Inspire…

I’m back!! (to Italy that is…)

Posted: March 6, 2007 in Italy

going away party

Hey Friends and Fam,

After 13 hours of total travel time, I’m now at Cadorna station waiting for Massi to pick me up for the last 15 minute drive to the office.

What an interesting trip! It started with a 1 pm flight where I sat directly behind an intoxicated adolescent. This cat was the epidemy of a college frat boy, popped purple polo, and the retched smell of a whiskey bar. At first he was the laughing stock on the plane ride with his drunken slurr, harassment of the flight attendant, and his inability to keep his voice down. Then he took a turn for the worse… he started hammering down a couple bloody marys. Haha, some old man in the front couldn’t put up with the drunks obnoxiously loud voice and insanities so he shook his hand in reprimand. Then the kid tried heading to the back of the plane during turbulence for a restroom break and he dropped like a sack of potatoes…ha, what a Richard.

Anyways, while this drunk was keeping most people occupied, I was being ‘that guy’. Yep, I caught my self dosing off Natasha style. Yep, my head fell straight back and my mouth wide open. Someone could have dropped a can of worms in there and I wouldn’t have noticed. Now, this is still up for debate, but my roommates have said that sometimes I snore or “breath deeply” in a nice way, but in some ways they may be right. I finally woke up from my daze by a sound my nose made… This was only because my head was straight back and I couldn’t breath! I promise, I don’t snore!

Well, I also had some time to kill on the 8 hour flight over the big pound and here are two things that I learned:

1. A new IPOD battery, (tested by LabVIEW) lasts for 8 solid hours of music!
2. What do gay termites eat? Ans. woodpeckers haha, come on, its better than the dictator joke! (comments welcome on this joke!)

Ok, I’m done

Keep checking back and I’ll keep you guys up to date with my crazy antics

I’m going back to Italy!!!

Posted: February 21, 2007 in Italy, USA

Join us for the biggest bash this year as we celebrate some pretty cool people! The honorees of the night think you are pretty cool too, and would love nothing more than for you to join us at this send-off/birthday bash!

Happy Birthday to…

Steven “Shamelessness” Bassett (February 20)

Brian “Platty” Platt (February 28)

Tiffany “Ballcock” Morrison (March 3)

Natasha “Fun-loving, American Hating Commie” Lingurovska (March 8)

This is also Jordan “Italian Cowboy” Randall’s last weekend in Austin before going back to Italy for 2 years, so let’s send him off in style.

We will kick the wild night off at 6:30pm with some fish-fry dinning, birthday cake eating, and pre-downtown drinking at Jordan’s house. There will be plenty of food and beer, but feel free to bring other festive beverages and food of your liking.

After eating and pre-drinking, and maybe a little Happy Birthday song and dance, we will head downtown to be at Maggie Mae’s on 6th by 10:30pm for some drunken debauchery and good times for all. We hope you’ll join us for both the festivities, but if you want to meet up downtown for a shot or two, thats cool too!

And as always, the more the merrier, so bring anyone that likes to have a good time. We hope to see you all there!

I’m home!!!

Posted: January 12, 2007 in Italy, USA

I need to give a shout out to all corporate AEs, Marketing, and R&D for answering all of my branch escalations. I have witnessed first hand what it feels like to be on the other side of the table when it comes to relying on corporate to answer questions for a branch, and I must say that each and every one of you have a dramatic impact on the success of our branches. I’m really excited about putting together a continuous education meeting when I return to enlighten you all.
2007 looks like its going to be one of the best years EVER!

Happy New Year! (belated)

Posted: January 12, 2007 in Austria, Chec Republic, Germany, Switzerland

It started out in Italy…

So we headed downtown Milan to party once more before our long trip. Lolapaluzua style! Girls jumping on the bar, old men scaring Natasa, and just a grand ol time!

party-in-milan

note: Stevo and I were trying to sing in this picture as loud as possible… it sounded good!

Then we made the 14 hour drive to Prague… The peanut gallery in the back got some sleep while the fearless road leaders charged on!

sleeping-in-back

As we passed through the alps, we didn’t necessary take the fasted route but it gave me a chance to practice my S turns, while making Natasa and Brandon Nauseated… sorry guys!

14-hour-trip

Another interesting spot was the German Autobahn… no kidding, speed limits are only suggested. Stevo maxed the Picasso out at 115… we noticed excessive vibrations coming from the rear so we backed off… all the mean while flagship beamers where sailing past us like the tortoise and hare.

Ok so we arrived in Prague around 2:00 AM and Stevo and I went out for a beer. When we came back around 5:00 AM we passed out only to be woken up around 7:30 by the crash of something outside our door. Then, the door opened! NATASA! She had woken up in the middle of the night and the food she had eaten the night before most have been poisoned or something because she was in some serious pain. Stevo and I were a little freaked out at first but once we made her chug some water everything was good to go.

then-new-years

THEN NEW YEARS!

What do you get when you mix beer, fireworks, and no rules?

video to come early next week….

Snowboarding

Posted: December 17, 2006 in Switzerland

Hey everyone,

I thought I would throw a video up here of this last weekend. We took a 2 hour drive up to the mountains for a little snowboarding. Fortunately, the season just started so the lines were short and we also found some powder at the top.

Videos ARE WORKING!!!

Posted: December 11, 2006 in Videos

Hey Everyone, when you have a few minutes… take a look at my video section! I finally figured out the html code to get it working.

Around Milan

Posted: December 10, 2006 in Italy

L’Artigiano in Fiera

The L’Artigiano is an enormous expo where all craftsmen around Europe have a giant swap meet. This is the world’s biggest trade fair dedicated to arts and crafts. This is where I went yesterday for 7 hours and was still unable to see every single booth. They exhibition rooms where separated by region making each one culturally unique. I found numerous gifts for friends and family in this place and enjoyed seeing the entrepreneurial skills of each craftsman.

The Office

We now have our first Intern! When I arrived just 2 months ago we had 5 AEs, now we’re at 7! This has given me the opportunity to present weekly on ELP Foundation and Leadership series classes as well as provide a focused push on CC and FOD. Also, you better watch out Corp. AEs, were about to pump out some content and link some SRs like you have never seen before!

Nizza (Nice)

Posted: December 10, 2006 in France

Nice was fantastic. The weather was great and even warm enough to take a dive in the Mediterranean. I also had my first experience with Socco. It’s a French food that reminds me of burnt pancakes that surprisingly tastes good. I was only there for a weekend, but decided to explore Monaco on Saturday and Nice on Sunday.

Monaco is about a 20 minute train ride from Nice and it’s where the “1 percentile” live. I wasn’t sure what they meant by “1 percentile”, but I quickly found out when I arrived at Port de Monaco. It means Monaco has money, lots of it, invested in high-speed luxury cars, and sleek yachts. Here is a picture of the one I’m going to own one day. (Hey Amanda, show your dad this one) Bad A$$

yacht

If the yachts don’t do it for you, then maybe the million dollar cars will.

cars

Mercedies Benz, Mclaren – 900,000.00 euros
130 ft cruiser yacht, Overmarine – 17,000,000.00 euros
My AE Branch Assignment – Priceless!

At Monaco’s center is the famous casino in Monte-Carlo. I had a hundo burnin a hole in my pocket so I hit the roulette table. I once heard a wise man tell me to always double down (I’m not going to give his name up but it starts with “T” and ends with “odd”). Well, this didn’t go as planned. With a 10 euro minimum, I hit Red 4 times in a row and the house hit black… so I tapped out and walked away 80 Euro’s less. Oh well, I’ll get my money back from Todd when I return.

Nice is a bit more touristy. It also has casinos, miles of beaches, and cliff side villas. I was excited to jump in the Mediterranean, but I had to first painfully walk across the endless stretch of pebbles. This was not cool. The pebbles come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and directions

nice

Even though perfecting my tan along with topless sunbathers was definitely a plus, I had to explore the 11th century cathedral at the highest point in Nice. This hill top marks the birthplace and has some spectacular views.

Nice

Around 8:00 pm I caught the 4 hour train ride home and met up with John Stutz, a C programmer by trade, and semi-pro photographer by heart. He works in Dublin but travels every month. He may even party with Steve, Natasa, Nyquist, Brandon, and I in Prague over New Years.

Hola mi amigos! Madrid or Bust

Posted: December 4, 2006 in Spain

Madrid was fantastic! If you think Brian Spears is the most likely to be seen at the bars on 6th Street, then you have another thing coming. My roommate Jaime tops the charts! Jaime is an AE from Spain who is in Italy right now for training. Jaime tried to warn me about how much people like to party in Spain, but he didn’t tell me that every square mile of that city is filled with the bar scene. Let me just put it into perspective… If you take the party scene on 6th street from Buffalo Billiards to Esters follies and extend from 35 to Mopac, rotate it 180 degrees, and keep it open till 7:30 am… THEN you might be able to fathom what this place looks like. Usually, (from what I’ve heard but not experienced) you can have a drink at each bar on 6th street in a single night. Whereas if you tried that in Madrid, I’m afraid you would never see the light of day again.

Well, overall I would definitely rank this place as one of my favorites for atmosphere but not even close to Italy in Cuisine.

Madrid

Here is a picture of downtown when I arrived Friday night. Almost every single street already has all of its Christmas lights up.

Moto

Here is the motorcycle I rented while I was in Madrid. Haha, j/j some restaurant had it parked out front.

prado

During the day I had a chance to see the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and the Museo del Prado. They had paintings from numerous artists including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali,…, well actually that is all I remember. If your interested here is a picture of the museum, unfortunately no pictures could be taken inside… Sorry to all the art history buffs

bar scene

A few other bar scene photos… these are some random friends I met up with from Australia, the UK, USA, and Spain. I have a few videos from that night that are hilarious!

too tall

And last but not least, I’m afraid the civil engineers for the underground in Spain have something against tall people, That or nobody in Spain is taller than 6 feet. Almost every subway station I went to was approximately 6 inches too short!

Thriving on Chaos!

Posted: December 3, 2006 in In the office, Italy

From almost going to Jail to working with Chinese customers I have had my hands full! Every single week brings new experiences I have never seen before. I have also been trying to travel every single weekend during my stint in Europe, though exhausting, it has also been extremely enjoyable.

So I finally got the access code for the building here in NI Italy which allows me to come to work during non local business hours for my meetings with Corporate. Well, when you type the code in you also have to follow the instructions… in Italian. Granted, I’m getting better at Italian and I can order my own meal at dinner, but when you have to answer 4 questions on this little LCD screen within 15 seconds things get a little nerve racking. Needless to say, I DIDN’T finish answering the questions fast enough and sure enough a 120 dB alarm system started blaring in my ear until I felt Nauseated. If that wasn’t enough, the carabinieri (police) showed up trying to ask who I was … in Italian. Anyways, that was one of my unexpected experiences over a weekend and it ended up getting straightened out after I got a hold of someone I work with.

(note: As Spears put in his disclaimer, some of these paragraphs contain several acronyms and terminology that has been know to induce narcolepsy in nonemployees of NI… so I’ll try to elaborate )

Obviously, customer support in Italy is primarily in Italian so my ability to communicate directly to customers is minimal. Therefore, part of my customer support role has been focused on training Applications Engineers (AEs), Internal Sales Representatives (ISRs), and Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) on our specialty products as well as being the primary contact for District Sales Managers (DSMs) in Italy. I now have sympathy for Todder and Kis as the platinum team managers when they have to answer hundreds of calls from FSEs and DSMs who are in need of a Proof of Concept (POC) for their “Top Account”… I’m not sure how Todder and Kis feel, but I am noticing that every single customer is a “Top Account”. J Some of the coolest POCs that NI Italy is working on involve Ducati, Ferrari, Perilli tire, and FIAT

For those of you who might have sat next to me while I was on the phone at corporate or attended the AE awards when Todder poorly attempted to imitate my “Thermocouple Thursday” introduction, then you might understand the importance of the table below. I have recently explained the power of “Thermocouple Thursday” to the Italian AEs and we have come up with the Italian conversion for you viewing pleasure.

Jordo’s Vernacular Conversion

ENGLISH

Measurement Studio Monday

TDM Tuesday

Waveform Wednesday

Thermocouple Thursday (my fav!)

File I/O Friday

ITALIAN

Lookout Lunedi

Modular Instruments Martedi

Measurement Studio Mercoledi

GPIB Giovedi

VLM Venerdi

I have also tried to answer an Italian Discussion post using the knowledge I have learned from my teacher and the help of the Google translator. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t understand the importance of inverting adverbs and nouns when it translates so when I asked my fellow Italian AEs to check out my post they said I sounded like I was a robot… Well, Robot or not, at all costs Support Customers and Develop Leaders baby!

(check out the forth post)

Chiudere l’esecuzione automatica

AE conference is just around the corner and it looks like we will have 3 AEs coming from Italy. Giuseppe Nardeli, Marco Lencioni, Filippo Persia (note: only NIers can see these links) so when they get there I would like all of you to give them a big Texan “Howdy Partner” and also let them know that we don’t ride a horse to work… except Jeramie ( haha) Oh, and yes Rebecca I will introduce you to my Italian friends.

Then, just last week I had another realization of NI’s Global presence. One of our AEs here got a call from a customer who could only speak Chinese and was trying to get some help on a system level project that incorporated multiple NI product lines. It turned out that an Italian customer purchased a system from China that was built by one of our Alliance Members in China. The Italian customer needed help setting up his system so one of the engineers from China flew to Italy to help their customer set up the system. Then he needed more help so he called NI Italy for additional support and this is when we had a chance to contact the AEs at NI Shanghai and the problem was resolved. Talk about Dominating DAQ in China.. Well done NI Shanghai, thanks for the seamless support!

Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to seeing you in January!