Happiness, That's My Livelihood | Tragic Comedy

Somehow I've agreed to teach HTML & PHP classes on Friday mornings. Two down, at least two to go. I enjoy teaching, and you know I enjoy making websites, but the getting-up-before-dawn-at-the-end-of-a-long-week part is agony. I wind up stumbling over the finer points of the lecture and forgetting answers to questions, and then being dizzy all day from lack of sleep. It has helped me discover that Friday afternoons are the best time to group-interview job candidates, because the loopy spirit in the room puts them at ease. But it has also reconnected me to a love of the basics of building web sites, and I see the enthusiasm in the classroom that got me started on this stuff years ago. Anybody can learn how to make a web site, and it's a lot of fun to make one, and the fact that I get paid to do what I'd do all day anyway continues to make me feel like I've unlocked some secret code for happiness.

Six Replies to Happiness, That's My Livelihood

Amy Austin | August 31, 2009
Color me all kinds of jealous... and wishing that I could take one of your classes, too. ;-)

Steve West | August 31, 2009
I was thinking the same thing. That sounds like an awesome class.

Jackie Mason | August 31, 2009
[hidden by author request]

Aaron Shurtleff | August 31, 2009
Dang! And here I was thinking it would be cool to learn this stuff, and everyone's already said it!

Of course, I might be close enough to sneak in and ninja audit the class...

Dave Stoppenhagen | August 31, 2009
You do virtual classroom? I'd like to learn as well. LOL

Amy Austin | August 31, 2009
Sign me up for ninja audit, too, please. Or not. Either way, we r n ur klasrum...

Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

I Have Boring Dreams

Real men don't play tennis, and they don't play chess. They play tennis on a giant virtual chessboard where every step of their feet and bounce of the ball instructs the computer where to move the next piece. And they call it chennis. Go »

Home Computing

Any time I get frustrated with how slow my computer seems these days, I just remember that it could be worse. Thanks, Marlon. Go »

Game Over

On paper, Game Over doesn't look promising: A vulgar, video-game-themed cartoon series on UPN that only lasted five episodes. But I rented it anyway, and somehow it managed to be entertaining and smarter than it needed to be, but maybe that was just the low expectations kicking in. I think the key to the show is that it actually respected its characters and cared for them as a family unit, instead of using them as empty vessels for punchlines (latter-year The SImpsons) or treating them with unmistakable contempt (Family Guy). Go »

Silly Caucasian Girl Likes to Play with Samurai Swords

I heard that a teenager was questioned by the Secret Service after she posted an icon saying "Kill Bush" on her myspace page. My companions were up in arms over it, saying that's a violation of free speech and how dare they scare her, et cetera. I don't see how she was charged with any crime or how this how this disrupts anything but her school day. Go »

Earth to Cat

What part of get down! are you pretending not to understand? Go »

Where the Hell I Have Been All Year, Part III

This is a long story of interest only to friends of mine and people who really want to spend fifteen minutes reading about my life, but I've been promising to reveal this secret for the better part of a year and the time has come: Kelly Lee and I were a couple again this past spring. I kept it secret because A) it was difficult to tell the friends who had supported me during her breakup that we were dating again and B) for the duration of the relationship I didn't know where it was going and I wanted to know this before I said anything. Anyway, this story is solely my point of view and may not be fair to hers. Go »