What to do when I grow up?

Robert said:
Indeed. =)

In my defence, I had one day to tick off as many of the obvious landmarks in NYC as I could so it wasn't that I was bored.
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Ya, I tried that in Paris. Thought I could see the Eiffle Tower before my next train to Belgium. Got half way up, took some photos then realized I may be late for the train, rushed out of there but still missed my train by a minute or two. Doh! Luckily there's lots of trains in Paris, but I should have just stuck around and took it all in.
 
Glaucus said:
Ya, I tried that in Paris. Thought I could see the Eiffle Tower before my next train to Belgium. Got half way up, took some photos then realized I may be late for the train, rushed out of there but still missed my train by a minute or two. Doh! Luckily there's lots of trains in Paris, but I should have just stuck around and took it all in.
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Luckily I had no mishaps and saw everything I wanted to see.

As for half way up the Eiffel tower, I spent a happy couple of hours getting drunk on ridiculously expensive French lager in the bar on the so-called first floor:
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you know... i'm gonna throw my total two sense in here, and ya'll can hate me at will... i'm a people watcher from waaaay back... cut my teeth on the strip of las vegas at twelve years old... so i been lookin a long time... the platoon sergeant in me wants to tell you to get off your "life lazy" ass and jump in the game. nobody but your family will remember the life you squandered, that lays in your hands right now if you'd only clutch firmly to it . the guy with a masters degree in counselling wants to tell you this...
you can lay around and wait for opportunity, or you can go out and ensure that it knocks at your door. if you love aircraft and bikes so much that you'd like to turn it into a job, then do so. you can you know. i'm surprised constantly by the hesitance of "geeks" to throw their life picture out there when they've obviously so much to offer people. as a fellow traveler who "people watches" i'll throw you a bone here. every job i ever had, save three, i created myself. i learned early on that the same fear i have of meeting people exists in strangers as well, we all have a fear of being met too. "what do they want from me?". see? right there... in a nutshell... nothing new here either... we are all just as scared of new encounters... all you need do is a few things...

you like motorcycles... dc area has a plethora of bike rallies, you like planes, dc area has some good plane museums and airshows... and guess what... neither of those two places discriminate against "nerds", in fact you're gonna find soooo many "brothers" there you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner... plus you get keys and access to all the behind the scenes stuff... i like books... i am a "friend of the library". couple times a year i get to show up and meet people that not only enjoy a good book, but people who buy old books, and people writing books. you could do the same. it takes thousands of volunteer man hours to put those rallies and airshows on. volunteer!! you will not only meet people with your same interests, your level of enthusiasm will get noticed and some times turn into a paid position. never, ever be afraid that who you are is gonna be offensive or not worth someones time. it won't be unless you make it so. i usually start out with "i notice your holding a book by so and so, i like them, hi my name is (don't say slim shady here use ur real name");)
 
ps... don't discount the fact that you have friends here either that would prolly talk to you about anything you wanted to :D
 
I'm a huge Bob Mould fan. He started back with Husker Du here in Minneapolis. He mixes and does other music in clubs in NYC and DC. He moved to DC at one point, not sure if he's still there. He mixes with Richard Morel. His name isn't well known but he's done a lot of club remix hits.
http://www.blowoff.us/ - April 6th date in DC. For $12 it's an excellent use of money.
 
you know wayne... i'm 46.. have a few friends and a very small family... i hated my life too.. or at least disliked it... all my friends tell me i should be cooking food for people... i have some good experience with that in spite of my chosen careers... i'm going to try it...my family and friends are right behind me... at 46 i've not much to lose and so much to gain..no man in my family lives past 65 anyway.... i don't know what your dream is... i'd guess you'd know better than anyone... mine is gonna find me at the base of the spanish peaks, gateway to new mexico, owning that little cafe in walsenburg,colorado.... if you ever need a cup of coffee... you can all find one there... 39 days and counting...YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Here's what I think I've figured out, at least for me. It seems learning and struggling to the next goal is the reward. It's the journey moreso than the destination. As an IT Director I look up and I only find much of the same, perhaps a bigger company and more money, CTO perhaps. That's not necessarily attractive. No one tells you what you do after you reach your goal. It seems many just tread water until they go 6' under? That doesn't sound like much fun to me.
 
33 now and I still don't know what I want out of life, for the past 10 years I've run my own little IT consultancy, mostly providing services to government departments and other IT companies, I like the life of a freelancer but I don't feel it's my calling. I could never do a 9-5 or work for someone ever again. My dream is to own a quaint little book store in a country town, but I doubt that is gonna put as much food on the table. I just need some real direction myself, right now my focus is on the family and making sure they have a future...
 
I still cling onto a dream of making a killer app and selling it to jump start my own software house. I really hate writing software for business, I'd much rather write software for consumers, preferably entertainment software like games or music. Problem is it's a tough market to break into solo. A small team backed with some capital could do it, but I lack that. I guess there's always kickstarter, but even then you need to get to a certain point before people take you seriously.

On the plus side, my app has gained popularity and I now have over 2000 installed users and a 4.2 rating. :D I'm now coming up with ideas on how to make money off it but I doubt I'll have the time to do anything about it. Especially if we have a 2nd child.
 
Get a novelty pimp outfit and open a strip club:D

But seriously, I got little to add... I've never been in IT or any sort of programing. We wary of opening a restaurant as (IIRC) statistics say 90% fail in the first 2 years. I personally knew someone who owned a seafood restaurant which was very popular and yet never made a profit and closed.

Do you enjoy traveling? I considered OTR trucking at the end of my stay in Hunstville. In the end I decided it wasn't going to work with my big family situation, but it could be nice for a while to see the country even if mostly just driving through it. OTC trucking would make exercise more challenging... For small business with little up front costs maybe a self serve car wash or three. From (hazy) memory there was one for sale in Huntsville back in ~06 for like $35k that claimed to net ~24k/year in profit.
 
You could always grab some Employment Journals and see where the future jobs will be. Medicine - nurses, doctors - is one area predicted for hiring over the next 5 years. Along with pipefitters and welders.
 
Wayne said:
I already own several kilts, each worn proudly, so perhaps not as dramatic as one might think... :)

Wayne
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grandpa on dads side was jeremy bentham... on moms side... this feller

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (or MacKenzie, Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacCoinnich, 1764 – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish explorer. He is known for his overland crossing of what is now Canada to reach thePacific Ocean in 1793. This was the first east to west crossing of North America north of Mexico and predated the Lewis and Clark expedition by 10 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer)

;)
 
Wayne said:
I already own several kilts, each worn proudly...
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Never had you down as a kilt guy, Wayne. I have one too. It gets an airing on formal occasions , such as weddings.
 
robert l. bentham said:
@ glaucus...how much capital are you talking about?
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Hmmm... That's a good question. Well, we'd need a small team to work on a project full time. One developer and one graphic artist full time. Not sure about sound guys, but probably don't need one full time. I'd say at least $150,000 per year, probably way more (not even taking marketing into account, no idea what that would cost). If you were to sell it for $5 a pop then you'd need to sell over 30,000 a year to get by. Taking a quick look at Google Play I found this game which appears to be made by some independent guy and he's charging about $3 a pop. His stats indicate over 50,000 units sold. That's good money for one guy. Angry Birds charges about $1, but they reuse their engine and just pump out new levels and graphics, which seems to be enough to get over 500,000 sales on their most recent game. Not bad considering Angry Birds uses open source software like SDL and Box2D to do most of the hard work. And I've played with those as well and I got some ideas....
 
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