June 11, 2004

The Pompetus of dBASE

Don't worry--my exciting history of all the cars I've ever owned will continue shortly. Please--no panicking.

In the meantime, this entry was inspired by one Christian Crumlish, my pal and former colleague back in Ye Olden Days at Sybex Computer Books, who just randomly instant-messaged me at my desk here on this Friday afternoon with the following:

"Hey, it's the Pompetus of dBASE!"

Now, if you don't know the meaning of the word "pompetus," this means you're either too young or don't know your Steve Miller Band, either of which makes you pretty lucky. Actually, I guess the same could said for dBASE. Anyway, Christian's salutation refers to the fact that, back in the day, when I was a technical editor, I had done technical edits on a bunch of dBASE books, thus jokingly taking on that moniker in a moment of giddy self-pity and white collar hopelessness.

So, as I prepare to wrap it up for the day here and leave my office at Computer Gaming World, I raise my head to the skies and thank Teh Great J33bus that I no longer must earn my daily bread at a place where I could ever possibly called the Pompetus of dBASE again.

Posted by jeff at June 11, 2004 5:44 PM
Comments

yeah, but i bet you still get your lovin' on the run

Posted by: xian at June 11, 2004 5:56 PM

The only thing that really matters is being paid cash money doing something you love. Back in high school, I never understood the whining and complaining whenever anyone mentioned "Mrs Gevaudan's Creative Writing Class" - I spent three years living in terror, only to find in my senior year that I loved it. I loved every last assignment and wish there could have been more. Were it not for that class, I would have failed my senior year. I needed that A+ and anything less, and I probably would have just dropped out rather than repeat a year.

I decided then that if ever there was a way to get someone to pay me money for thoughts and ideas put into text, I would find a way to do it.

Yeah being a freelance schlub means I still have to have a regular 40+ hours a week job, but when people ask me what I am - I tell them I'm a writer. When they ask me, "yeah but what do you do for a living?" - I say, "whatever it takes to pay the bills so I can keep writing."

Robert Salvatore once told me that being a writer meant eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, and being a GOOD writer meant eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, and the occasional tuna fish sandwich on Sunday.

I dont get a lot of money for my writing, but I'll tell you what - it makes some of the best tuna fish sandwiches I've ever had.

Posted by: Arcadian Del Sol at June 13, 2004 8:58 PM

for the charades players: "it's a song AND a movie"

http://videodetective.com/home.asp?PublishedID=6658

Posted by: briggs at June 17, 2004 12:20 PM