cold weather at the beginning of the year definitely sucked, mostly because I don’t have a full helmet, it’s just a skull cap with some cool graphics on the side.   I hope to show off some video of me riding it and will add it to the post later.

For now it feels good to be this economical and enivornmentally friendly.  We’ll see how long it lasts….

There’s no real easy way to gain experience, and I always hated the notion that companies wanted someone ‘experienced’, but I now understand what experience really is.  Since making a lateral move to another program, there was a short interview process in which we talked about my ‘experience’ and what this new task entailed.  Everything ‘clicked’ during the interview, those engineering and program terms I wasn’t very familiar with long ago, were common words, phrases, and acronyms that I’ve had lots of exposure to.  It felt really good to hear those words that I was extremely familiar with.

My career has lead me to an interesting place, and I can finally define what I want out of my accomplishments working for a company.  It’s easy..and it’s my new ‘resume objective‘:  “To apply my systems and software knowledge and experience, to work on a product that is powerful, reliable, robust, and intuitive, while helping people and profiting for a company.” You like?   Having worked with defense companies for 7 years now with 3 different companies, I’m starting to understand what these companies are looking for, and I believe my resume sums it up well.

I really enjoy putting experiences into words and now this post and my resume describe that.  I always had a software engineering title and knew that was wrong, but was afraid to put systems engineer on my resume.  Now, I know it’s right and everything I’ve been doing falls under systems engineering, but more specifically integration and test.  I’ve really enjoyed the work I do, because it’s so dynamic.  The biggest benefit is training people, and customer support related tasks.  It’s such a multi-functional role, and being relied on for so many different things feels good.

Keeping my resume up to date lately has been great, aside from being easy.  However it’s been more important to finally keep my resume and experiences written down and up to date.

In all, I still hate when a company wants someone ‘experienced’ and I understand why, but I would hope they give those with powerful degrees and a great attitude an opportunity, because in the end you always have to get spun up, adjust to the environment, do in-formal training and learn the system.  It just takes people with experience less time and people without a little more.  Also going from job to job is less frightening.  Hang in there, buy your time, but don’t limit yourself to just one thing or one job, anything you do can be considered experience…

10. As an American it’s expensive here.  For example, a BLT Sandwich averages around $10-$13. Tipping is not expected, and servers make between $18-$25 an hour.

9.  Driving on the opposite side of the road doesn’t take long to get used to about a week.  It takes 2 weeks to get used to the area and drive on the opposite side of the road.  Everyone drives slow and relaxed just like…

8. ….No Worries, really means something to Australians.  They care about spending lots of time with their friends and families.

7.  People are extremely friendly, but they’re usually thrown off by American accents, so add a little twang to your vernacular.

6.  Internet here is expensive and slow.  There are no unlimited services.

5.  The food is very good when you find the right place.  Bookings aka Reservations are essential…I say essential because if you show up randomly they look at you funny. My favorite meal is kangaroo steak.

4.  People love the outdoors, bush walks, and camping are huge activities!

3.  Drinking local wine is extremely popular and their wine selection is incredible!

2.  Movies don’t come out here like in the States, they’re anywhere from a week behind to 3 months behind (obviously depends on the movie, ie. The Dark Knight…Heath Ledger…)

1.  The El Camino is coming back!  You watch!

While on this aggressive travel schedule, I’ve been making the most of this time spent alone knocking off things I wanted to do this year, most were with Mandy, but well you know…

Let’s see what I have on the list:

Go hiking, back packing, camping..Go camping with Mandy and the Dogs
Go horseback riding
Go indoor rock climbing
Go watch and bet on Jai Alai
Go to the circus
Go to the fair
Go indoor sky diving.
Go on an Airboat ride.
Get Salsa Dance Lessons with Mandy (The Mandy part will hopefully happen when I’m home, but my lessons start Wednesday!)
Went on a diet to eat less and loose fat
Went Snowboarding (Never planned but still counting it)
Have a Garage Sale  (We’ll do this when we get back, we need to get rid of unused items)
Learn CPR  (Having more and more kids in the family, this is just a good thing to learn and know, maybe I’ll do this while I’m out here).
Date Night, Helicopter ride over Orlando  (When I get back)
Date Night, Actually fly a small plane over Orlando  (This might not get done this year, but maybe)
Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity  (I’ve enjoyed doing this previously and now I’m gonna do it again…when I get back!)

There’s still quite a bit to do, but I’ll get it done!!

The Greatest Show in Australia….ok…almost….not really.  I got back from the Silvers Circus this afternoon, and as somewhat entertaining as it was, I really had something completely different in mind.  After walking into the big top tent which is more like a small top tent, I realized it wasn’t going to have cats jumping through fire hoops, or any other animals for that matter.  The show started with the ring master saying the same thing “Ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages..yadda yadda yadda.”  I was open minded because going to the circus was on my new year’s resolution list, and my imagination runs away in my head to things of grandeur.

For example, one of the acts was this Hispanic man doing the bouncing juggling balls, started with 3 and ended with a total 6.  In between adding a new ball he would yell something, and it sounded like “CUBA!” come to think of it I’m gonna pretend he yelled Cuba, just for the hell of it.

Also one act had this girl that was caught by these caveman type people and then some fake dinosaur came and saved her.  The story was she raised this dinosaur from a baby and now it saved her for her to be a princess.  Then she started swinging on these red curtains, the story really didn’t make sense.

There was a magic act in between each act, and of course I’d try to figure out how he was doing it.  One of the acts I figured out;  He basically did the cut a person in half and I figured the person hid to one side, she came out ok, then another person came out (and I then said, oh she was on the other side of the box), THEN another person came out and I was like aight now I want to know how he did it!  Also each time the magician would cover something I would say to myself a big cat is gonna come out, with no such luck.

The last act was hulla-hoop Eva Longoria, or at least that’s what she looked like from a far.  The end of her set had 2 people throwing hoops over her, as she added over 50 hulla-hoops as she was hooping.  It was pretty impressive, but in all the show was mediocre.  I think the show would have been better if I could have made fun of it with some friends, so if you do decide to go to the circus get drunk before hand.

One last thing about the show was all the ladies were wearing thong like bottoms.  I didn’t understand it since the show is a majority of kids!  I’ve realized that Australia doesn’t censor much like in Europe, even in public.

The circus also made me realize once we’re a parent, the shows you go to for your kids!  I remember when my parents took me to the zoo, there were all these animals and it seemed like a huge production!  This was like a cheap Cirque Du Soleil Show.  It at least killed my Saturday afternoon, and one of my new year’s resolutions.

Margaret River

Note: Pictures were taken with an iPhone.

As I head to Margaret River on my 3 1/2 hour voyage, the beautiful country side was like any other with the exception of the Harvey District, known as ‘The Heart of Diary Country’, which I would only assume also it’s steak.  The number of cattle around was incredible, and it wasn’t the plain black and brown cows, it was the black and white spotty ones.  About mid way on my trip is where I stopped at Harvey Moo Shoppe / Visitor Centre, built in the 1800’s.  A quaint little store with a stable for a restroom in the back, and Stirling’s Restaurant Cottaqge situated on the picturesque banks of the Harvey River.  After my rest stop, I continued to my first destination in Margaret River, Cape Lavender for Breakfast.

First, let me describe the Margaret River area.  It has 2 major roads that run north to south on either side of the city.  Each road is surrounded with farm land for cattle, sheep, or grapes.  There are hundreds of wineries around.  It’s like you’re in the middle of no where but in reality you’re in very populated farm country.  The wineries, lodging, and restaurants are anywhere between 7-30 minutes apart.  The roads at night are dark and desolate, you might see a car every 15 minutes, (everyone drives around with their brights on).  There is only one area that’s heavily populated with stores and that’s the shopping centre.  The rest is mildly lit signs on the side of the road for lodging, wineries, and restaurants.

I wanted to arrive for breakfast at Cape Lavender, which is known for making consumables (soap, shampoo, fudge, wine, etc) out of Lavender trees and their breakfast. I had Green Eggs and Bacon with home made Vienna on top of Basil, which was absolutely delicious.  The 17 dollar meal was worth every penny and the lake side view was very peaceful.  After breakfast I went to their gift shoppe where they make EVERYTHING out of Lavender.  While shopping I found out they have 3 Labradors, 2 yellow and 1 chocolate lab and even make their own lavender dog shampoo and well of course…I can’t wait to use it on Hannah and Marle (Big Girl and Bubba)!
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