One Over X News

What do I do?

Somewhere along the way, back in the archives of this Blog there is an admission that I am a full-grown nerd. There is exactly nothing wrong with that. It is just that I received an email from someone that I have never met who addressed me as a fellow nerd. Then he asked me what I do for a living.

Obviously I don't write for a living. It's not like I am not trying to make the career change. It is just that there are these things called bills and sometimes the father of three teenagers needs to write the checks.

And so I do what any self respecting nerd does, I work in the computer biz.

Despite being a lifelong nerd, I did not buy my first PC until 1994. Buying it wasn't even my idea. There was this great myth going around at the time that kids would actually need a PC in their home in order to be functional at school. By the time that became reality, that first computer was so obsolete that I was already occupying space on a shelf in the garage. Anyone want a vintage i486SX based PC?

Those of you who know me or have worked with me along the way know that I spent a good bit of my life working for what is now one of the largest retailers in the country. Mostly, I ran the garden department. Over the twelve years that I worked for that company I ran every department. At some point I had learned their computer systems so well that anytime something went wrong with the store systems, I was the one that usually fixed things. At one point I was even recuited for an IS coordinator position but at the time I was making a lot more money with bonuses and stock options.

What is funny about that whole scenario is that it wasn't until my 7th year with that company that I even owned a personal computer. Imagine this, when I bought that first personal computer I really did not want it and didn't think I would ever find a reason to have one.

Anyway I can sympathize with almost anyone who buys a new computer and gets it home, struggles to figure out that almost everything is color coded, then finally presses the 'on' button and wham, welcome to the future!

Between my former employer and my present one I worked a lot of strange part time jobs. I even delivered newspapers. I lived way out in the contry when I was a little boy so I never had the wonderful experience of delivering papers. I think it is a checkbox on some form that nerds have to fill out over the course of their lives. Maybe that is why I had to do it.

One of the more interesting jobs that I had was representing vendors in the computer industry. The nice fringe of that job was that the company was based in Las Vegas so twice I year I got a paid trip to visit and learn from the vendors that I represented.

I went to Las Vegas four times in two years, saw a couple of shows, didn't win anything but I didn't lose anything either; I never gambled.

From 1994 to 1999 I had gone from staring at C:>\ with a blinking cursor next to it to giving training seminars on the latest and greatest gadgets in the biz, the hottest new oprocessors and the slickest new software.

I still give training sessions. Usually one on one at the store. I have helped some of my customers get off the onramp to the information superhighway, as a friend of my aptly put it. I also give presentations to larger groups, something I used to do a lot of but am only now getting back into doing it. In fact I am doing one tomorrow in Cocoa, FL at the Public Library for the Space Coast PC User's Group. The subject is Viruses and Spyware. Next month I am giving a presentation in the Melbourne Public Libary for the Brevard User's Group on a new device I haven't even played with yet, called Sling Box by Sling Media. Google it, it is pretty neat.

I enjoy talking to groups. It is kind of funny in a way. I used to hate giving speeches in school. I swear I have never pictured anyone in the audience naked as a means of settling my nerves. It doesn't work anyway. My eyes always seem to land on the most attractibe women and well, I am damned uncomfortable giving a speech in front of a naked woman - even if her state of disrobing is only wishful thinking.

E

posted by Unknown @ 8:23 PM