written by owen on 2004-Sep-05.

I rarely ever tell people what I do. Mainly because there ins't anything really obvious about being a software specialist. Usually I would say I'm a writer or journalist for a local newspaper - less to explain. I would much rather talk about you. Then at that point I pull out my digital camera which helps to navigate the conversation away from the topic of what I do. Most people cannot handle an in depth explanation of the inner workings a conditional loop. To most people software is microsoft word and a web site is used to check email.
I avoid the subject as best as possible, because people usually get confused and then you will try to explain and they get even more confused. I am in the wilderness, you are in the music in the nice car next to me. I am a good listener and I can argue on pretty much any topic except religion and the sponge-bob-square-pants. If at some point at topic comes up and I don't want to argue about, I just find a way to kill the convosation by waving my hands in the air like a monkey. Programming though something I do quite a lot during the day and sometimes as I sleep, isn't something I go around talking about, it's hard to explain it to people - it just something I do to pass the time.
I never had the whole "growing up to be an astronaut" aspirations in my head because I knew from a very early age that there was no air in space and therefore you couldn't do air stuff like breath or blow bobbles. I wanted to be a fireman. I liked vikings more than pirates because battle axes did more damage than swords and it looks better when it's stuck in the side of person's head.

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