Hello 2015

[CDale]

Dude.  I drive a cab, and it's the most wonderful thing I've done since I 
graduated.  I'm -not- a techie, in spirit; I'm a writer and teacher, and 
this job is a great distancer for me.  I do some tech work in my spare 
time, but I don't live it, and the driving job has given me lots of time 
to think about what I really want to do and how I want to do it.  Driving 
has always been a therapeutic thing for me, though.  Road trips are the 
best anti-depressant.  And I dunno about the rest of the country, but cab 
drivers in south MS and LA are making money hand over fist right now!

Cab Story of the Night: 03/01/02
This girl Karen sometimes calls me to take her to the store and such.  She 
has liver cancer, and the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.  We usually 
talk about pain and how the doctors in this country are so phobic about 
addiction that they forget that who they are treating might actually be in 
enough pain to warrant that addiction.  We also talk about cats.  We love 
cats.  Anyhow, last night, I get a call from her and she wants me to take 
her "somewhere over there by the Grand Casino."  So, I'm driving her 
around and she's looking for a house or a person, and I'm starting to feel 
like this is a crack run.  (We cabbies have tons of crack runs and there 
are several way to deal with them.  In most cases, I capitalize on them by 
charging extra).  So I finally ask her what she's looking for, and those 
wonderful huge brown eyes spill it all.  Crack.  Okay, so I take her to 
the place I know of and she does the deal.  Normally, if someone I take on 
a crack run isn't some hardened junkie, I might try to talk to her about 
it a little.  I know I am not going to stop these junkies from doing this 
shit, but still, I feel obligated.  But what do you say to someone who has 
liver cancer?  "That stuff will kill you?"  No.  I just asked her if it 
really helped, and she said it helped by just getting her out of her body.  
for a while.  She bought $200.00 worth last night.  Her doctors give her a 
prescription for 2 lortabs a day.  Sheeesh.

Most of the time my Stories of the Night are funny, but many times they 
are like this.  You get to know the regulars who ride cabs, and sometimes 
their lives are so painful you can hardly stand it.  In any case, this is 
much more "real" than any tech work I could do, and "real" is what I'm 
into.
Cindy


On Sat, 2 Mar 2002, Michael Watson wrote:

> I am at a similar turning point in my life and your post has heartened me. I
> am thinking along the same lines as you. In fact, one of my thoughts has
> been to drive a cab to pay bills while working on open source code. However,
> I am really turned off by the rabid anti-microsoft sentiments among some of
> the open-source programmers. That is all well and good, but it would be
> extreme ingratitude for me to join the chorus since I am currently living
> off Microsoft Works money. Many of the programmers at Microsoft are just as
> passionate about their code as any open source programmer.
> 
> I recently got a massage and during the massage I shared my recent
> near-death experience with the therapist. She in turn shared that she felt
> she was inhabited by personalities from the past. I am trying to keep a much
> more open mind so I didn't even think to question her reality. Her comment
> that really struck home to me was "There are many of us who have important
> things to say but we don't know how to get our message out on the internet".
> That got me thinking of a direction to go in. Might be a good way to meet
> women too. :-)
> 
> Michael
> 
> At 11:00 AM 3/2/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >About five years ago I went through a similar period after a good friend
> >died.  It was a turning point in my life.  I stopped working pure money
> >jobs and started thinking of a life coding as being the same kind of life
> >as an artist's.  If that had never happened I would never have achieved
> >the profound satisfaction I've gotten from open source development,
> >projects done at my own expense just for the love of it.
> >
> >I used the absurd hourly rates from 95-2000 mainly to finance hacking and
> >music.  ...in a way it bugs me that I didn't use the time to stock up on
> >cash, but I am overall very happy to have been able to put my career in
> >service of my life.
> >
> >
> >On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Michael Watson wrote:
> >
> >> Hi, this is my first post to this list. I am a technologist whose focus has
> >> recently shifted . I am looking for a place to discuss issues related to my
> >> new focus. I have spent the last 20 years writing 68K asm/C/C++ code; I was
> >> one of the original authors of Microsoft Works for the Mac. Having
> >> established my street cred, as the hip-hop people would say, I would like to
> >> ask if this list is appropriate for what I want to talk about. First let me
> >> describe what shifted my focus,
> >
> >
> >
> >http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork
> 

-- 
"My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not
          signed."  (Christopher Morley)