Training at High End Systems

Today I had my Wholehog 3 console training at High End Systems in Austin, TX.  It was a great experience and I think I will definitely be well-prepared for promotion some time during my upcoming contract.

The day started out with a tour of their manufacturing facility.  I didn't realize that they build everything in-house: consoles, fixtures, servers, everything.  It's quite a big place and I wasn't expecting to see so much.  It was really cool to be able to meet some of the people who build the products I was learning about.  I also got to see a demo of all their latest lighting fixtures.  Now, I had seen the exact same demos as videos on their website, but that doesn't come close to doing justice to the live experience.  The fixtures I saw today (Showgun, Showbeam, Showpix, Cyber 2.0, and DL3) are MASSIVE-- some of them requiring up to 4 people to lift, with road cases nearly as big as a Smart Car (I know that's not saying much for the car, but it DOES say something about the size of these fixtures).  They also pack a serious punch to match their size.

The training itself was mostly what I expected.  The material of the course is designed to be done over the course of 2 full days but I was in and out in about 6 hours today (including a 1 hour lunch break and the facility tour), because of my previous experience with the Wholehog consoles on the Explorer, as well as my own self-teaching at home on my computer using a simulator.  Nonetheless, I picked up some very useful tips and shortcuts that will be very helpful to me in the future.

Life back at home has been quite busy indeed. I've been taking care of various tasks around the house requiring my technical know-how, as well as doing some additional paid work on the side.  The first couple of days back home felt almost surreal, I simply couldn't believe I was home.  Ship life consumes you 100% and it can be easy to feel like you've left everything behind and it's never coming back.  However, when I came home nearly everything was the same as when I had left.  It's like living two completely separate lives.

Well, that's it for now, time to go explore Austin with my remaining time (the rest of today and all of tomorrow).

Good-bye Explorer!

I made it!  6 months and 10 days, not the longest contract there is, but I'm glad to have made it through my first one.  Accomplishing that means that I will be able to do more in the future, as was my plan all along.  As much as I am glad to be finished, and particularly to be getting a different ship, I will definitely miss all of my coworkers as well as several other staff that helped to make my first contract a particularly easy and memorable one.  However, this is ship life, and people move around between ships all the time.  You never know whom you'll meet again on several contracts in the future, and who you'll possibly never see again.

Now I sit at the airport, hoping to get on an earlier flight because the one I was booked on leaves at 5:25pm and since I got to the airport at 10:30am, it's a damn long time to be stuck here.  I've already had one failed attempt at standing-by on the 12 noon flight, now I'm standing by for the 3:15pm.  I can't wait to finally be home.

There will probably be a post or two while I'm on vacation, but in the meanwhile I intend to spend a lot of my free time catching up with my family and friends.