Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Recently, I have been searching for local gigs on Craigslist. Here is a screen grab of my email client [Thunderbird] showing some of the emails I sent:
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I have not received any responses from those I sent emails. I provide this for two reasons-- [1] If you did respond, I did not get the message and [2] Did you get the email?
I am not crying on your shoulder about difficulties I am having getting consulting positions in the local area. Truly. I pass on a lot-- but a smart person in my shoes would do the same. I like finding my own opportunities and those I tend to pass on-- are often a bit abstract in tone- and it came looking for me-- and not the other way around.
Where business is concerned, I am not shy.
That said-- I believe a mistake a lot of people make with me is either trying to make me some sort of media professional or celebrity. Yes, I have a lot of well known blood kin.
Media professional? I am a business owner and software consultant that chose to use a news service [WiredPages], as a means to showcase the type of tools I offer.
I am not a writer-- though I have written more than my share of technical manuals and read a great deal both as a child and young adult. So I know good writing when I see it. My writing.. I do not edit me as much as I could-- but I am not here to offer prose.
Look carefully at WiredPages. There are no articles. Short intros for each page and news headlines. And believe me, I have had several ask if they could provide articles for the service.
Reminder-- I chose a news service for the following reasons:
- In 1999 when I started my first news service [Maryland Wired]-- I had talked to so many lawyers, as related to the EEOC and other issues-- I was wary of doing anything that may cause more of the rights violations I had already been subjected to. Fair use doctrine-- provided that limited amounts of news headlines with credit was legally okay. Fair use also provides educational use is also okay. I needed something to hold an audience and to also show what I could do as related to software. I chose the news service. All that to say-- legally it was the right choice.
- To showcase my skills. The first tool I built for my news service was a calculator. However it was an enhanced version of Java code I found on the Internet. I had experience with C and X-Windows. Java was new to me-- however a subset of C-- so "child's play for me". I enhanced the calculator to get my feet wet- so to speak, with Java. The second tool I built was the Calendar. This time-- all my code. Neither tool required server side Java support.
Screen grab of the MarylandWired Reference page-- in the MS Publisher file I used to build the site.
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If I were a celebrity or seeking celebrity-- I would need an agent for publicity and publicity shots. I am not seeking celebrity. Though when all of this began-- I seemed to be so well known-- that I thought the EEOC issue and the large defense contractor had given me a "cause celeb" in the area. It turns out-- I now believe I am related to Presidents, Kings and Queens spanning the globe-- something I did not know.
The biggest cost I would have needed for my career choice, Software Consulting-- would have been the skills and experience. I came from C, X-Windows, Gui, Oracle as a Defense Contractor with Boeing, General Electric and Rockwell for just under 15 years. Most Internet development software and scripting languages look easy in comparison to C and X-Windows GUI. So I had very little in the way of start up costs.
I provide this -- because there is a methodology out there that seems to suggest that unless I pay an agent for head shots-- I get no where. To complicate things-- 30 year old writers with more mouth, no skills other than writing seem to think I owe their pockets. I am not a writer and did not take their jobs. I am a software consultant.
Further I was researching the Washington Post's online offering and found the Stock Market Quote Interface on the "front page" was in disrepair for Mac browsers. I did not check Windows browsers. I did check two separate Mac browsers.
Why was I researching? To find out if they had a clickable cloud that was not connected to a database.
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I began to wonder why I was not on their consulting staff. That is what prompted this post.
I want to remind these smart little girls that write-- I am not trying to get a writing gig. I do not like hard headed females-- and I scream in the general direction of the FBI if it even looks like a threat.
Find the mistakes on your media sites. Worry about content-- and then advertising.. I have Verizon FiOS and even my computer hangs with the many advertising scripts. Worry about keeping visitors on your site. Worry about editing your work.
Me-- I write because I am a business owner that does not have to hire a writer. You write because it is your living.. I can get away with bad writing. I have other things to do-- rather than edit my words all day long. You don't. Media-- work on yours.. not me. FBI-- tired of telling hard headed females this.
I have no responses-- because I am being interfered with by local and federal government types. My hands are full trying to extract myself from this.. Little girls with big mouths [many without talent]-- surely you are kidding right?
I do not want your writing gig, anchor gig nor publishing gig. I run a software consultancy and have several notable tools-- that work. Never threaten me..
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