moving the conversation

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   CJensenposted 15 years ago

   Moving the conversation to a place that's easier to follow...

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   CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

   Okay, so how's the leg?

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   CJensenposted 15 years ago

   Sorry, I have a terrible time following the comments with a conversation...
   Anyway, I went to my followup today with the surgeon, and things look pretty good. The fracture is no longer visible, the bone graft is nearly invisible, but it looks like I'll be another 3 to 4 months before my Dr. will let me get up on two wheels...Unfortunately my wife was in the room at the time, so there's no way I can BS my way out of that one . Now it's just a matter of getting the strength back as quickly as I can and trying to regain my balance, which is looking to be the more difficult of the two. Ah well, if I didn't want to do this I shouldn't have broken it in the first place.
   
   So, I got the impression that your husband doesn't like the idea of riding so much anymore. Was it the spill that put the scar on his head that put him off?

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   CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

   Excellent news on the leg. It sounds as if you are well on the road to recovery. And lol about your wife listening in . . . guess you'll have to wait. Perhaps a second accident, with a second break, wouldn't be a great move there.
   
   Yeah, my husband was nearly killed in that wreck. It happened decades ago, when he was 16, and the doctors literally gave up on him, expecting him to die from having his head split wide open. But he's way too stubborn for that.
   
   Thing is, I'm a sport driver. I love the speed, the steering, the challenge. About ten years ago we took a big eight-cylinder Mercedes sedan into the New Mexico mountains, through those switchback roads, and he made the mistake of letting me drive . . . once. He wound up with one hand clutching the oh-no handle, the other gripping the seat, and both feet braced on the floorboard, as if he was pumping the brake.
   
   Hey, I had fun.

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   CJensenposted 15 years ago

   Yeah, the Dr. is right. It wouldn't take much at all to break it again right now. Oh well, that gives me October at the latest, and I should be able to pull off periodic rides through part of December again between snow storms, so that's something anyway.
   A very belated glad to hear that it ended up ok in the end, but that accident explains it. It would be a difficult decision to get back on a bike after an injury like that. Me, I don't mind the speed on big open roads, but we've got one or two of the switchback mountain roads around here, the worst that I've been on unpaved. Being a passenger on those helped me to breed a healthy terror of the paved ones, so I think I get where he's coming from. As for getting on a bike again, though (I'm kinda like a born again here and I think everybody who can ride without killing themselves should ), one thing you guys could do is the MSF beginner course. A couple of days in the classroom on basic safety stuff, and then they put you on bikes no bigger than 250cc's and on a closed course for a couple of days and teach you some basic riding skills. If nothing else the riding part is quite a bit of fun.
   My wife, though, is sort of coming from the same place as your husband. Several years ago, right before we were married, a close friend of hers was out on State Street, the big Salt Lake Friday night/Saturday night drag with his wife. They were pulled over while he was trying to work out some sort of glitch, carberator I think. He tweaked it a little, told his wife to wait on the curb while he ran it around the block to test it. As he got around the corner he was hit by a camero, the bike went up in flames on impact and killed him, and he was dragged for at least half a block. It's something that's stayed with her. Nice downer story for early in the morning .
   
   Hey, so I'm curious, have you set up any of the affiliates, and if so, had any luck so far?

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   CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

   That experience of your wife and her friend, R.I.P., is terrifying. A friend of mine had a similar experience, where a friend on a motorbike was hit by a car. The accident severed his leg, and he bled to death before help arrived. Another good downer story.
   
   I love the idea of the MSF course. Convincing my husband, though, just isn't going to happen. He bought me an electric scooter for my birthday one year, then would never let me ride it, not even now with gas prices so high. It's still sitting in the corner, plugged in and almost never used. And that cute little thing won't go above 35 mph. So unless a miracle happens, I'm stuck with a bicycle or two feet, or else a very frightened and unhappy husband with a heart condition. Nope, not going there. But it sounds like a blast.
   
   Affiliates, well. John and I both signed up for AdSense, Amazon, and eBay. He's having a lot more luck than I am. He's earned 33 cents. I'm at zero. I suppose we have to give it time, and a lot of Hubs and traffic, and learn how to set them up and target the ads effectively. But patience just isn't my best trait. Have you had any luck?
   
   And what sort of software do you engineer? That sounds fascinating, but I know next to nothing about it.

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   CJensenposted 15 years ago

   Ah well, it is a dangerous activity. I'm hoping I've learned enough from my little drop to be able to better avoid something like that again.
   
   I signed up for all of the affiliate things too, but the only one I've had any hits on is google adsense. I've got 3 clicks and a grand total of $0.53. I'm not rich yet, but I guess the you can't make the million without making the first few pennies . I've got some ideas that I'm hoping will generate a little more traffic, and with traffic more clicks, but we'll see. This hub thing is just sort of a cool idea that might help me focus a little on ideas that I'd like to write about, with that focus I'll be able to refine things a little, and hopefully get more consistent in my writing overall. The idea that there's the potential to make a couple of bucks just makes it seem a little more interesting.
   Professionally, I work for a software company based formerly out of Utah until we were purchased by a company in Alabama. We're still here in Utah, but now we have a different home base. Anyway, we produce what is essentially a network management and security application that allows for centralized control over things going on in a companies network. I kinda like to think of us as Big Brother on the corporation's network. Fascinating, not so much. Most real engineers probably bristle at programmers calling themselves engineers, but in a nutshell the process is as follows:
   Somebody has a problem that they need solved through a software application.
   Those needs are passed in to the company through various channels, and finally to project managers who work with the programmers to design the solution.
   From there we break up the requirements in to manageable logical parts and write and test the code.
   Finally, we put it on the market and the sales people (who lately seem to be getting big enough bonuses to go out and buy brand new Harley's while the rest of us sit back here and make a salary but I'm not in the least bit bitter about that) go out and sell it to whoever will buy it.
   I'd rather be a rock star or independently wealthy or something, but it's not a bad living and I like it well enough.

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   CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

   LOL, and I hear you, brother! If it helps, John's a retired engineer and he doesn't bristle at the usage at all. (He used to design, test, repair, etc., control systems for hydrocarbon and chemical processes. When he was taking photos of finished modules, I'd dress up and go pose beside them. It was hilarious.)
   
   You know, you write pretty well. The most important part of writing isn't the grammar or vocabulary. It's getting ideas and emotions across in a way that reaches the reader and touches the soul. I'm good at the technical parts, but your strength lies in your content, which will reach more people.
   
   If any of your marketing ideas work, feel free to pass them along. That's where I'm weakest.
   
   If you were a rock star, what instrument would you play?

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   CJensenposted 15 years ago

   I'll tell ya, too many of these technical types take themselves way too seriously. Sounds like John would have been a refreshing guy to work with...not to mention way more educated than me. I spent a few years doing chemical manufacturing, but only ever worked from written recipies and only performed calibrations through clearly defined procedures. Never any interesting creative work.
   I appreciate the complement regarding my writing. I like to think I do ok, but I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be, and I absolutely agree with you. It's about sharing an idea, and my own belief is that to best do that one should write in a manner that is comfortable for speaking. You'll be better able to express yourself without getting caught up in the words themselves. So far I've avoided buying a thesarus, but I admit to using a dictionary from time to time just to be sure
   I don't know if I'd call it so much marketing, really. To try to drive traffic here I'm doing a couple of things. First, I've got my own domain out there (http://www.paulchristensen.net) that really only serves to be a location for playing around with coding ideas right now. For some reason or another it gets indexed pretty frequently, so I've got a links page that points out to some rss feeds of things I've written including this site. As the bots come through and read through my links they'll be driven back here. I'm periodically posting my domain url online in other profiles and what-not, so any time those other sites get indexed they'll follow links back to my site, and then back here as well as other links that show up on my site. I figure the more sites that get indexed with my sites the more traffic I'll get. To top that off I'm experimenting with the google code for the google clicks and using that on all of my own sites outside of here (only two so far). I've also considered finding sites that do job postings for free, like CraigsList.com and any others I can find, and coming up with a sort of "amature writers work from home" kind of add that will drive people here with one of my trackers, and if they like the site like I do, then they'll sign up using my tracker. I haven't done that, but that's actually the way I found my way here so I know it has worked at least once. I've also got a project I want to get started where I'll be writing a hub dealing with Norse mythology. It's unique enough that I think it will get some attention from others who are interested, and with luck they'll be kind enough to give me some clicks. I'm only up to 60 some odd cents so far.
   As far as the rock music thing, I'm a guitarist and played bass for a short time when our bassist had some...issues...and left the band for a time. In the end, though, I realized that the amount of effort to get to playing free gigs, let alone paying gigs, was taking the enjoyment out of playing. Now that I've finally graduated with my degree I'm thinking about getting my home computer set up with some recording and mixing software, pulling my guitar, bass, and amps out of the moth balls, and doing a little home recording in the basement.

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    CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

    Marketing, linking, web 2.0, argh, I find I understand about one word in ten. I haven't even gotten around to putting a link to my blog on my HubPages profile, or vice versa. Although the Norse mythology sounds interesting.
    Home recording is good. I've got a friend who earned an associates degree in recording engineering and now works for the phone company in their I.T. department . . . and does his recording thing for fun. Same reasons. It's a tough and competitive industry, just like fiction writing, and that's not a lot of fun.

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    CJensenposted 15 years ago

    For me doing it all for fun, whether writing, recording, or what ever, is really the key to making those things worth while. I'll sit at a desk and write code for a living, but I think if I was forced to try to make a living off of the things that I really enjoy, and compete with others while I'm at it, I'd lose my passion for it...actually, I know that's the case.

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    CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

    Agreed. I can write nonfiction for a quasi-living, and it gets the ideas and words flowing and mixing, but when I try to compose fiction on the same basis the fun evaporates. And you can tell when reading the results whether the writer's passion is there or not--it makes all the difference. I assume the same holds true for music?

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    CJensenposted 15 years ago

    Yeah, it does. I think it can go that way with pretty much any kind of artistic expression. It's hard, for me anyway, to do that kind of thing on demand.

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    CherylTheWriterposted 15 years ago

    A few weeks ago an English murder mystery, Inspector Lewis, aired on PBS. The first murder victim in that episode was an Oxford don who was trying to "make it" as a painter on the side, but without a lot of success. After his body was discovered, the two detectives, Lewis and Hathaway, stood there examining the man's latest effort.
    
    Lewis: Do you know anything about art?
    
    Hathaway: A bit.
    
    Lewis: Do you think that's any good?
    
    Hathaway: I never speak ill of the dead.
    
    Or as Alvin Toffler put it, the face of employment is going to change because, while you can demand a secretary or factory worker be present and on the job at a certain time, you can't demand a researcher or other "idea person" have a good one at a certain time every day.

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