I’m an IT manager. Regardless of what you see of the glamourous life put forward in IBM commercials and post-post-secondary career school advertisements, it sucks.
Sure, you get to wear your own spandex suit; and, you have your own theme music. I *know* you’re thinking, “How cool is that?!?” It’s not. Even though Edna says that capes are a bad idea, I’m stuck with mine. My theme music, catchy though it may be, comes from a deck that I have to cart around on, well, a cart.
I’m always carrying around a cellphone; reading e-mail and pouring through log files in a manner I’m sure is well documented in the Christmas catalog for Shrinks. I can tell you EXACTLY how those becited little electrons cart your electronic mail around the world; which vowels to leave out of most UNIX commands; and, even better, why the 3D rendering engine in your favourite online fantasy roleplaying game isn’t as good as it could be.
As you can imagine, I’m a hoot at parties.
I’ve been hooring myself out doing IT work since I was 14 in some form or other. I’m good at it but I’m tired. But… there’s always a but… it’s good money. 
So instead of quitting my job, moving to someplace warm like Upper New York State, and becoming a bum, I’m creating this new category. As waking life gives itself over to zoning out while Microsoft Minutes count down to and away from zero, any time a new career path I’d like to follow pops into my head, here it comes… if for the sole reason that when I forget everything I know about computers, I’ll have a list of things to try out.
Who knows… maybe one day I’ll actually hop tracks. Until then, I’ll just flex my addictions and hope time passes more quickly… and that nothing crashes.
