Who are you? Who who? Who who?

* How old are you: not quite old enough for retirement

* Tattoos: 1. One little black dot. Poked my palm with a sharp pen while being stupid capping it.

* Ever hit a deer: Yes. Baby deer ran in front of me and exploded. Had the car for 2 weeks.

* Ridden in an ambulance: No. Sat in one for a breathing treatment while my wife was being evaluated for concussion (none) after a tree crashed through our roof after being struck by lightning. She had part of our ceiling crash on her, I got a face-full of attic dust and insulation, and I have asthma and bad lungs.

* Sang karaoke: Never. Have considered it.

* Ice skated: Yep.

* Ridden a motorcycle: Yes, when I was young and foolish. Wouldn't again.

* Stayed overnight in hospital as a patient: Let's see. Six operation before I was 10 years old? Yes. But not since, surprisingly.

* Skipped school: I think I did on Senior Ditch Day, I believe that was it. Senior year I had the afternoon off for "lab work", which was me and Pat going to video arcades and eating pizza.

* Last phone call: received - Mom & Dad. Placed: firk-ding-blast lung doctor to get a new med, which still hasn't been placed!

* Last text from: pharmacy telling me a med is ready for pickup.

* Watched someone die: Yes, sadly.

* Pepsi or coke: Pepsi or Dr. Pepper, very irregularly.

* Favorite Pie: Key Lime! Or my Chocolate Mousse! Apple is good, as is my cherry pie.

* Favorite pizza: Pepperoni. All others are inferior.

* Favorite season: Summer. I'm from Phoenix, I love the heat though my wife melts easily, I think she's part Candleian.

* Broken bones: Of all my medical problems, I've never broken a bone.

* Received a ticket: Oh yeah....

* Favorite color: Blue or red.

* Sunset or sunrise: Sunset. NOT a morning person.

* Who will play along: Anybody who so desires. :-)

Workplace Meme

(thanks to new DW friend inklessej!)

1) Show me where you work!

That's easy: I'm unemployed! Hoping by the end of the year to be in at the local Air Force Base as a sysadmin or at the solar observatory in a similar role. The observatory job, which the IT guy wanted me for (he lives two houses down from me) didn't work because the uni decided that you had to have a BS for the job, nevermind 3 decades in the job without a degree. The bozo they hired decided he didn't like being told he had to do certain things and quit. So it'll be going up on offer again at some point.

I also work at my iMac: I'm a photographer and spend a lot of time in Photoshop and other programs. I also design board and card games.


2) Real quick: what you say...you do here?

I tell people that I'm a computer programmer. To IT people I say that I'm a Microsoft SQL Server database developer and administrator.


3) What do people always get wrong about your job/company/industry? What do you wish people knew?

People assume that Programmer = Programmer. It most certainly does not. During a stint of unemployment before I got married, my girlfriend (not my wife) had been hearing ads on the radio for a local school advertising a 'degree in game programming!' Since I like games (I design board and card games) and play computer games in addition to all sorts of board, card, and role-playing games, she thought I should go there and get a degree. The problem is that I know what that sort of programming is like. Usually you were working in C/C++ - a language that I HATE with a blinding purple passion, and very long hours - frequently 60-80 hour weeks. Basically it's a young man's job. I was in my 40s at that point, and I knew it was not a job for me.

In SQL Server and relational database, you're doing records management, me specifically more like business records management as I'd worked almost exclusively for government agencies of one form or another. I've worked for realtors, actuaries/pension plan people, government health care, law enforcement, schools, city governments: they're all different but fundamentally all the databases are all alike.


4) Tell me a story from today. It can be boring, that's ok.

Today is a mild day. Laundry as my wife is working the weekend. Sunday is the eclipse, and she'll be operating the laser at the observatory throughout the event: the retroreflectors behave differently when they're in sunlight and not. I have two or three tripods, depending on whether I can find the head for my travel tripod, and timers for my two DSLRs (my Lumix has a built-in timer), so I'm planning on doing lots of shooting. Weather forecast looks good, we'll see what happens. Other than that, I'm planning on making tacos and making my second batch of the chocolate/molasses/ginger cookies....