I've been getting up before 6:00 PM almost every day this week.

Don't pity me - I don't need your pity.

Two things have my attention. One is a video I've been editing. I keep finding little things to tweak. I'm fiddling. Way fiddling. The kind of fiddling you do when you've disinfected your counter, but aren't satisfied because an electron-microscope image shows you haven't utterly destroyed all microbial life in your kitchen.

The other thing is that I'm getting the Rory Bidniss going again for reals. I was being lazy about it - taking my sweet time - but something came along that's too perfect.

I thought that all the skills I picked up at Microsoft were dead-ends. I took the jobs I did because they sounded like fun. I don't know if you've checked the employment section lately, but there aren't many people requesting the services of extremely attractive public speakers.

Leaving Channel 9 and Microsoft, I had several years of experience writing, broadcasting, audio/video editing, interviewing, speaking, event-putting-onning, and more...

I thought it was all neat but useless. When you get deeply involved with things, you lose perspective. I thought these skills were all just foof because anybody could get up in front of an audience and speak for four hours on various subjects. Right?

Right?

Then you look back, check things out from where you're at, think about what most of the people you know are doing, and then you get to thinking that you were actually a professional something-or-other, and it took some specialized skills to get the job done.

Without getting my fanny into big trouble because of my big mouth, I'll go as far as to say that a friend of mine sat me down for a talk a couple months ago and convinced me that all this foof is in demand, and that few people know how to do it.

So, I took on a client this week. It's so bloody awesomely awesome that you're all going to feel like total losers for not being involved.

I drive a John Cooper Works edition Mini Cooper S. I'm quite fond of it. That's why I bought it. Because I wanted it. And liked it. It's my second Mini (technically it's my third if you count the one sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic due to a shipping accident - for serious - I own a car that's probably home to a family of octopus squatters right now). I just don't see myself wanting a different car. Except a 1970 Trans-Am. I'd throw your whole family into a volcano for a 1970 Trans-Am. I'd even toss in a complimentary evil laugh if the car was in good condition. If it was perfectly restored, I'd give you half-off on your next family-thrown-into-a-volcano. There's a whole avenue of work I'd never considered until right now.

Anyway, there are a few Mini tuners in the Portland area. After looking them over, I went out to an event one of them was holding. The place is called Mini-Madness.

I was impressed with the guy who's running this show. He has an art degree, but taught himself automotive mechanics. Now he designs and manufactures his own custom high-quality parts. There are so many things on the list that I want... beautiful stuff. I have a lot of respect for people who get things done without any formal training. Especially something like this - I might know how to give a good public talk, but I'm blown away by what someone can accomplish with metal and bolts and belts and fluids and gears and gaskets. Everything I do is abstract - this stuff is all happening in the meatverse (thanks to Astrid for introducing to me to the word "meatverse").

I got so excited about it that, on the way home, I came up with a detailed plan for promoting his stuff. Not just the products, but also doing something that, like Channel 9, becomes part of an enthusiast community.

Rather than writing here, I've been putting together that plan for the first three months of the work I'm going to do for/with this shop.

It's just happiness. I get to use these skills - fun stuff - and apply them to something other than the tech industry. While exploring non-tech companies, I got more of that perspective I was talking about earlier. In tech, we avail ourselves to every media. In the secular world, there's a lot of traditional media, but very little else.

I understand now why these skills are so valuable. What I thought must have been pervasive turns out to be mostly limited to tech and geekery.

Maybe this was all common knowledge. Glad I figured it out, though.

We're going to get to work in the coming week, weather-pending.

One more thing for which I have Paul Murphy and Jeff Sandquist to thank. They paid me to learn this crap while using their teams as a sandbox.

Time to relax. I've spent at least two and a half hours working this week.

I don't know yet if I'm going to be compensated for overtime.

[Gratuitous Links to my Homies - Not Part of the Post Above] [Learn More]

- Zamima - You wrote about me recently - in Urdu. I'm not gonna lie - I have no idea what you've written. For all I know, you're saying that you'd throw my family into a volcano for a 1970 Trans-Am. But, whatever the content, it looks really neat.

- Italian Powerblog - I can do a decent job of reading Italian. It's better than my Urdu, anyway. I just like all this foreign language bidniss.

- Lisa 4.0 - Been having a fun email exchange with version 4.0 of Lisa. That's all. Linkitty-dinky-doo.