This is my story, and it’s gonna be a bit long, but I want you to know a little about me. After all, a large part of what I’m selling here is me. You get a lifetime of experiences. I do believe my experience will give my products and services a little more value than just the the products themselves.
Again, this is a bit long, so if you decide not to go forward, here is an easy link out – Home Page. But if you are still curious, here’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
My journey into the wonderful world of electronics started over 40 years ago. After graduating from irving High School (Go Tigers!) in Irving , Texas, I joined the United States Marine Corps. I scored high enough on the entry test to be able to choose the training and job of my choice. After much consideration, I chose avionics which is working on navigational systems on aircraft. Off to USMC boot camp in San Diego, California I went.
United States Marine Corps
After three months of boot camp, I was transferred to Naval Air Station Memphis in Millington, Tennessee for schooling.
The most difficult test during this school was the dreaded transistor theory test. It had to be passed to move forward. It’s a in-depth, multi-page test covering all aspects of transistors. No multiple choice here. It included all the formulas needed to fully understand how and why transistors work as they do and how they are used in circuits. Besides making it through boot camp, my proudest accomplishment while in the Marines was achieving a perfect score on the test. At the time, I was only the third person ever to ace the test. Now, that was a long time ago. I am sure there have been many Marines and Navy personnel ace the test since then. But at that point I was number 3!
I was proud of my time in the Marines. But when my enlistment came to an end the lure of civilian life was calling my name. So I was set, right? Great education and experience working on aircraft electronics. Jobs would be knocking at my door. Well… not quite.
You see, providing an education in electronics costs Uncle Sam a lot of time and money. He wants to recoup that investment into more enlisted time. Until you re-enlist, they don’t teach ALL the theory as technical school would. I knew enough to diagnose and repair the units in which I was trained, mainly by following flow charts. But I didn’t have the knowledge base to work on equipment i was not familiar with. If you re-enlist, you get all the theory and can work on just about anything. It may be different now, but that’s how it worked back in the early 80s.
Civilian Life
After my military separation, I landed back where I started in Irving. I worked a few odd jobs, including armed security in downtown Dallas. I even trained to be a professional wrestler for a short time. Electronics was always on my mind and I knew at one point I wanted to go back to school and learn what Uncle Sam didn’t teach me. I enrolled in a local trade school that specialized in electronics. While still attending school, I landed a job with Honeywell International repairing power supplies from mainframe computers.
At that time we would troubleshoot down to the individual components and repair them. Nowadays, the cost of electronic components and circuit boards is so much cheaper. Technicians today usually just find the faulty board and replace it. It just isn’t economical to take the time to troubleshoot down to components anymore.
Life was good. I had a good electronics job. I was finishing up school, about to graduate at the top of my class. Then, as they say – the wheels came off. A very rocky marriage which had been spiraling out of control was quickly ending. On top of that, Honeywell announced the branch I was working at in Dallas was closing and moving to Boston. I had the offer to make the move with the company, but with everything else going at the time, I elected to stay in Texas.
I worked several non-technical related jobs, eventually moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado to help open up the first Blockbuster Video stores in that state. After opening up the third store, I became homesick and moved back to Texas, eventually landing in Paris, Texas where other members of my family had settled.
Paris Public Library
After working at a local computer store for a couple of years, I landed a job at the Paris Public Library. I was hired to start their computer department. At the time, all they had for public access was two computers hooked up to a CD tower with a National Geographic CD. No Internet at all.
I spent close to 27 years building the department and helping patrons use the computers. Over the years I have helped thousands of folks research the Internet, write resumes, apply for jobs, apply for unemployment or social security benefits, etc. I was in a position to help many in situations where just a little help was needed to actually make their lives a little better. Looking back, helping those folks was what made my career at the library so meaningful to me.
After being at the library for several years, the city created an information technology department. As with most I.T. departments, only they are intelligent enough to save us from total world destruction. All of the technical aspects of my job were slowly taken away, piece-by-piece, until in the end practically nothing was left. Almost 27 years after creating the library’s computer department, I didn’t have the administrative clearance to even install a simple printer on any computer in the library. A new library director with little respect for my years of service or what I had done for the library was all the motivation I needed to retire earlier than planned.
Circuitslingers
It would be great if I were able to spend my remaining days on earth lounging on the couch, watching techie videos on YouTube or MythBusters reruns (which I do – a lot), but I need be doing something. That’s where the idea for Circuitslingers came from.
With all the new spare time on my hands, I decided I would spend it doing things I enjoyed – robotics, rocketry and drones. I’m not planning on making a lot of money, but I’m going to have a boatload of fun. Here I plan on providing information and supplies to support those great communities. So come along with me. It’s going to be a heck of a ride!