Well - just about finished the course. Problems is I've bought a house and can't keep up the payments on a counsellor's wage. Hmmm. My practical placement has been at a primary school for the last 6 months which has been a wonderful and humbling experience to be involved in helping some little tackers get their life in order when their whole lives (school, family etc) is hellbent on crushing them.

So I moved to a more laid back position at work whilst pretending to waste away (to work peers) whilst stepping up other exploits to keep my head above water (financially). I know a guy who share trades for a living and have talked to him a *lot* and been paper trading for last 4 months and averaged 43% a month. I *must* be doing something wrong - it can't be this easy. I applied some DSP algorithms from by image analysis background (wrote the software used in most police prefectures in Japan for DNA finger printing some years ago). Well, even if I only get 1/5 of that I'd be happy. Will put down 10k or so to try this out. I read enough books to sink a ship and the thems are pretty constant on share trading - minimise/manage your losses, be prepared to lose, back test over at least 5 yrs data, don't kid/cheat yourself when paper trading and don't expect anything to work for more than 6 months. Hmmm. Will let you know how it goes having convinced my dear woman to agree to try it out (what a honey).

Well, after one year of study I'm cooking nicely. One year to go. Mind you, studying fulltime and working fulltime is not that easy, but it's paying off. I've been offered a paid tutoring position next year in the course and it's been suggested I apply to do a Masters (by research) also. Hmm, must be doing something right. Computing still sucks mostly (but it does pay reallllly well :-)

Well after 20+ years in the computer industry I thought I'd try something different. I've been a programmer, systems analyst, senior analyst, team leader, IT Manager, systems engineer, ran my own company, worked on defense, realtime stuff, commercial, games and a lot more. And ya know what? It's all just a bit passe now. I get paid a lot to hardly even think and the new compter stuff is all starting to look very much the same.

So my big move is to go into counselling. Yep - a major move. My latest (last!) computing job (at the second largest defense company in the world) is just rife with ppl who are fucked up, some just a little and some a whole lot. Now most of these people think they're fine and some are a little suspicious that maybe the world might be a better place if only they were a bit different. Take five minutes to talk to these people outside of techo stuff and they're either a mess, bitter, angry, sad, or just 100% stone walled away from their emotions. Not that I'll be able to do a whole lot to help but if I have to look into the eyes of a manager or engineer one more time and see such anguish and be expected to keep my mouth shut then I wouldn't be true to myself. There are a few who genuinely thrive in corporateville, but I'd say we're talking 20%.

So off I go back to study - first time in 17 or so years. The classes are packed with middle aged just-divorced women who have just realised living in cosy suburbia with a stressed hubby isn't what life is all about. And these women are *good* at seeing what's wrong, so they go to study to see what they can do about it. I feel like a very odd fish in that group, let me tell you! Maybe I wont end up rich (maybe I'll write a best selling book on why 9-5 corporate jobs suck life out of some ppl and not others) but I'll die a happy man in a long long time, rather than a stressed, repressed sod in 15 years.

[climbs off soapbox and looks at the crowd of disinterested people wandering past, sighs, walks off. Fade scene, roll credits]