I haven't written too much lately about technical support issues, so I decided I would tell you a little bit about a normal day here at the office.
First off, I think I have the second-biggest office in the place, behind the publisher. But that's only because I used to share an office with my boss, and he's not here anymore. There are four computers (two G4s, an iMac and a PC), six monitors and six chairs. I try not to use them all at once, but sometimes, I can't help myself, especially during puppet shows.
I spend approximately 90 minutes each week on this column. Sometimes more, like the crazy survey column (results will be analyzed soon!), and sometimes less, like probably this one. The rest of my daily time is spent doing the following things: designing and building commercial Web sites, designing and building online newspaper features, designing and building Web site ads, going to meetings, riding around my office on a bicycle, answering questions and comments via e-mail, training people at the paper on various programs and coming up with new ideas for the newspaper Web site and commercial sites.
I'm not saying I have any more to do than the person sitting next to me. Wait a minute, there is no person sitting next to me. I think the biggest difference is the amount of computer programs I can use on a daily basis. Here's a list of the programs I've used during the past month: Adobe Illustrator, BBEdit, Dataflow, Dreamweaver, Felt Tip Sound Studio, FileMaker Pro, Fireworks, Flash, Lasso Web Server, Media Cleaner Pro, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, NewsEditPro, Palm Desktop, Pantheon Builder, QuarkXPress, ScanWise, SoundRecorder, Stuffit Expander, Transporter, and Vicomsoft FTP Client. I guess you could also include Acrobat Reader, Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Outlook, QuickTime Player and a couple others, but those are primarily used to view stuff on the Web and not actually create anything. Any coding I do is normally in HTML, but I also use Lasso, Javascript, PERL and ASP on occasions.
I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, other than there's no one else to talk to in my office, like usual. I guess my column is kind of an escape from some of that, but sometimes, it can give me the means to do more research on a particular thing. I figure most things that interest me will probably interest my readers. It's tough to stay on the cutting edge, as by the time I write this, there will probably be an upgrade I will need for one of the programs listed above.
Yep, I do try to do more than put up new mug shots of myself, especially ones that look like a poor Bojangles imitation (Here's what the real Bojangles looked like. Judge for yourself.) I'm always open for column suggestions, especially ones that will make my puppet show better. Or for that matter, any burning Web site question will do. Other than that, I'd better get back to the other things I need to do. For instance, like talking to myself.
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