Killin’ It

Deep Domain

Chill Killin' It

Mostly agreed. There is a general troubleshooting ability, however, and most people don’t have this. I do, and that means I can often solve problems in other domains. I’m brought in to do that fairly often and am almost always successful.

However, there is such thing as deep domain expertise. And it matters, too. In my own fields I can glance at, understand, and solve problems my own junior team members cannot comprehend much less solve in weeks or months. And that’s mostly the result of 25+ years of experience.

Fuego

Chill Killin' It

This is a rant blog, so a lot of you might get the impression that I am unhappy or an ass all the time.

While I am indeed a grumpy person by nature and kind of spiky even on my best days, I am very happy! I hardly ever have a bad day. And that’s because I have a gorgeous, lovely partner that I’ve been with for many years. We own our own place and have no money worries. We do pretty much what we want.

And I have some delightful, fun friends all around the world. More than I ever thought I’d have when I was a misfit and widely (and wildly) hated in rural North Florida.

My life is so, so great. And I am thankful every day.

All of Them

Chill Amusing, Killin' It

Some lore about me.

I tend to do the “impossible” accidentally due to social cluelessness and lack of awareness of what others think is normal. In this case, some years ago my journey into the impossible occurred as I was taking classes at a community college. I showed up, took an exam, then went outside to wait for the next one. These tests could’ve been scheduled on any day of the week (including weekends) but for ease of commuting I chose to sit for all four of them back to back. Just seemed normal to me.

As I was resting at a picnic table watching the birds, a girl I knew from one of my classes came up to me and asked, “So, which exam are you taking today?”

I said without thinking about it, “All of them.”

She looked confused for a moment and then said, “What do you mean, ‘All of them?'”

“I mean, I scheduled all four of them so I don’t have to drive here on four different days.”

“But why in the world would you do that?” she said.

It didn’t even occur to me — not even vaguely — that scheduling four fairly difficult exams back to back on the same day would be unusual or something to be remarked upon. There was not the first thought in my head about that until that moment. I mumbled something again about it being easier and quickly changed the subject.

I got As on all four, by the way. Wasn’t even a problem.

Goddesses and Demons

Chill Amusing, Killin' It

In another place that most people usually look bad — their driver’s license photos — my partner manages to look like a glorious goddess on a casual modeling shoot.

Meanwhile, I’m over here with a mug like a demented somewhat dimwitted demon in mine. I have no idea how she does it. She’d also look amazing in her booking photo too, I have no doubt.

I’m a lucky dude, to say the very least.

MacGyver

Chill Killin' It

My dad and I were so different we did not and never could’ve understood one another, but he was a mechanical genius (as I alluded to in my post below). In a different timeline, he should’ve been doing much bigger things.

One time I saw him repair MacGyver style the single mother’s car who lived down the road using wire from a clothes hanger, some rubber, a few oddball screws he had around, and some kind of metal bond stuff. It was going to be a $400 repair at an actual shop — a whole damn lot for a single mom in North Florida in the 1980s. This was around 1985, so that’d be $1,200 now.

He charged her, “Tell some other people who have a bit of money or something to trade to come see me when they have car trouble.” And it worked! I know of at least half a dozen people she referred. There were probably more. My dad was no saint at all, but he did try to help in his own way.