Update on my life

[johnpalmer]

Well... it's been an interesting few weeks.

I've been having another one of those "What do I want to be when I grow up?" phases, and I've been realizing that being an IT guy in this situation is *not* what I want to be when I grow up. In fact, I'm not sure I'm too happy about it as a temporary placeholder.

Over the summer, as I was helping my brother, I realized that healing work of some form is part of who I am, and always has been. The difference, of course, is now *I* am close enough to 'well' that I can think more seriously about it, I think. Around the time of ladysprite's wedding, my plans started to solidify.

Right now, I have too many money entanglements to think of just going back to school for counselling; if I were debt free and had some savings, I might consider it, but I'm not debt free, and I might be in more debt as I start cutting my marriage loose. I'd *really* like to give Chris a car as part of a property settlement... her car is old, and in bad shape. Car payments, and possibly help with her COBRA coverage, could require me to keep working in a semi-lucrative profession.

So, I decided to learn Perl, and PHP, and CGI, and other collections of letters, and work on web design skills enough to be able to maintain websites and connected databases. I hope that will give me enough salable skills to keep earning some income if/when I go back to school.

Eventually, I hope to be able to cut loose from the rat race enough to follow my heart a little bit more, be it writing (serious, mystical, fictional, or some combination of all of those), finding out where I can go in the healing arts, or whatever.

And then... well, and then, things get a bit vague. I'm not sure how to start, or where to go once I've started. Blank page syndrome, I suppose.

That, and I've been having some down-feeling days recently, which is probably caused by the cloudiness and shorter days.

But, in the meantime, I have some Perl, PHP, and CGI books that I'm starting to read through and I'm feeling relatively good about that. Even if this isn't one of the tools that will help me pursue my dream, it's good to be working on something, rather than just spinning my wheels.

Comments

[caltastic]

If ever you'd like to have some personal tutoring on PHP and/or webdesign, please drop me a line? I'd love to help, if you need it. I owe you for all the Calculus, still. :)

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

I think I missed the part where you guys were splitting up. How can I get hold of her?

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I've just sent myself a reminder to bring that Dreamweaver disk (and manual) home when you come down next weekend. I also have PHP and MySQL For Dummies, which is, well, one of those "for dummies" books, but might be a decent opening bridge between what you already know and what you want to know.

I'm feeling ... pleased ... at the thought that I might be able to help get you started on some skill-shaping, especially considering how much you've already done for me in that regard. (I'm also madly looking forward to seeing you again, but that's another subject entirely ...)

[ztrooper.livejournal.com]

If there is something, anything, I can do to help you out, I'm here. I lost you once, I'm not going to lose you again.

[sfw-dc.livejournal.com]

Have you considered getting a job that would pay for school?

That's why I work for a university. I wanted a master's and couldn't afford it. So I got a job at a university. The pay is not bad - you can find ok salaries in the academic world if you look around. And around here all the universities (except Georgetown) offer tution benefits. I got 2 classes a semester, in any field I want, subject only to academic restrictions, free. I got a master's without paying any tuition.

Anyhow, if that's the way you want to go, it's worth looking into.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

john...i love ya, man...take care

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Her old e-mail address is still working, nekosama, and then the old company (ix.netcom.com). Also, the area code is 253, the exchange is 796, and the remainder is 7268. (I'm not sure if there's any reason to protect phone numbers, but given how much I protect e-mail addresses, it just seems like a good idea.)

Right now, she's planning on moving back home, rather than trying to live on her own. I think it's a bad idea to move back home, but I have to admit, she's not ready to attempt living on her own, and even if it's a bad idea, it's her life, now.

(Yes, she might well be able to move back home; if you go back in my journal to just before the 18th of September, you'll realize why this might be possible, if things keep happening.)