I was pretty much offline all day yesterday having my computer tuned-up. It had been acting sluggish for months and recently some bugs had cropped up and I thought it best to have it looked at before something major went wrong.
As far as I know there's only one Mac specialist in all of Bakersfield. He's very nice, and very good.
And very expensive.
What are you going to do? Unplug the machine and haul it to LA? That's really the only other option. He's who I called last year when my hard drive crashed and I have to admit, he saved my life.
I was in college at the dawn of the computer graphics age, but back then the hardware was so expensive, the software so rudimentary and the results so primitive that it wasn't something we spent any time on. That all changed a few short years later.
My boss at the time had moved to a new agency and he wanted me to follow him. After one of the briefest interviews I've ever had, I was hired on the spot. I showed up for work on the first day and was shown to my office, the first time I'd seen it. The door opened and there inside, instead of a drafting table, was a desk with a Mac. I was given my first project and told the deadline was Friday. Nobody even showed me how to turn the computer on and I was afraid to ask. Computer skills had never come up in the interview and I was afraid if I admitted I had none I'd be shown the door.
That first week was a steep learning curve, to say the least. And it's been a struggle to keep up ever since.
When the internet exploded in the mid 90's I tried to stay current. I spent thousands of dollars on night courses and weekend seminars on the latest web software, but as soon as I mastered them, something was introduced that made them immediately obsolete. It seemed less like staying ahead of the curve, and more like a very expensive snipe hunt.
Then I took a different job. It paid extremely well, but they didn't really believe in the concept of evenings and weekends off. So my continuing education discontinued. By the time I hit 40 I was more interested in having a life than chasing after the latest shiny new thing. And I had a new, secure job, so why worry about it?
Famous last words.
I've known now for years my skill set was out of date, but what to learn? There are dozens of programs out there, some old, some new, some relevant, some on the edge of obsolescence and it's a crap shoot which is which.
I spoke to recruiter in LA I've worked with over the years. Two years ago she insisted I had to learn a specific program if I wanted to survive. I actually signed up for classes, but then the house sold and the move to Bako loomed, so I postponed it. I called her last week and mentioned signing up again for classes and her reply was...
"Nobody asks for that anymore. It's irrelevant. What you really have to learn is.... HTML5."
Well, I guess that was money not spent well.
So for the past week I've ben looking into classes in HTML5. Something online. And I found a couple I was on the verge of signing up for. Which brings me back to my computer guy. I offhandedly mentioned to him that I was going to take HTML classes and he said...
"Why would you do that? When they just announced... EDGE."
Sure enough, he showed me the announcement online. Just a few days earlier they had announced EDGE. The next essential new thing. It comes out later this year. By the time people master it and classes start being offered in it, or the "EDGE for Dummies" book comes out, it will probably have been rendered obsolete by the next bright shiny new thing.
I swear to God, it's a Hall of Mirrors. Makes me just want to throw in the towel.
