Hi friends, since I've gotten three "are you OK?" messages now I guess it's time to speak up and let folks know what I've been up to.
Thanks for your concern, but I'm totally fine, honest. I've just been really busy with multiple jobs, mostly jobs I love.
Musically, I'm more in demand than ever these days. I'm playing with my old band, Daddy-O-Strut, playing with the Bridgepoint Church band every Saturday morning and special events, playing at Darwin's open jam every Wednesday night, and doing any pickup gigs I can get, which are getting more numerous. I'm also in discussions about future collaborations. The biggest challenge is that I was recently accepted into the Kennesaw State University Jazz Ensemble, a true Big Band (around 20 players); their material is the toughest I've ever played, and will take a lot of practice and personal growth. I'd love to do more playing though, so if you know of any opportunities to work or even sit in, please mention my name and let me know.
On the computer front, I'm doing independant contracts as a trainer. I'm a Microsoft Certified Trainer, but have been mostly teaching Network+ and A+ classes. I've also taught classes such as Windows 2000 For Support Personnel, Cisco Certification Overview and TCP/IP Beyond The Basics. I'm currently in a contract teaching Network+ at AT&T two days a week, but negotiating other contracts too. Also, I'm taking as many classes as I can fit in, to diversify what I can teach and do; the most recent was MacroMedia Director, a content animation package suitable for web content or educational software. Please keep me in mind if you know of anyone with training needs.
All this has been working around my day job, working in the CompUSA Technical Services shop. I just resigned from that job, which is why I have the time to write this.
It's great to be able to find things you love to do, and then get paid to do them. Now if only someone would pay me to ride my motorcycle through the mountains on pretty spring days! Short of that, though, I would appreciate hearing about any job opportunities, full or part time, that you think I might fit into. I'd especially welcome network-related work. And I look forward to hearing about what you've been doing, and would like to do; perhaps I can help arrange it.
Best Wishes and Keep Moving! George
Random Thoughts:
It looks like we gotta face the fact that Jimmy Carter was right about our needing to conserve energy. I just read that California will start imposing random power outages at noon hour, to save power. Think I'm kidding? Here's the news story: http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0100&id=0103191547335802
(the above address should be all on one line)
Would you like a raise? Is your power bill too high? Consider that replacing just one light bulb with a new micro-flourescent bulb is like stuffing $65 in your pocket. (actual energy savings based on $0.10 per Kilowatt/Hour, the national average. Triple that for some parts of the country.) And that's not even counting the expense and time of replacing the equivalent old-style bulbs. I have been using these bulbs for years, and love them. I have never had one burn out, ever. They run 4 to
5 times more efficiently than a regular bulb, and outlast them by 16 times! There are many brands of these bulbs, but you can see a Savings Calculator at http://www.lightsofamerica.com/calculator.htm They are cheapest at Sam's, Costco or Home Depot, especially in the twinpacks. Just don't put them on a circuit with a dimmer, unless you get the fancy lights (or have the fancy flourescent dimmer) that can handle that. Highly Recommended!
Here's one from my bud, The Markster: This is a link to a very slick and cool Java applet that shows where the International Space Station is in orbit: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/ It'll take a minute or two to load the first time, much faster after that.
If I were to choose a computer career right now, I'd study programming. People who can write Java, XML, or even Visual Basic are not only in high demand, they can choose where they work. Get a good reputation as a programmer and you can work from anywhere with an Internet connection, such as a ski lodge or tropical condo. Lots of technology companies are helping to prepare for this shift in the mass market, but it's entirely possible right now for a select few such as programmers or technical writers. Tell your kids, it's better to work from a beach than a cubicle. Dude!
That's enough for now. See you at Darwin's!
=============================================
One easy page to validate virus & chain-letter hoaxes: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
=============================================
Monday, March 26, 2001
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
