while I'm waiting

While I'm waiting for action on my pinion, which I'm sure the general sentiment is that it will be when hell freezes over, I must advance on my business of computer consulting.

I was thinking about it and I believe there needs to be a clear difference made in my approach to people who, in the one case, want me to execute things for them and aren't interested in learning how to do much themselves, and in the other case, want me to teach them how to do things.

I would call the first case, where I execute things for them, a shadow service. In this case the client is a person totally without delusions about their computer skills, recognizes nevertheless the computer is a dandy thing, and wants to cash in on it any way he or she can. So he or she becomes a shadow sitting beside me and I become a shadow sitting beside him or her. Between us goes on all kinds of communication until we get the job done. But at the end of the session, the client is no different a person than he or she was at the beginning. I enter like a shadow and I exit like one. And he or she appears to me like a shadow too, except that in the process I have learned a lot about the person's needs and limitations of terminology and knowledge of computer processes.

The other type of client, who wants me to teach him or her how to do things on the computer, I will call simply a learner client. In this case really the door is wide open, anything is discussable, and the wider we set the agenda the more satisfied the client will eventually be. This of course requires also that my knowledge is much greater than the client's, and for many computer users this will just not be the case, and I will not be of use to him or to her. I am not a technician. I am a well-rounded scientist, and some people will find that useful and impressive, but some people will anticipate pretty much what that entails in terms of computer knowledge, and pass on it.

Next, a discussion of my background in computers.

my day at S.C.O.R.E.

Thursday I had a conference at the service corps of retired executives. Marvin listened to my business plan and opined that there's no money in it, I'll never make a living doing it. He may be right. He suggested I go ahead with it, no harm in that, but it's a hobby, not a business. I don't know, I think there will always be people who aren't technically inclined who could benefit from what a computer can do and just need someone to do it for them, provided it isn't too expensive. Maybe that's the key factor--the cost. If i can't charge enough to hire people to do it then he's right it isn't a business. I need to make enough to afford to get married, but not immediately. There's a lot of inertia I have to overcome first. Mental illness has not been kind to me. On the other hand, I have the time, best to use it to come up with some plans to make a living. I don't like the idea of being employed by someone. Too much vacuous chitchat involved in it. We'll see....

inaugural post

Welcome one and all! It is with pride and determination I begin this enterprise, having come to it through no small feat of longevity. Many is the time I have been near death's door, pitting my acumen and wits against foe, adversity, hunger, cold, exposure, enmity, misunderstanding, and any number of other similar obstacles to simply getting to the next day ready to do it all again. Well, it's been a trip. Now I'm ready to launch into my endeavor to do what others care not to, because they are too concerned with compromise. If I had been willing to compromise, I would have become a hack like everyone else. Not that I am unaware of the top of the curve, either. I know there are exceptions out there. I saw them in college at Yale. But my position is different, even from them. It is not every milenium that a human sets eyes upon the fire of Moses. If my reading is correct, the last time it was Moses. Then it happened in 1992, here in Chicago--I saw it myself with my own two eyes. Of course I shudder to think of it. The portents are not good for certain dominant entities, just as was the case in Moses's time. I would not be honest if I said I had nothing to do with the Wall Street crisis of the past month. And the end is not in sight. Now I am in a different situation from when I was adrift alone, facing those things of which I just spoke. The tables have turned. And information is flowing in the other direction. Whether the money will too, that's anyone's guess. But the imbalance of resources, between me and the rulers, is now being reduced. Moses wanted the Jews freed. That was his path. Mine is different. I want some resources of my own. and when I get them, by any means legal, I will remove my lock on the economy. It's that simple.

Now I will say a little about the easiest way for me to be given resources. I am not a slacker. I like to work. I have a second B.A. from U.C.S.C. in physics and I am able to serve computer users less skilled than myself as a consultant. I will sit at your side at a computer and get it to do what you want, for $20 an hour. That's pretty cheap. I have taken out some ads in free online classifieds. We'll see if I get any emails from prospective customers.

That should do it for getting this ship assail. I hope we can have a free discussion of anything you want. I'm a pretty good conversationalist, and, despite the grim situation, and my part in it, I'm a pretty compassionate kinda fella. maybe that's my problem.

til next time...