Michael W. Holdeman schreef: > On Sunday 05 June 2005 10:39 pm, Robert G. Hays wrote: > >>[digest-mode reply] >> >><... my PC is next to my boyfriend's. ...> >> >> >> >>Holly, do you have any idea how many hearts (just about including mine, >>at this point!) you just broke with that statement? >> >><big grin> > > Ya here too, (but my wife is ok with it!) :) >
:-D I would feel bad for you guys, but you lost in a fair fight, even if you don't know it. I met Jorden via a user-to-user hardware help forum (!) on the Internet (!!) and we formed a relationship while 3,643 miles (5,864 km) apart (!!!). So while you two get extra points for compliments (thank you :-D ), he wins on speed (quick to appreciate my general coolness :rolleyes: ), boldness (in daring to make his play), flat-out courage (he staked his life savings to sponsor me as promised when I moved house to the Netherlands from NYC), and stick-to-it-iveness (he hasn't thrown me out yet :-) ). However, despite my widely-acknowledged near-perfection :lol: , I am more than willing to play upon your fragile emotional states after this crushing blow :-) to pitch for work if anybody has got some. Work for money would be (extremely) nice, but I'll take credits on a project that would look good on a CV. Read on if you want to know more; otherwise, feel free to delete this completely OT mail right now :-) . ------ PITCH FOLLOWS----------- By avocation, I'm a writer. This you may have guessed. For 'fun', I write screenplays, but my 'working' day is spent on how-tos and mini-manuals on forums and mailing lists like this one, as well as my own side projects, most of which are ultimately designed to help me write better how-tos and mini-manuals (though a couple of them are designed to help me write better screenplays). I have been published (by a now-defunct magazine, but I still have the original issues in which my work appeared), and I can demonstrably write to spec and on deadline. For examples of my style, one can of course look in the archives here, or Google for 'motub' (the nick is the brand :-) ), but the best places to look would be LQF, the forums of the Player's Resource Consortium at nwnprc.netforums.co.uk/ , and a hosted piece at www.shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=230 . Unfortunately, the Linux Format forums (where I spent a lot of time before I forced myself to cut back) recently upgraded (which was not by any means the unfortunate part :-D ), and all of the previous post data was lost. So all the 'good stuff' I had there is no longer publically available. By trade, I do Customer Service. I worked for over 10 years in CS in various fields: the CBS television network, a film distribution company, a temporary employment agency (by the name of Personnel Express; if you happen to live in NYC and want to call them, or if you work out of the agency and drop by, tell Stephanie, Paula, Nadine, and Randi--and Gwen if she's still there-- hi for me). I've also done 'undocumented' work in real-estate sales, retail sales, cable television production, telemarketing, and worked as a paralegal in my 18 years of work experience. Most of my CS work was also finance-related-- calculating how much people were getting paid, or how much they were paying us, and explaining to them why the amount was what it was (and making them like it, or at least accept it gracefully). This is probably how I developed the the extreme patience that people on this and other lists have noticed and commented on. Unfortunately, good CS requires exceptional communication skills, and while I am generally considered to speak very good Dutch (I read better than I speak, but probably speak better than I write) for someone who's been here only (now) 5 years, it's just not good enough to do what I do, in the view of employers. In fact, it's not good enough in my own view, either-- because apparently I not only "do" Customer Service, but I "am" Customer Service (in the same sense that I "am" a writer). I find that I treat helping people on forums and mailing lists as if it was my work, and hold my performance to the standards of gainful employment in the Customer Service field. Which says a lot about what makes me tick vocationally, but can be seen as a bit excessive, for no money :-) . That's both a strength and a weakness of mine; I can get somewhat too focused when I have a project on the table (and my definition of what constitutes "a project" can be a bit loose). I'm also very stubbornly independent of mind; I tend to unintentionally but inescapably perform required tasks (correctly, but) by way of my own methodology, which is not appropriate to the stricter traditional corporate atmospheres. I've been told by my supervisor in such a corporation that I'm "too creative", which I must concede was an accurate summation. Another boss told me that I "had balls", which statement I took as a compliment (despite the fact that she was firing me at the time she said it), and which lives on as my very own personal slogan: "I have balls. They're metaphorical, but they're mine." I have other valuable traits and skills to go along with them, too: - I am bilingual (Dutch and English); - I have a decent amount of intermediate technical knowledge about computers (also bilingual, though my Nederlands computer vaktaal is not yet as strong as my English technical vocabulary); - I have the intelligence to gain more knowledge in the field, and the drive to do so without guidance if guidance is not available; - I have excellent verbal and written communication skills (in English, moderate in Dutch); - I am charming (people generally notice me in a group even when I am not aware of them; people generally actively enjoy interacting with me; I can provide unpleasant/difficult/unpalatable information in an acceptable/non-offensive way; I can maintain cordial relations with people that I personally do not like without them being aware of my feelings); - I am organized enough to work unsupervised and produce the desired result on time; - I am astute enough to assess and recognize when I need supervision or active guidance and request it; - I am honest, responsible and moral-- I have both convictions and the courage of my convictions; - I am daring but not foolhardy. I take calculated risks based on my standards of risk assessment, but avoid wild gambles; - I have a unique and creative perspective due to having had one foot on each side of the fence in nearly every aspect of life, for all of my life; - I work until the job is done (or reaches a stable point where I can safely break temporarily); - I have a desire to help people. There are many categories under the umbrella of Customer Service to which I would be well-suited and where I woud be happy to be to participate and contribute. Computers in general and Linux in particular are my obvious strength and preference, but I'd never limit the creativity generated by intelligent minds commingling by saying that was all that was possible. Surely *somebody* has or knows of some capacity in which I might be useful to their project or enterprise. Write me off-list if you've got a lead, a project, or idea, Dutch or English. Thanks for listening. Holly ----------- PITCH ENDS --------- P.S. To the rest of the list, thank you for your patience. For what it's worth, writing this all out like this has been a step forward in clarifying my goals, so your inconvienience has not been in vain. H. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
