Randy’s random musings

After searching, downloading, testing, and playing around, I’ve finally come up with a few tweaks for those of us running TomTom on our Nav-Cam. Available for download are two different files. One is a restore utility to use after performing a hard reset on your device, and includes menu software to replace the factory menu. The other is a small helper utility to launch said menu. Read about it by clicking the link on the side, and then leave your comments or questions here.

NOTE: There was an error in the restore file, which has been fixed. Please download the file again, and unzip it to the root of your SD card. My apologies for the mistake. -Randy

Well, it looks like it’s “that time”, again. Tomorrow morning, I’ll pick up the moving truck, and we’ll spend the day loading it up, and cleaning up the house. I’m really looking forward to spending some time with Cathy’s family, I just hope we don’t wear out our welcome too quickly!

So, we’ve put our house on the market. It’s already been about 2 weeks, and we’ve only shown it three times so far. I have a feeling our asking price is too high, but we’re trusting our realtor, Bob Winkler. Hope he knows what he’s doing!

I just got a phone call from NATO, and they tell me I’ve been selected as the “first alternate” for the Comm shop post, meaning they’ll offer the job to me, if their first choice doesn’t complete the first year of his contract, for some reason. In reality, I take that to mean “better luck next time!”.

But that’s fine with us! We have a plan: move to Oklahoma, enroll in school full-time (an online university, WGU), and live off the Montgomery GI Bill (and mooch off Cathy’s parents) while I work on getting my BA. It shouldn’t take more than a year, and hopefully it will be substantially less than that. It sounds perfect: Cathy and Benjamin get to spend quality time with family, and I can concentrate solely on blasting through school and getting that degree. Hopefully, I’ll be offered an ESM post with NATO within 6 months or so, but meanwhile I’m going to try to enjoy my first lapse in employment in the past 10.5 years!

So, I’m off to Germany yet again, next week. It’s pretty much been decided that we’ll be moving to Oklahoma in the near future, once we get our house sold, and Cathy shoots her last few weddings in May.

So the next few months will be a stressful, yet exciting adventure! Stay tuned for more updates…

I applied for early separation from the Air Force, and just found out that it’s been approved! It looks like my last day is going to be the 28th of March, which is closing rapidly… I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself once I get out, but I’ve been entertaining the idea of working in the IT industry, if I’m able to find a decent entry-level job. If not, I can always fall back on my medical laboratory experience, if necessary. But I think it might be nice to get paid for something I actually enjoy, for a change…

I was informed yesterday morning that I’m the “first alternate” for the NATO post I applied for, meaning I was candidate #4, and they only had 3 open positions. My alternate status means that if any of the other 3 drop out or quit in the first 2 years, I’ll be offered the position immediately. They’ll also hire me immediately if another similar position opens up.

The problem is that I have another 2 years remaining in my enlistment, and a one-time-only opportunity to get out early, due to “Force Shaping”. If I stay in, and I’m offered a job with NATO later this year, I won’t be able to accept it, due to my commitment to the Air Force! What to do, what to do?

I’m leaning towards separating early, anyway.

Monday, I took an qualifying examination for a NATO civilian post, maintaining ESM systems on the E3A Sentry in Geilenkirchen, Germany. Out of 14 candidates who tested, only 5 were able to achieve a minimum score of 40% on the test, including myself. That means I’m competing with 4 other people for 3 openings. Sounds like I’ve got a good shot, right?

That’s what I thought, until I interviewed today. I went in feeling confident, if a bit nervous, being my first job interview and all. But I had prepared for the interview, and tried to keep my cool. It was still a bit nerve-wracking, particularly when they got to the end, when they administered yet another technical challenge. It shouldn’t have been difficult, but for me, it was. My formal electronics training took place about 10 years ago, and I haven’t used it since. I’m pretty sure I scored between 40-60% on that particular test, but have no idea how I fared compared to the other candidates. It’ll be 1-2 weeks before I get a telephone call to let me know the results of the hiring process.

Until then, it’ll hard to sleep at night.

This morning, I got a telephone call from a nice German woman who works for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, AKA NATO. She referred to an application I submitted about 2 months ago for a job as a NATO civilian. Apparently, the recruitment office liked what they saw, because I was being invited to Germany for a written examination, followed by an interview!

I submitted the application without really planning ahead at all, so now it’s contingency planning time…