Okay, that title may be a bit click-baity. But I was watching a video blog recently and it made me think a little, though not quite in the direction the blog may have intended.
Just another All Things Kuropkat site
Category: RealLife
I don’t spend much time on social media. To be honest, I’m not sure yet of its value. Democratizing news is a noble goal. Making and keeping connections is a noble goal. Communication is a noble goal. All three of these things are messy though and a continuous flow of low value content and constant reposts and shares with no value add is just noise.
But I watch, and wonder. Sometimes, certain things continue to bubble to the top. One of these things is the current hiring methods for technology professionals, particularly programmers.
The other day I was driving around when a bald eagle flew over me. Not way up high in the sky, but right down in the trees where I could see him. Not only did he cross my path once, but twice; as if making sure I took note of his presence. He left the tree he was in, flew across my path, then turned back to his perch. So, you know what that means.
What to do, what to do, oh what to do… sigh… I want to get back into programming, ideally professionally. But I’ve been out of hard core programming long enough I have taken on the appearance of an old dog learning new tricks. Even so, an If statement is still an if statement and a while loop is still a while loop. Thus, I’m not particularly worried about jumping back in. In fact, if I didn’t want to get paid for doing what I love, it would be easy. It’s that getting paid part that is tripping me up.
Or at least my part in it…
So in my previous post, I set the stage for my lifelong indebtedness, my desire to get out of it, and my general incompetence in doing so. Today we track a short history of my attempt to understand money.
By which I mean, it’s time to take another wack at budgeting…
Once, long ago, I set off for college. Before I went, my mother took me down to the bank and opened a checking account for me. Through this, I would learn to take care of my own finances as well as provide an easy conduit for my parents to funnel money to me as needed. One thing extra she did though was include what was then called “Overdraft Protection.” It was not a line of credit per se, nor was it a credit card. It was just a small amount ($500) intended to cover those moments when the bank decided to clear the checks I wrote, before the checks I deposited. For some reason, banks always prefer to do things in this order and I guess my mom knew full well who she was putting in charge of this account.
Prologue
Once upon a time there lived a young codeslinger. From the technological backwater of Tucson, he dreamed of coding challenges that would test his wits and determination. Coding challenges that make most coders cower in fear. Coding challenges that would make him a legend.
Tucson was not devoid of technology, but it was mostly technology that once was. The big gangs had pulled out long ago. The others were mostly lone codesligners; IDEs for hire. The important thing though, was none of them had time for a young upstart.
So, he packed his meager belongings and headed further West, the golden hills of California singing a siren song of wealth and challenges for anyone brave enough. He didn’t even bring his IDE (Integrated Development Environment), choosing instead to leave it behind for whomever should take up residence here next. Yes, he’d buy himself a set of shiny new IDEs when he arrived in San Francisco, the .COM capital of the world.