[MD] Buddhism's s/o

[John Carl]

On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 12:01 PM, Mary <marysonthego at gmail.com> wrote:

[Mary Replies]

> When I was a kid we'd go to different churches on weekends.  Synagogue was
> pretty rough because it messed up Saturday.  Catholic was better because
> you
> could go on Saturday at 5 and still have time for dinner and a movie later
> -
> and you got to klep out of Sunday too.  You know, these were kind of like
> family field trips.  We'd all attend the service together, then come home
> and talk about it afterward.
>


Well I think from a sociological perspective, that sounds like an ideal
set-up.  You're getting educated in your social fundaments, but at the same
time the juxtaposition of conflicting world views means that you're
experiencing the education without being trapped by either one.

I'd say that would produce a quality thinker, and then I read your words and
voila!  Evidence confirms.



> >
> [Mary Replies]
> John the tech support carpenter?  I once wired a house we were building,
> but
> that's kinda electrically/electronically related, so no stretch there.  I
> read a book about wiring then bought roughly 1/2 mile of romex and all the
> boxes and stuff and went to town on it.  Wired up three-way switches and
> everything.  I was so proud of myself.  The only really stupid mistake I
> made was putting two GFI's in series for a hot tub.  Hehe  Had to ask
> somebody who actually knew how to do wiring to figure out why it wasn't
> working.
>



I had a tech support interlude, right at the beginning of the spread of the
internet in this county (93 was the year) when I broke my leg on a job and
took a web design class to fill my time.  I was interested in the internet
from a community building perspective and was lucky to be living in a
community that was rich in community values.  Our ISP, NCCN, Nevada County
Community Network was one of the only Cooperative, non-profit, community
ISPs in the country just a few years after it got started.  A lot because of
the large number of Bay Area Retirees and our proximity to the silicon
valley, and in general because a lot of good guys got together and had fun
doing it.

I learned that I was good at talking to people on the phone, and getting
their problems solved, and this landed me subsequent positions and on and on
and everything was heating up then, but I backed out before the big dot com
crash and was always glad I did.

My main forte was apple skills.  I'd inherited a bunch of Macs from my
dad-in-law and was proficient in apple in an era when nerds were
overwhelmingly pc.

I like to tell my kids, "I was Apple, when Apple wasn't cool".  (sung to the
tune)

My first mailing list participation was Guy Kawasaki's "Thunderlizard" which
existed to brainstorm ideas promoting Apple and mac and answer tech
questions.  I wonder what happened to those guys.

words on a screen, lost in time.

John