Time Flies

Wow, time is really marching right along.

My apologies for the long delay in getting another post up here. I've been enjoying the summer weather and keeping busy.

To give you a brief update, I am working with Procom to land a new Java Development job in the area. I have been interviewing and things are looking up. I am confident that before too long I will be back in an office.

Getting back into development is not a bad thing. It is necessary to get back into a regular routine and start working again. In the short-term continuing my development career just makes sense. I am not disappointed, it is just one more step on the way to greater things.

A Quick Update

While I have made a great deal of progress in my writing abilities, and my statistics on the Helium site are much improved, I have come to the realization that the process of making a career out of writing is not going to be a quick one.

Therefore, I have resigned myself to finding another software development position while continuing to work on my writing in my spare time.

This is by no means a resignation of my writing dream. Reality simply requires me to take a different approach to building my writing credentials and developing that dream.

I am not disappointed. This experience has been wonderful and will lead to greater things.

So, resumes are going out and hopefully, before too long, I will continue both software development and writing goals.

I'll keep you posted.

Alive and Kicking

My friends,

Many of you have expressed concern regarding my well-being because you have not heard from me or seen a post from me in a couple of weeks. Let me assure you that I am alive and well.

If you read my previous post, you know that I applied for a developer job and have been waiting to hear whether or not I would be heading back to an office to continue my career as a software developer. 

Well, you have not heard from me because the answer to that question is still unknown. During the interview process I was told that I would know, one way or another, by the end of last week. I still don't know and I certainly don't consider it a good sign that I have not heard yet.

I think that I need to assume that I am not going to get the job and re-evaluate where I am at. There is still a remote possibility that the employer is too busy to have yet made a decision but she was adamant that she would take no longer than a week to decide. It has been longer than that now.

The problem that faces me now is whether or not to just accept that I will be returning to my software development career (which seems inevitable at this point) or whether a couple more months of focusing on writing would make a difference to the final outcome. I am not sure.

So I am going to take some more time to think about what my next move is.

Never fear, you are not forgotten and I am still alive and kicking. 

I travel in the hands of Providence and it is a very interesting ride!

 

Everything Happens For A Reason

When you believe, as I do, that everything happens for a reason, we have to accept that anything can happen. It can't always be explained and it won't always make sense. We can deal with it or bang our head against it, but it is what it is. We control what we can and leave the rest in God's hands.

That is not meant to imply that we have no control over anything. We have control over a lot of things in our lives. We make decisions everyday, some good, some bad, all to the benefit or detriment of ourselves and others. We control what we do and say, albeit with some exceptions, but we have far less control over the reactions of those around us, and the outcome is almost always a complete mystery.

Being creatures locked in time and living under a law of consequences, we dwell in a constant action-reaction environment. At no single moment in time can we say with confidence what the outcome was to a certain action because we cannot know if that state may change in the next moment. This can be as baffling as the photon experiment in quantum physics where they can measure where or they can measure when but they can't measure both simultaneously.

To get to my point, this is the only reasonable way to explain the events of the last week and to have complete peace about the unknown consequences to come.

Last week, I had a day of panic that caused me to take action that I may never know whether was good or bad. I can't explain the panic. Even then I kept telling myself that there was no logical reason for it. Nothing had changed from the days or weeks before, finances are solid, writing skills are increasing rapidly, making great new friends around the world. No logical reason to be worried about the future.

However, some part of my brain just freaked out and I found myself with a desperate need to start looking for work. I jumped into Workopolis and frantically submitted resumes to several companies in the area looking for senior software developers. Now 3 days later with the job interview behind me, I wait for a phone call or email that will tell me whether I'm heading back to an office.

But, I find myself completely at peace with whatever happens. I do not know what comes next, but whatever it is, it will have a reason and a purpose, even though I may not know what it is. Regardless, I am determined to continue down this path to my literary dream. I will write. It may be as a wrinkled 72-year old man, but I believe in this dream like no other.

Come what may tomorrow, but for now:

The sunlight embraces me, a sparrow serenades me, a breeze delivers the fragrance of fresh flowers, and a peace fills my heart. I love and am loved and that's more than enough for this day.

Another Setback Leaves Me Undeterred

Unfortunately, it appears as though I have lost my primary feedback system when it comes to evaluating my writing. It has become apparent that a serious flaw exists within the Helium website's rating system, which has left me without faith in the results being reported.

In my last post I lamented the descent of my latest article in the ranking system. While disappointed, I believed that it implied that my article was not yet up to proper standards so I obtained help in finding out where my article fell short.

I expected to get some constructive critism but to my surprise, my Helium mentor disagreed with the lower ranking and succeeded in getting the site to rerank the articles. With this done, I found that once again I was back to the top of the list. Yet, two days later it has, once again, fallen back to the lower position, the exact same lower position.

I can accept this lower ranking if I could account for it, but no one can explain it to me. I'm up and and then I'm down, then I'm up and down. I feel like an overused jack-in-the-box.

I have lost all faith in the Helium ranking mechanism, and without some assurance of it's accuracy, it has become useless as a feedback system. The only response anyone in the upper levels of the site has been willing to provide is that the system is patented and too complicated to explain. (For those of you who know me, you can guess how unsatisfying that response was!)

I have, once again, submitted a request for further explanation. Is my article inferior to those others or is it not? I am not optimistic about the expected reply.

So, I am not at all sure where to find another feedback system. Will my Helium mentor continue to work with me if I do not post my writing on the Helium site? I hope so. In any event, I am making progress and learning a great deal.

I have found my calling. This setback will not result in me turning away from it.

What Went Wrong?

This started out to be a great day. 

The sun is shining, it's 17 degrees outside, and I was feeling so good about my progress with a #1 article on Helium ... that was, of course, until I checked the Helium site.

My #1 article became a number #3 article overnight. Number 3 may not seem too bad but given that there are only 5 entries so far, anything but #1, sucks! Add to that, that I believe it is my best article yet, the dip in rank has left me feeling very, very disappointed.

What makes it worse is that I have no idea why. I am confronted with the realization that, while I have learned a lot, I still have no idea what makes one article better than another.

So, on this bright, sunny, warm Friday afternoon I think I will wallow in my disappointment for another hour and then make it my mission in life to find out how to write a damn good article. Even if it kills me!!!

How To Walk On Water

I wish I had written this! It goes perfectly with what this blog is all about.

Take the time to read this. You won't regret it.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/01/31/how-to-walk-on-water/