Happiness, That's My Livelihood
by Scott Hardie on August 31, 2009

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
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 »

R.I.P. Nicole
You know those memes about how 2020 just keeps getting worse by the month? I didn't like them before because it's been such a very awful and depressing year that I'm not in the mood to joke about it. And now I really don't like them, because for me, June has indeed managed to be even worse: My friend Nicole died suddenly of a stroke on Friday. Go »
Pico de Greedo
On Friday, my company threw a part Mexican, part Star Wars party in celebration of Cinco de Mayo and Star Wars Day ("May the 4th be with you"). It was a weird combination but it worked, with games like a lightsaber piñata bash. Kelly made "lightsabers" (pretzel rods frosted with blue and red frosting), but she really got interested when I mentioned that the salsa contest offered three prizes and only had three teams on the signup sheet. Go »
Retrospection
If I recall the dates correctly, yesterday would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday. She lived to just shy of her 89th, despite a lifetime of chain smoking. I remember her as a sweet, generous woman who liked to laugh and teach me life's simple pleasures; a typical afternoon for us was playing crazy eights and baking cinnamon rolls. Go »
Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Facial Reconstructive Surgery
When Roger Ebert took ill last fall, I thought it would pass in a week like his previous cancer scares, and he'd barely mention it. Then he didn't come back to work for months, and I thought he'd announce his retirement, because it's really hard to go back to doing something full-time when you've rested too long, even if you love it like he does. Then he announced that he'd be present at his annual film festival this month, and I thought the recovery was done and he was about to return. Go »
Eulogy for Two or Possibly Three Restaurants
Dining in Sarasota at 10:30pm on a Friday night is not the easiest proposition. I took my friends Miah and Ines downtown to the only non-franchise I knew would still be open, an upscale sports-themed bar & grill called Patrick's. I've had fifteen or so great meals there, but not last night. Go »
Amy Austin | August 31, 2009
Color me all kinds of jealous... and wishing that I could take one of your classes, too. ;-)