career-confusion

So this blog was started to keep you up to date on my recovery and winding path through life (if you can call a line with a giant "kink" in it a path) so let's get back to that. Welcome to the inside of my head-- thinking out loud here. Man oh man am I confused about what path ahead looks good. What do you get when you apply a lot of heat and pressure and merge two careers into one? Career-confusion. (ignore the fact that that really should be career-fusion... I don't pay my joke writer... since that's me) What's compounding the confusion is my history of being career-confused at the time of my wreck.

See, my problem is that I see the vocational world split into two categories: chef & artisan.
CHEF: in order to make this recipe, you need to do these steps IN THIS EXACT ORDER each time. Sure, you might make different foods, but each food has it's own recipe. And I'm figuring that 10 years down the line, your 492,836th exact same chicken con penne pasta might be about 492,834 too many. And it's not that a "chef" job is a bad thing at all, since it might be cooking up things that help people (Brad), it just MAY not provide the intellectual diversity I'm looking for.
ARTISAN: your boss tells you to paint a bull, so you do. It might be impressionist, modernist, abstract, classical, realist or a million other styles, but no matter which style you use, you can argue to your boss that you painted a bull. (If you were smart, you'd slop some paint ON a real bull, but that's neither here nor there)
The difference here is based around if it matters -HOW- you accomplish your goal; in the chef case, it makes a big difference if you baste that chicken -after- it's entirely cooked (I pretty much only cook Healthy Choice, so that example may not have made any sense). In the artisan case, you most probably get some artistic freedom about how you accomplish your goal.

The real bear is that the job I had, software developer, apparently was fairly rare in that it was both artisan AND chef (as well as being precise like your math professor, which I see as a good thing). Your boss wants software that accomplishes some specific goal but the nitty-gritty details of how you achieve that is pretty much up to you, with a desire of making the final product out of smaller pieces (which may get used elsewhere). There may be constraints, such as "it's gotta be done in THIS programming language" or more, but there's still a fair amount of wiggle room after those.

And if I was gonna take any summer classes, college registration is in 6 days, 2 of which may be spent almost entirely at the Keowee Cup regatta. No pressure, nooo pressure at all.

I just had the realization that right now I am career-confused, but right before the wreck, I was wicked career-confused. So this might actually be a good thing that I've got a chance to start all over. We shall see.

Bilo too expensive? Try Freelo

Bilo is one of our grocery stores, don't know if you have them where you're at.
http://picasaweb.google.com/schoolofhardknox/CaptainSLog?feat=directlink#5330309682832365394 How are they still in business?

And yes, I finally admit the truth... I am a SHMUCK. That is, Some Hot Man Under Considerable Knox-ness

:-)

Vocational Rehab, day #22, OMG

So today I received some incredible, life-changing news. I'm so very sorry, I don't want to mention what it was until I get a few more ducks in a row, but let's just say it was incredible and surprised all 3 of us.

consider me Vocational Rehabbed!

Remember when I said I got GREAT news? So here's how Vocational Rehabilitation worked out.

Toward the end of my 5-week session (which I call 'basic training'), I had a meeting with the head of their IT school, my vocational counselor who drove 3 hours for this, the director of the whole program, and my folks. They don't normally do this, but we asked for it, & I'm getting very used to hearing the phrase 'We don't normally do this, however...'

We came to this meeting prepared to fight the good fight. They were saying I was not a good candidate for their computer school since:
A) I often had to ask for directions around the building in my first week-and-a-half
B) In the first few weeks, I made my fair share of jokes, maybe sometimes off-color humor
C) I'm having difficulty turning short-term memories into long-term memories, such as I MIGHT remember 5 minutes later that phone number you just said, but if my mind turns to a different task in the meantime, I'll probably forget the number. They said that might cause an issue since their computer school runs at an accelerated pace.

BUT:
1) Their computer school is for folks who have NEVER done this before, and I just got a 82% on their PROGRAMMING test, the hardest category they offer.
2) I'm not married to the computer language I know (I'm only KINDA a Java snob), as I went to dinner last night with a Furman Univ. friend, and he made the point that once you know one language, those fundamentals can be transferred to any computer language. (This F.U. friend worked for my last company doing exactly what I did, and when he was leaving the position, he gave me a head's-up that he was leaving, so I interviewed, and I filled his spot, and was there for 5 years) The issue only comes up in that the Voc. Rehab computer school doesn't use this language AT ALL (yet). Okay, so I can learn any language, but that 84% says that my skills in the Java language are pretty strong. ('Oh, so you know English, well then it won't be that hard to pick up Russian, nyet?' Nyet.)

SO... we came into this meeting thinking that I might have to hire a private tutor, as I've done before. BUT they recognized that I want the job I had, and they're committed to helping me achieve that-- that's what they do. So they threw a new beast on the negotiating table, called a 'job coach'. This job coach would be skilled in my programming language (maybe a college student), and help me perform my work. I know roughly 80-90% of the syntax of this language, but where the problem lies seems to be in my problem-solving ability. SO, I would explain to this job coach HOW I would attack a certain problem, and they would help guide me away from errors in my reasoning. AND HERE'S THE KICKER: the job coach would be employed by the state-- NOT ME. Sweet!

So for me, Vocational Rehab is the bomb!!!

Oh, and to throw in a chuckle (someone who overheard this said it gave them a good laugh), in Occupational Therapy, there's always a few patients in there working on separate projects. So one fellow was on the computer doing a memory game where certain sounds are associated with putting the cursor over certain parts of a picture. Then it plays one of those sounds and you've got to put the cursor over the part of the picture that is linked to it. So we're working away on our individual tasks and Dale's doing this program on the other side of the room. The O.T. asks "Dale, how's it going?" He says "I just can't find the boing!" (meaning he couldn't figure out which part of the screen was linked with a 'boing' sound) And I quipped "Dale, that's why we're all here. We're all in Voc. Rehab because we just can't find the boing!" (heh, but I actually have no idea what that even means, it just has a nice ring)

Now, we're totally unclear how this employment coach thing will work out, so stay tuned...

I'm not redundant. And I'm not redundant.

Z-CoiL shoes are incredible!

3. Then to make this an even cooler day, I went and tried new shoes. Why am I excited about shoes? These things are so wicked cool! There's only 3 stores in the state that sell them, 2 at the coast and 1 in Columbia, so since I'm only in Cola Town for 1 more week, "let's have a look." They're called Z-coiL shoes. Mom got a pair as well. The website makes it look like only pain sufferers would need to bother with them, but BELIEVE me, ANYONE would. My folks have found me twice today just walking in circles with a huge grin on my face. What makes them different is that the heel is very high and underneath it there's about a 3 inch spring coil that goes between your heel & the ground. The only difference between mine and mom's is that nothing covers her springs, so you can easily see them, but I say the covers provide some sideways stability. I tried them without covers at 1st, but it was too nerve wracking to try to guess which way your foot might get pushed EVERY SINGLE STEP. So I was about to leave when she had one more thing for me to try. I got heel thingies that look like normal shoe heels and cover my springs and make it a LOT more stable when I walk. So instead of being my usual 6'2", I can now look down from the height of about 6'4". The only issue is that today's clouds sometimes got my head wet and always obscured visibility.

Now I'm excited this much about the shoes because the injury to my ankle made me an over-supinator. That means that my ankle rolls outward with every step, so I correct by walking with my foot pointing outward, not straight forward. Since they can (and did) adjust the spring to push my heel inward, these shoes correct my foot's wanting to roll, and I can now walk with both feet pointed straight forward! I just wore them at Riverbanks (the Cola Town zoo), and man do I feel like I'm flying! It feels like I'm walking on an endless trampoline! And my folks say my posture has improved 1000%! These'll help prevent me from having back problems later on in life indeed. That's why my parents learned that all my nurses wore them-- gotta be on your feet on a hard floor all day? TRY Z-COILS. Dad says that he heard that these have helped folks who normally use canes or walkers-- after they got a pair of these, no more need for the cane or walker. If they're sold at a store within a couple hours' drive (or a short plane ride), GO (click to check store locations). You'll thank me.

Voc. Rehab Evaluation, day #19, a -great- week

Oh man did my week turn out better than good.

First, it started off great with an Easter visit from cousin Brad, his wife Danae, and my sweetheart (their doggie), Abbey. We played lots of board games and everyone sailed over to the Tiki Hut, my favorite sport and my favorite restaurant combined. Thanks y'all for making this a special Easter.

Then today EASILY pushed this week over the top.

1. First, I had a test in Occupational Therapy (really just finished taking one I started the other day). It was a mix of different things such as "memorize this shape, then turn the page and pick the one out of 4 that matches". So when I finished, we worked out my score. I got sixty-two out of sixty-five right!!!

2. Then this was wicked cool-- there's been talk that maybe I'm not a good candidate for computer school because I often got lost and had to ask directions around the buildings in my first week and a half here (do you see the correlation, 'cause I don't). Then halfway through a morning class, my counselor came & pulled me out to take a programming test in the programming language I'm trained in (Java)! Now some of the stuff on the test we didn't do in my job and some of this stuff I hadn't seen since I was a sophomore in college. And while I was taking it, I couldn't answer this question in my head: "I'm taking this test to get into their computer -school-... so should I try to do awesome, or just bomb it?" But I went for awesome and got an -82%-!!! Pretty dang good considering I haven't used or seen some of that stuff in 10 years! (Now their computer school doesn't teach my language, Java, so stay tuned, not sure yet how this saga is going to play out)

The 3rd thing that made today so cool I'll post separately since it's so completely unrelated.

Vocational Rehab Evaluation, day #13, DDT!

Okay, so I finally got DDT today!!! The guy in charge of the pool got in the water today and walked me through Don't Drown Training. As a refresher, every time my head goes underwater, I have a STRONG desire to suck down as much water as I can-- done that a few times. First, I held onto the side of the pool and just dunked my head for 5 seconds. Since that worked, I did it 10 times for 10 seconds each. Worked. ('This is easy')

So then I learned a few swimming stroke tips ("Breathe when your face is OUT of the water") and actually did the crawl for a few laps!!! That's a HUGE WIN in my book! I'm starting to get away from reminding myself "I am not a fish..."

Google Voice is gonna be SWEET

I found more info:

Google Voice is about to be a service that lets you have only one phone number for the rest of your life. It can make all your phones ring, or just a certain one (or ones) based on rules you set up, like day of week, time of day, or who's calling. There will no longer ever be long distance charges for Google Voice users.

-Watch these very short videos about how this service is going to change EVERYTHING. No more long distance charges: https://www.google.com/voice/about#
-Got questions? http://www.google.com/support/voice/
-It's even gonna let you transfer an incoming call at 4:59 Friday seamlessly from your work phone to your cell phone for your drive home: http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=115080
-LOOK at the features! http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=16783 The ENTIRE phone industry is about to be revolutionized!

Get invited to join when this service opens: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/

Vocational Rehab, day #10, DDT at the MDC

So Friday when I was at the MDR in the MDC, I found out I may start DDT on Monday. Woo-hoo!

Since that made no sense to anyone who's not currently residing in my head, here's the explanation (summed up from the CliffsNotes). So Voc. Rehab is a state program. It is long-standing federal law that all state-run programs must incorporate as many acronyms as they legally can. YKWIM? Plus, it makes it sound cooler. So instead of calling it a gymnasium (like the rest of us do), it's known as the Muscle Development Center, most commonly "MDC." And in the MDC are a swimming pool, physical therapy and a weight lifting room. So to CLEARLY distinguish among those since they're so easily confused, the weights room is the "MDR". Any guesses? Yes, the Muscle Development Center has a Muscle Development Room. I suppose that's so that when you're talking, you can easily distinguish between the free-weights room & the pool without having to resort to the tedious "...the one that isn't full of water."

DDT: So every time I've swum since the wreck, it's always the breaststroke with my face OUT OF THE WATER. That's since the 2 or 3 times I've tried to swim in the lake, I get my head underwater, and open my mouth and suck in a giant lungful of ... water. Cough cough, cough. Cough. Dang -cough- TBI. Now if my head goes underwater, it's with my hand over nose and mouth. So I explained why to the lifeguard, and -cough- Monday she promised to start what I've termed Don't Drown Training (DDT). So for months, every time I've been in water, it's been my policy to say out loud several times before I get wet "I am not a fish. I am not a fish. I am not a fish."

And this gave my parents a chuckle, so here ya go: on Friday I introduced myself to the lifeguard with this: "I just make it a habit to know the name of the person who might have to give me mouth-to-mouth."