Odds

This blog is not being used much.  For that matter neither are my Whitsundays blogs at present while I am not sailing.  So maybe I will just write some random stuff here to make use of the space.



For much of my life I was involved with computing.  In the 1970's it involved learning to program, and then learning to fix computers.  In 1980 I moved from Brisbane to Mackay, determined to get away from computers, but I soon found I was one of the very few people in town that had programming and repair experience.  Back then there was not a lot of classroom training available.  We learned on the job.  You either "could" or you "couldn't" understand computers.  I suppose I was one of the lucky ones.  I had a background in electronics since I was about 12 years old, building various radios and things from junk scrounged wherever i could find it.  Record players.  Transmitter/receiver combinations.  There was always something interesting to try.

My early programming experience came from reading the code for a blackjack game, and taking the various pieces, rewriting them to do what I wanted.  I wrote a program to calculate finance and leasing payments for a company I was working for.  Then I wrote some small games and a simple database to go into the finance program.

I was never really interested in programming, and I suppose it showed all through my computing career.  I was always easily bored.  I love a challenge, but I usually find the answers too soon, and move on to the next challenge, before fully exploring the current one.  I have always had a short term life.

I have reached the top of what would normally be a career several times and moved on.  I never completed any of my University degrees.  Just did enough to satisfy myself that I could get passes in the high 90% area, then moved to something more challenging.

After some interesting times as a civilian in services while there was a war happening, I applied to join the RAAF.  Even that bored me, and I stayed about a year.

These days I am trying to come to grips with a different life.  My health after a number of small disasters, doesn't allow me to do most of the things I like to do.  I cannot sail at present until my body and mind get a grip on life again.  My brain is not processing things as it once did.

So I will use this blog to write about the things that have gone from work, to hobby status.

Linux
Graphics
Printing, especially using Dye Sublimation to decorate mugs and fabric.