A quick first post to introduce myself to the Steemit Community!
A new year and a new venture are beginning for me here. Though I joined the community around Christmas I've been very sick with pneumonia and haven't managed to introduce myself yet. Well, I'm finally feeling a bit bitter, so here goes...
The short list goes something like this:
When I was on the street at 16 my girlfriend got pregnant and we desperately needed a place to stay and a way to get our lives together. The kids at school would pass us around when parents were out of town so we could come and take showers and sleep indoors. One kid let our "network" know his mother would be out of town and we went to spend the night.
Unbeknownst to us his mother had changed her plans at the last minute and was home when we got there. He came clean and told her the whole story. She (thankfully) let us spend the night and long story short she let us stay until the baby was born, provided we got jobs and paid $30 a month to stay there.
The year was 1983, the year of the foodcourt! We both got jobs the next day in the food court.
I was hired at a potato place called Tater Junction. All we served were baked potatoes, potato skins, salads and dessert. I got two raises after my first day of work! And within 3 months I was the manager - at 17. Something I've always been very proud of.
I handled everything: ordering produce, hiring, firing, training, banking. It was a lot of power for a 17 year old.
When I was 19 I became a Christian. It was 1986 and computers were really starting to take off, in the business world that is.
I got a new job working for the Texas Water Utilities Association as a database clerk. DBase was the data format I used at the time on our PC at work. We also used a Trash 80 for typesetting.
We hosted all the Continuing Education Classes for the Water Workers for the State of Texas. That's how I got into print.
At the time a computer couldn't render an image, only graphed astericks. (Anyone remember those?) I used an old Trash 80 computer to typeset and then waxed and pasted our copy on sheets of paper for layout.
Man things have come a long way in this industry since the days of hand cutting color separations and half tone images! In fact, this is a dying industry due to desktop publishing and pdfs. But, what are you going to do?
I've worked in many applications of the art from political consultants to newspapers, yellow pages, magazines, books and now web design.
I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial mindset and so dabble with making a living online.
I've taught myself all of these skills, including SEO, CSS, HTML and the like. I enjoy the work, but would love to do something more fulfilling. At this time I have not yet decided what that might be.
But, having turned 50 this last year, I guess it's time to get myself in gear and finally decide what I want to be when I grow up. I think I would like to get into public speaking. We'll see.
