Monday, 29 December 2014
So, Leon
At post 8, I think this new web log thing might be catching on for me :) I'm even keeping a list of topics to post on now.
Changes
The end of the year (2014) is fast approaching and I am looking back on a year of changes.
The year started in dire shape with no work and no bites for months, one foreclosure done and another looming which was narrowly averted with help from friends for which I am eternally grateful.
In June I got some contract work in Alberta doing whacky things with FPGAs and windows software. However, personnel clashes and the ever elevating stress made it apparent this was not going to work out in the long term.
I spend some time figuring out what I was going to do next. Electronics and software was becoming long in the tooth so to speak after 27 years of doing it for a living. What next?? First I decided I should figure out what my Myers Briggs personality was and discovered I was ENFP. This was much more helpful than I thought it would be at the outset. It allowed me to stop trying to fix things I had seen as flaws over the years and to work with them, to work round other weaknesses, see my strengths and to accept things as they were. As with most strengths and weaknesses, they are alternate sides of the same thing and I wa able to them into much better perspective. I could also see threads of ENFPness running back to my childhood, times through which I had been much more intraverted, and, well, different. I could see how those threads had contributed to shape who I was,
This gave a me a better grounding for what to think about doing next. However, I did also decide that if I was going to stay in engineering, it had to be in audio and music, my passion since my childhood and the very thing that had got me into electronics and software to start with. I also decided I wanted to do some part time teaching and/or tuition work and also do more life coaching which I was already doing ad-hoc - there is nothing sweeter than watching someone blossom. I also want to do some inspirational speaking.
Well, the very next day I got an electronic knock of sorts from a DSP company, and long story short, I now work in audio and music. Being a small company, as well as engineering, I get to do product management, sales, marketing etc within the music market.
Next year is starting busy - CES in Vegas, NAMM in Anaheim then off to the head office in Canon Falls, just outside Minneapolis all inside two months.
On a personal level I have lost of a lot of weight and regained some figure. The loss will continue. I feel so much healthier, more energised and so much better about myself to boot.
The year started in dire shape with no work and no bites for months, one foreclosure done and another looming which was narrowly averted with help from friends for which I am eternally grateful.
In June I got some contract work in Alberta doing whacky things with FPGAs and windows software. However, personnel clashes and the ever elevating stress made it apparent this was not going to work out in the long term.
I spend some time figuring out what I was going to do next. Electronics and software was becoming long in the tooth so to speak after 27 years of doing it for a living. What next?? First I decided I should figure out what my Myers Briggs personality was and discovered I was ENFP. This was much more helpful than I thought it would be at the outset. It allowed me to stop trying to fix things I had seen as flaws over the years and to work with them, to work round other weaknesses, see my strengths and to accept things as they were. As with most strengths and weaknesses, they are alternate sides of the same thing and I wa able to them into much better perspective. I could also see threads of ENFPness running back to my childhood, times through which I had been much more intraverted, and, well, different. I could see how those threads had contributed to shape who I was,
This gave a me a better grounding for what to think about doing next. However, I did also decide that if I was going to stay in engineering, it had to be in audio and music, my passion since my childhood and the very thing that had got me into electronics and software to start with. I also decided I wanted to do some part time teaching and/or tuition work and also do more life coaching which I was already doing ad-hoc - there is nothing sweeter than watching someone blossom. I also want to do some inspirational speaking.
Well, the very next day I got an electronic knock of sorts from a DSP company, and long story short, I now work in audio and music. Being a small company, as well as engineering, I get to do product management, sales, marketing etc within the music market.
Next year is starting busy - CES in Vegas, NAMM in Anaheim then off to the head office in Canon Falls, just outside Minneapolis all inside two months.
On a personal level I have lost of a lot of weight and regained some figure. The loss will continue. I feel so much healthier, more energised and so much better about myself to boot.
GAL
This past year I spoke at the Guild of American Luthiers on the physics of pickups to an over packed lecture hall. I kept the AV guy on his toes as I moved around the floor and got too close to the speakers a couple of times.
I just wanted to capture some of the feedback to the even in my little corner of the blog world.
Thanks Bill for this one - http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?108053-The-GAL-Convention
I just wanted to capture some of the feedback to the even in my little corner of the blog world.
Thanks Bill for this one - http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?108053-The-GAL-Convention
Tuesday, 23 December 2014
Remembering departed friends
I wanted to meorialise some of my frieds that have left my life way too early and give them a place on the net. If you knew, I would love to hear from you.
Nina Steel, Southampton. My friend from school who lived just round the corner. Our walks to school discussing many subjects. Philosophy and exercise - great combintion. I still miss her almost far sideman outlook on love and those one responses.
Jerry, Southampton. The model boat guy that worked at Greenwelds for while. Jerry had some wonderful ideas way ahead of the times. Wa pleased to be able to on a couple with him. Some very well abused 2N3055s took the brunt of fast nicad charging experiments.
Doug Shepherd, cricket watching mentor to the grove of kids. Spent many summers watching England test matches at his house and got to a few county matches to watch Hampshire play. When I got to watch a match at Lords and see the MCC museum I couldn't help rhinkong of Doug. Thanks for the cricket!
Fred Woppenkamp, my fun buddy from lawn bowling. Thank you for helping me open up a bit more. The tail will always be for you! And the tale will be for everyone else :)
Money types
A line in the film The Social Network had me wondering. Do money types start out being they way they are, does money corrupt them, or rather the love of money, or is it a combination of both.
In talking with various people that have known these types for many years, it seems they are already that way but money becomes an all consuming part of their lives thus turning them.
I'd love to hear about this from others.
Micromangers
Having worked for a few I was planning to write up some notes, which I will. But I found this.. http://www.softpanorama.org/Social/Toxic_managers/Fighting_corporate_psychopaths/index.shtml which makes for intersting reading.
I think the hardest part of working for a micromanager is the systematic destruction of ones soul, ones core being.
One is not valued, does not know where one stands and is required to domean ones professional integrity complyping with ever changing illogical unrealistic demands to suppy increasingly meaningless and pointless updates at the cost of the real work whilst knowing that the project is completely outside their scope of comprehension. After all they do say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Escape is the only path to release and recovery.
Recently I have been reading Creativity Inc by Ed Cutmull (Pixar) in which an interesting point is raised that managers who lack the understanding of the creative process move to fear mode and want to see progress in some form of measurable results. Ed writes of the struggles to understand the managements of the creative process, and whilst centered around film making, many of the principles apply to abstract engineering, such as cutting edge electronics and software, the professional world I inhabit. Well worth the read.
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