I’ve decided that I’m making myself available, and actively hunting, for part-time paid journalistic positions.
Why?
Because writing is fun and easy for me, and it’s a good way to bring in some cash too.
Where?
Blog networks, newspapers, journals, … wherever, I’m probably interested. But only in reasonable content material.
How?
Check out my resume, and the ZIP file of previous works for all the reference material you’ll ever need.
When?
Hire me now!
I’m slowly morphing this site from “just some random blog” into something much larger, more organized, and just overall better.
The first step visible to the outside world just occured. I have segregated my different “personas” on this blog into different feeds.
There are now three ways to follow this blog:
This way, if you don’t find my “Thought of the Day” series entertaining or amusing, you can follow only my “real” posts, which usually have substantial content behind them. Or vice versa.
This change has also been affected in the sidebar menu, and the meta-data of the page itself.
More to come at some point, hopefully soon…
I haven’t made many “real” posts here recently, because I’ve been busy deciding what the hell I’m doing with my life. And I have the results:
I’m enlisting with the Air Force.
This may sound drastic, and completely random, but if you’re truly interested in the “Why? When? How?” then read the rest of this post… it’s long, but full of lots of data- no rambling or ranting.
Why?
As most of you know, I decided to not finish school at the end of May, and went job hunting for a full-time software position here in Silicon Valley. I spent a large portion of two months on the phone talking to both recruiters who I neither understood nor cared to deal with, and actual real people.
Some of those phone conversations turned into phone screens. Some of those turned into in-person interviews. But there was a major problem.
The end result of every interview fell into one of two categories:
Predictably, after three or four months of this circus act, I became very angry and jaded with the whole “scene”.
The clock was running down on my window to find a job, since as soon as the insurance company realized I wasn’t a student anymore, that would get pulled. So, not being able to find a job, I went back to school, only being two classes short of an A.S. in Computer Information Systems, which I’m finishing up now.
But, thinking forward, I realized there was a problem. Four, or even nine, months from now, the job situation wasn’t going to change. An Associates of Science degree wasn’t going to make any difference in how people saw my age, and the economy is only going to get worse. The end result is that after I’d have my degree, I still wouldn’t be able to find a job.
I then realized the military would be a good way to circumvent the whole corporate world. Before going to college, I had considered Air Force ROTC, but hadn’t committed, since they wouldn’t pay for full tuition. So I once again contacted them.
As it turns out, I can be guaranteed a position as a programmer in the Air Force if I pass a test of theirs, after which I’ll be sent to a highly specialized AF Tech School for 1-2 years, with the minimum tour of duty being 4 years. I’ve talked with the same AF recruiter a number of times, and did some digging into the military lifestyle through people I know either in ROTC, ex-military, or currently in a military academy.
And as of the last few days, I’ve decided to pursue that course of action.
My college experience will put me at the rank of E-3, or “Airman, First Class” (see table), which mostly just means a difference in how much money I earn. All of which is “expendable” (aka “used to pay back loan debt”), since I will have essentially no bills… food, clothing, and housing are all taken care of.
When?
Basically, the timeline for the next few years is going to look like this:
It’s pretty cut and dry. But one of the things most people don’t realize is that I’ll have 30 days of paid vacation every year… compared to 2 weeks of unpaid vacation in the corporate world. So I won’t be disappearing like most people imagine.
How?
Essentially, I’ll be leaving California. Some of the things I’ve acquired will be put into local (San Jose) storage, some will be sold, and others will go back East with me. I’ll be closing up shop in my apartment, and dividing things into “eventually need/want on base” and “goes home for when I’m on leave” categories.
After Boot Camp and school, I may end up at a base here in California, or maybe elsewhere. But in the long run, after I leave the military (whenever that is), I’ll most likely be back in the San Jose area… hence the storage.
Other than that, I’ll have to make a few other changes in my life… cut my hair, remove the piercings, and live a little differently, but it’ll be worth it.
End Game
The “endgame” to all of this is that I get to have exposure to some very interesting technology, and doing things that actually matter, as opposed to grinding away for a few years in the corporate world trying to move up the ladder enough to not hate my everyday existence.
Whether I become a civilian after four years or twenty, there’s one thing I know for sure…
People will never question my talents again.
Much to what I’m sure is the chagrin of many, I have returned to the world of the living. The connected. The digital.
Two days in Maryland, a week in Myrtle Beach, two more days in Maryland, and now I’m back in San Jose. With a terrible cold. Apparently that’s what I get for going to a sunny, hot, and wet climate. Silly me.
I’m getting caught up, and this sickness isn’t helping, so don’t expect anything too inspirational for a few days.
I just noticed that somehow I forgot to change the meta tags to FeedBurner with this new theme…
So if you’ve subscribed to my feed (any version) in the last few months, and used the auto-discovery selector in the address bar (or any other auto-discovery method that didn’t involve you physically clicking the word “RSS” to the left)… please change your subscription to http://feeds.feedburner.com/kyle-brady.
Thanks, ‘preciate it.
Being the nerd that I am, I’ve quickly created two “Knols” on Google Knol to capture the market on these topics:
That should have been pretty obvious, right? Self promotion! 
It’s pretty sick… an Alienware setup.
Pretty sick, right? Oh… and did I mention the entire system has red LEDs throughout it, that make it glow really evilly?
Me and computers usually get along pretty well. But my old computer (laptop) had been “on the fritz” the last few days, and my new computer (an Alienware… came yesterday, pics soon!) is not being very friendly about me installing Ubuntu on it’s RAID1 configuration [part1 part2].
Why am I telling “you” this? It means I haven’t gotten any work done recently, and contacting me via IM is pretty difficult… and I don’t have a dev environment since it’s Windows, so hang tight if you’re looking for more code from me.
And if you want to get in touch, email is best, for now.
I’m just not an artist. Never have, and never will be. I can do some “digital art”, but it’s pretty limited.
So, I thought for everyone’s amusement, I would post a sketch I did on Monday. It’s related to a project that we (Intuitive Industries) are starting, and I needed to be able to let people know what I was seeing in my head. I can’t say any more now, but just enjoy the sketch.
Feel free to laugh very hard.
I’ve been trying to associate the search terms “kyle brady” with me and this domain for awhile now, which is more difficult than your average person searching for themselves… I have to compete with the football player.
I occasionally search my name just to see where I happen to stand in the results for that moment (since Google’s results list can change drastically, depending on which sort algorithm they’re testing on you, it’s never a “for sure” position)… and I just came across myself in the #4 slot on the first page. I was pretty excited (how’s that for geekiness?), and took a screenshot so I have proof if other people can’t reproduce the results:
Hopefully this trend continues, and I owe a “thank you” to the feed subscribers, the actual-site-visitors, and the people that link to me (even though it’s sometimes only images that aren’t even mine).