It is not a typo. I did not mean Grand, but Grant as last night I met Grant Imahara, one of the Myth Busters. A celebrity at that, my interest in meeting the guy was not because I am a fanatic of the Myth Buster as much as I am an R2D2 fan. And just by pure chance (or should I say luck?), he happens to be one of the R2D2 technicians as well as one of the three legal R2D2 drivers.
Grant appeared as a Keynote speaker for the MSP430 Advanced Technical Conference. Filled with Geeks, we all enjoyed his talk quite a bit. He was pretty funny and shared enough previous experiences for most of us to envy him to death. At least that's what I though... Was I wrong? Apparently!
Before I go on explaining why I am so surprised, I must offer a little bit of personal background. On 1995, I started sending letters to Lucas Film and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the creators of Star Wars and R2D2. My goal was to be the R2D2 guy, or at least one of them. I even started the production of my R2D2 replica, hoping that Lucas Film would see my potential. Three letters later, I deduced the obvious. I could be R2D2's reincarnation and unless I lived in LA, there would be very little chance for a single one of my atoms to hit ILM. So I accepted the fact some other lucky dude was going to be the R2D2 guy.
Now... For ten years I have become quite a builder. To the point that all of my friends, as they watch the Myth Buster TV show on the Discovery Channel, they tell me: "Man! That's the job that you need to be a happy guy!" And this comes because not only they know all about my repository of building talents, but because it is imminent for the past ten years I have been awarded with the most boring of all jobs on the planet. I am what is called a Boredom Beta Tester. I wish I could be paid accordingly...
Well guess what? Either ILM or any TV show are close to impossible to land as a job. To get in to these jobs there is no resume big enough. You need a buddy to get in! Which is what I am lacking at the moment...
Whatever the case, it was a lot of fun to hear the Myth Buster talk about some of his cool experiences. I was exalted! I felt new waves of motivation as I heard him talked as well as afterwards, when I analyzed the vital data.
So next day I sit with a few Engineers at one of the luxurious dinner tables. It took me a bit of work to bring the Grant topic, which was a totally useless gesture as faster than the speed of light it was dropped again. Instead the other engineers decided to enjoy from a conversation regarding taxes, rising housing prices and retirement.
WHAT THE PHOCK? Here we have the luckiest guy on Earth (has all the cool jobs there can be) and all they can talk about is housing and taxes?
Then it hit me. There is in reality not six billion human beings trying to steal my dream job. There are actually a bunch of people that like what they do and it has nothing to do with ILM, special effects, or R2D2 (which is a dead job anyway)
Heck! I may still have a chance!
