Third time around

Now that I have discovered the pitfalls of editing "live" – having lost my first attempt at round three.  I was going along very well, had several paragraphs all done and I hit the Save button and looked at my empty Post.  It had totally disappeared and there was no sign to be found of my writing anywhere.

So now I will try continuing/reattempting my efforts with the aid of a Blog editor.  I certainly hope this will get me further along than the previous attempt.

With my third post for the blog, I had begun providing some information to tell who I am.  Actually, the original third post was intended to be titled "What I do."  Let’s try that again.

When I first went off to college, many years ago, I went with high hopes and lofty dreams.  I had definite plans for my future and had decided early in high school how I wanted my life to develop.  I wanted to be a rocket scientist (no, I’m serious!)  I wanted to send rockets into space and make space travel real.

A high school counselor had recommended an "occupational interest survey," a battery of questions evaluating my interests against those of professionals working in specific areas.  My scores indicated that my interests pointed to a successful future in computers and computer programming. 

I had no interest in computers at all.  Now, I should say that at that time computers usually occupied a room all by themselves where humidity and temperature were tightly controlled.  Input into the computer was restricted to large decks of computer cards and huge spools of magnetic tape.  Output was just as formidable in huge stacks of continuous paper sheets that folded to form those stacks.  Both sides were perforated along the edges to accommodate the tractor feed that moved the paper for printing.

I had heard about computers and I wanted no part of them.  I was perfectly satisfied with my slide rule and handbooks of mathematics and physics.

Thirty-five years later and what am I doing with my life?  Well, I’m a consultant providing services in the field of software configuration management (SCM.)  That’s right…I work with computers daily.  I support the programmers and software engineers with guidance, training and the administration of their SCM tools.  And on a fairly frequent basis, that requires me to also be a computer programmer.

Time for a second post

Well, I don’t know that I can declare this as getting any easier.  I suppose it comes easy for some people, but after spending all day at the computer at work, I don’t come back to it easily once I get home.

Texas continues its unseasonally warm weather, but it looks like the cold may be just around the corner.  Wednesday is supposed to see about a 40 degree drop and chance of rain, with a rainy weekend and more cold weather due Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, Sunday night I’ll be finishing up our study in the Minor Prophets with a study of Malachi.  Then I expect there to be a few weeks off since the holidays are upon us.

Once again it is already late for me since I have to get up so early in the morning to get off to work, so I will take a little longer to see what comes of this.

Till next time, good night and may God bless.

M

Hello world!

Okay, I’ve just about worn out my navigator moving back and forth through this and several other pages.  This has been one very busy Saturday here in Texas!  Now I’ve just got to wrap everything up and see that it all is running and working as it should be.

I’ve done some rework on the website www.dixiegunsmith.com and now it even includes a link to the blog here.  Now I’ll need to see if Jamey wants to do likewise and maybe he could contribute some of his own writing to the world through another blog.  Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

 Even though this should be very short and succinct, it’s still definitely a “Hello world!” moment.  Oops, wait a minute…that’s what “Hello world!” has been all about since the beginning of programming textbooks!

Well, good night and may God bless!

M