Chicago In a Day...

Due to a business trip, I recently had one day to see the best that Chicago had to offer. The catch, is that I literally only had one day to sightsee. I'd never been there before and did not know much about the legendary city. I tried to line some things up online in advance, but was busy at work until the trip and didn't find a lot of interesting events that coincided with my visit. None-the-less, I think I did a pretty darn good job of seeing as much as the city had to offer as possible in a the short time frame of a single day.

Because I wish I had a guide like this prior to my first trip, here is a guide that mixes a bit of what I did with a "I wish I knew then what I know now" spin on how to get the most out of a perfect day in Chicago.

First, I planned on starting the day taking a Segway tour of the city. But, due to jet lag and faulty alarms, I missed the show time. It wasn't that late when I did get out, about 9am, so I decided to move on to Plan B. There are a few "hop on, hop off" style bus tours around Chicago. These are great. I had the experience of riding in the subway/train system from the airport to my hotel already. I didn't feel the need to do that more than necessary. As you are driven around on these tours, the guide gives you interesting tidbits about the city and landmarks. If something strikes your fancy, hop off and take a look. The next bus will come along about the time you are ready to move on. Most of the companies have package deals that span a few days, but I found one that had a 1 day pass that saved me some money.

It just so happened that the next Transformers movie was being filmed that day. So I got to see some action. An intersection was blocked off and a giant Autobot head was in the middle of the street crushing a car.

The first spot I chose to get off for was the legendary silver jellybean know as Cloud Gate. Too bad this wasn't around when Ferris Bueller was in high school. It would have been prominently featured.

I don't know what all this fuss about the "selfie" this year is about. I was doing vacation selfies for years.

Each tile on the pillar behind me is a TV screen. It supposed to look awesome. Of course, it wasn't working when I was there.

After a bit of photos and wondering around Millennium Park, I got back on the tour and jumped off again when we got to Navy Pier.

The "Ferris Wheel" is said to have originated here, although the actual Ferris Wheel was 3 times larger than this one and used train cars instead of these tiny boxes for the occupants.

The view atop the wheel.

I had some simple boardwalk food and had to try a genuine Chicago Dog. The fixin's include peppers, a pickle, onions, mustard, celery salt and absolutely NO KETCHUP! Yum!

Once that was done, it was time to head over to my new Segway tour appointment, conveniently located in the park across from Navy Pier. I've never tried a Segway before, but it was pretty easy to get the hang of. It was was pretty fun. Once the guide was confident we wouldn't be too much of a liability, they took us out of "turtle" mode so we could actually feel a little wind in our face as we zoomed around. If I lived closer to work, I would totally love to commute in one of these bad boys.

I would have looked much cooler sans helmet...

After I survived the Segway, I hopped back on the tour and made the full loop which left me close to my hotel. I walked a couple blocks to "The Tower Formerly Known as Sears" aka "Whatcha Talkin' About 'Willis Tower?'"

I timed my visit so I would be at the observation deck shortly before sun down. That way if I hung around for a while, I'd get day, sundown and night shots. That's a lot cheaper than coming back and paying for admission all over again.

Once that was done, I was pretty peckish. Time for some famous authentic Chicago pizza. Just across the street and a bit to the East of Willis Tower is a great local pizza chain. I ordered one of their deeeeep dish stuffed pizzas and waited the agonizingly long 40 minutes for it to cook. But it was worth every minute once I began my feast. Chicago deep dish has about as much in common with traditional pizza from Italy as ... But, that does not take away from its superb dining experience.

From here, I headed back to my my hotel which is not far from "Miracle Mile." This is a mile long shopping strip that is really just for tourists or people with too much money. At one end of the mile there is a standoff between the classic American Hershey chocolate store and the luxury import Ghirardelli chocolate. I was torn, but in the end, walked down the street with a chocolate dipped waffle bowl of dark chocolate Ghirardelli ice cream. Nothing personal, Hersheys. When I visit Pennsylvania some day, you'll be by dessert of choice.

The Hershey's Store as seen from the Ghirardelli store. I wonder if they shout obscenities across the street at each other.

The conference I was attending did leave me with free nights. So on other nights did some other fun things. I looked for any good shows in town. Chicago is like a testing center for Broadway shows and whatnot.

However, I couldn't find anything that would appeal to me the week I was there, except one. It just so happens the Blue Man Group has a residency there. It was a bit off the beaten path from the rest of the touristy area I tried to stay in, but it was well worth the experience since I hadn't seen them perform before.

Another night I returned to the Navy Pier to get some night shots of the iconic boardwalk.

Pretty pricey, but heavenly on the lips...

I also had to try one fancy steak house, since Chicago is known to be a carnivore's haven.

Most nights, I was pretty tired so would catch up on work with my laptop and get as many "z"'s as I could.

Some sports fans may point out that I seem to have totally overlooked Wrigley Field. Yes, that's true. It was not close to where I was at any time. None of the "hop on, hop off" tours that worked with my itinerary went there. And frankly, I'm not a sports nut. I would only go there to take a picture of the famous sign, since I probably wouldn't have gone in anyway.

Short of that admitted omission, I think I saw about as much of Chicago as one could in that limited time.  It makes me think I should start some tour guide books of my own on how to "do a city in a day" or something to that effect.

Anyone want to sponsor me...?

Um, Am I Really 30....?

Ick, it's true. I'm 30! Since when did I get old enough to be 30? This may be the Pearl Anniversary, but I don't feel new and white.

I remember thinking how old 30 year olds were. And now that I am one I don't quite feel as old as I thought 30-somethings should. It's an odd feeling.

As a child, birthdays were always a big deal. Just like everyone else the day becomes less and less important as you realize it's closer and closer to decrepitation.

I recently took on a new department at work. I didn't change departments, I still do all the techie stuff, but also have absorbed the whole Materials Management department. As you can imagine, I've never felt more busy. So this year I didn't even see my birthday sneak up on me. But as surely as death and taxes, it did come.

Being born on Veteran's Day, I've never had to work or go to school on my birthday. It was as if the whole world remembered to pause and celebrate me... oh yeah, and veterans too, I guess. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found that my employer, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, does not take Veteran's Day off. Well those veterans have sacrificed enough already, the least I could do is take the day off and loaf around in remembrance. So I did.

After a small sleep-in session and breakfast, Anna and I went to see a movie. I didn't really care what movie. I don't get to see movies in the theater much so I was happy just to be there. We ended up seeing "Cirque Du Freaks: The Vampire's Assistant" which I have since discovered was NOT based on a true story.

Afterward we ate out for lunch. I went home, treated myself to paying for some new music downloads. Took a nap. Then I played some much neglected Nintendo Wii. Thanks to me, Mario has come one step closer to saving the galaxy. He hasn't even thanked me yet.

On our way to eat at a restaurant of our choice, Anna had me drive by some friends house, The DeLongs, to pick up a cake that was made for me. The plan was to pick up the cake and then take it home and eat it after dinner. Anna had asked the DeLongs to prepare a large Mexican food meal for me as a surprise. You can't find good Mexican food on Guam (at least, not that I've found yet), so it was a nice treat. After I gouged myself and crammed the little empty pockets of my stomach with homemade ice cream cake. Anna had to roll me out the door like Violet Beauregard in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, post blueberry desert.

I got home and loosened my pants before the buckle broke. As I got ready for bed I mused on the thought of being in my thirties. Hm, is "mused" the right word? Is there a word that means "mused" but also includes "dreaded", "regretted", "feared", disappointed", and "bewildered"? No? Well, let's just say that at my ripe old age, I should be glad I'm still coherent...

Your Friendly Neighborhood A+ Remote Support Technician...

I read an interesting news article that narcissism is on the rise. Blogs, YouTube, twitters and the like are blamed for it. Funny enough, one of the first things I wanted to do when I passed my latest certification exam was blog it.

So, everybody admire me!

Anna pointed out that I did not yet get a certification that I was halfway through. It is a two part test and I needed to take the second part. Now that I have one year left before I switch modes to Facilities Management and leave IT behind, it's now or never.

I signed up with one week to study. I casually looked at some study material, did some last minute cramming last night and as of 10:30am this morning became the latest person to join the ranks of certified CompTIA A+ Remote Support Technicians. And just to emphasize how great I am, guess how well I did... Go ahead, guess.

I got 874 out of 900. My math may be wrong, but I believe that's just a touch over 97%. Yeah, it's easy to be narcissistic when you are me...

The Big Promotion...Right...?

I've been keeping this on the "down low" until now in case it didn't happen or I would do something to mess it up. But now it's happening and I am free to speak.

Late last year a co-worker of mine, Joe, in a different department told me that he is now looking for his replacement (he is retiring). And one person he had his eye on was me. His department is Facilities Management and Project Management. Basically maintenance and construction.

When I was a kid, I used to do some side jobs with my dad. He was a finish carpenter. He was the sole employee of a contractor. On smaller tasks my dad did the work himself. On larger jobs he hired Mexicans or specialized contractors and would oversee the work. When I worked with him it was tuff work. Sadly, it was probably the most exercise I ever got as a kid. And as much as I liked the money, I really didn't like the work.

That was one of the reasons why I chose the work I did. I got the education and then a job in radio where there was no fear of breaking a sweat. I transitioned into computers again comfortable in the knowledge that I had an inside job. And now someone wants to take me out of that?

Well, truth be told, I was not so sure I would want the job at first. But I learned that it's more about managing the work and people. My new mentor says we are in the business of people, not buildings. That sold me. Well, that and there is a serious promotion involved.

So I took this special $900 talent assessment test last month (at the Church's expense). The results must have been positive because shortly after that, I got the call and was asked to come aboard.

On Monday it was announced that I would be the new protege. Joe will retire in about a year, so I will spend the next year at his side trying to soak everything up like a sponge. While doing this, I will still be fulfilling my full time responsibilities as the only IT guy in Guam. And until Joe leaves and I go solo, my pay will remain unchanged. Yeah, this is an investment for me.

Six months ago I was speaking with my niece, Sammie, about my work. She honestly thought that I did construction already. I am pretty sure an old post about a one time side job I did gave her this impression. Or do I have that vibe? Am I just destined to do this? My dad might have had me work with him over those horrible summers knowing something because he never really did get his money's worth. Is construction in my DNA? Well, either way, it's about to become so. Watch out world, Jared The Builder is about to be let loose!

Office 3 Hour Tour...

So, I'm sure you have noticed that I have slowed down in blogging again. That is because I've been fast an furious making more videos. I've had office activities, personal projects and GeoCaching events to make videos for.

Rather than give you a long winded explanation of how my office boat trip went, I'll just let you see it for yourself. Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GNTA3qDidPs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GNTA3qDidPs

General Conference: The Worth of Every Soul...

For you, the 178th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all over. For me, things just began.

I think it may be of interest for you to hear what goes on behind the scenes here in the pacific to make sure the isles of sea are not forgotten in this world-wide event.

Of my various technical duties for the Church here, one of my most important is the semi-annual work on conference. In Micronesia there are many unique languages. Of them, we have 6 translated live, Marshallese, Pohnpeian, Chuukese, Kosraean, Palauan, and Yapese. We also have people from other islands and Asia that would like to hear conference in their language. We show live sessions in Tagalog, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Tongan, and of course, English.

We have the largest receiving unit of the Church in the whole world.

Satellite Rack

Without seeing the spaghetti of wiring that I manage, it's hard to imagine the complexity of what I work with.

Wiring Spaghetti

Wiring Closeup

And yes, I have spent hours single handedly wiring each one of those. And that's just what it takes to get the languages into the building. Then I have to find a way to take each language of each session and get it to the islands that cannot watch conference any other way.

The old system used a bunch of DVD recorders. Each of the 5 sessions are two hours long, the same as a disc's capacity. So you'd have to be there to start recording exactly on time. I quickly changed that to DVD recorders with a hard drive so I could have some buffer and record all sessions without having to be there to change discs. Timers were also a must. Conference comes down at 2am in Guam. I don't want to be awake to record it.

HDD + DVD Recording Station

That method also proved a bit tedious. So I got approved to build a super video-making computer. I put together a system with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 terabytes of hard drive space, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a liquid cooled system, and the ability to record 8 languages with video simultaneously. Without going into too much techy detail, it's a very well performing machine.

Computer System

Using that system and some moderately expensive software, I make custom DVD's that have unique menus and multiple language tracks. One disc can now contain all 8 languages that we need to send out. That reduces the number of discs made by a factor of four or more. The computer paid for itself in one Conference. After the master disc is made, it's time to make copies.

To duplicate, we once had a device that read the master disc, and made 5 duplicates at a time. That was time consuming and impractical. To label the discs, we had printed images to stickers that needed to be pasted onto each disc one at a time. Also not ideal.

Since, I have added a duplicator that makes 11 discs simultaneously and invested in a printing system that can be fed as much as 100 discs at once and prints directly to the disc. It is controlled by a dedicated laptop.

Disc Printer, Duplicators, and Laptop

After the discs are made they are placed into mailboxes and mailed to each branch in Micronesia. The whole process takes me every working hour (and then some) for one week.

So, one might ask, why does the Church go to such great length, cost and effort to send people a copy of a few talks? Simple, because the worth of every soul is worth more than every dollar or hour it takes to send them the word of God. And for one week every six months I'll gladly spend my time to be a small pebble in the boulder of the Church rolling forth to the isles of the sea and the world at large.

Jared the Builder...

"Yes we can!"
- Bob the Builder

Earlier this spring, I was sitting at my desk working when I got a phone call from a random stranger in Mesa, AZ. They called the only number for the Church they could find for Guam. They were planning on coming to Guam to install some security barriers on Anderson Base in the Fall. They needed some local contact they could trust as well as some local manpower. I became both.

Rather than try to explain what they do, I'll just refer you to their sadly basic website for that.

At first most of what I did was just good ole manual labor. Digging holes, moving dirt, then filling those holes back up with "special" dirt. And then that same dirt that I dug out goes back in the same hole. I didn't realize that when school teachers gave us busy work that they were actually preparing us for the real world. I still don't see where trigonometry fit in...

I used to have a desk job...

I also learned the repetitive and tedious task of trying rebar. Fun fun. We had to tie hundreds of intersections together. We created a frame to bury the type of barrier that we put in.

It took many truck loads of concrete to bury all of our hard work.

Livn' on the Edge

Paul, one of the guys from Mesa, loved the tool called a Concrete Vibrator that jiggles the concrete into every small crevice and corner as he giggles about the name.

This is called a, what?

After the dust settled and the concrete hardened, we put on the to plates that weigh about 2 ton each.

Then came the part that I was brought in for initially. This company has people that do the wiring on these things for controls and whatnot. However, they did not have that person on the island. So, I became that person. I know my way around basic electronics, so I figured it couldn't be that hard.

All but Paul shown above with the vibrator left the island for another gig leaving me to do this.

Um, Can I?!

Of course, this challenge wouldn't be complete if they had left me with schematics or blue prints. Nope, no instructions. Just luck.

Fortunately, there was a third party safety supervisor on site that had his own copy of the manual and he lent me his. That made the spaghetti wiring seem a bit less daunting.

I had some late nights and some days I had to take off from my 9-5er, but somehow the job got finished. Some relief crew came after we finished one side and started the other, so I was not stuck in the same situation for the second round, now that I knew what I was doing.

After all said and done, I broadened my horizon of experience, I earned some extra cash, and gained some muscle and sunlight. Good times. I may not seem like a knuckle dragger or grease monkey, but every once in a while I surprise myself.

Yes, I Can!

World, meet Jared the Builder!