Thursday, October 28, 2010

Leaves falling like rain...

Driving to work today, a gust of wind brought down a shower of leaves and for a brief moment, the leaves were falling like red and gold rain drops. Like a call from the wild, I suddenly felt like driving to some unknown destination, leaving everything and most everyone behind (there are a couple of dear people that I hope to always carry with me).
There's something about this time of year that makes me think about change. One would think that Spring, with it's new leaves and bright sun, would be the motivation for seeking new adventures. For me, it's autumn. Perhaps it's the change in temperature -- the crisp, cold air that invites movement, if only to keep warm. Or maybe it's the knowledge that the end of the year is coming (albeit a mad-made, arbitrary date) and that there's only a short amount of time left to accomplish those wistfully expressed goals that I made at the beginning of the year.

Whatever it is, today I wish I could just hit the road and drive to somewhere new and different. Instead, I'll be a good girl, place my butt in the chair, and get to work!

(but I wonder...is it that I want to run away from something or run towards something?)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm back...again...

Oh, my few loyal readers, did you think I had disappeared forever?

I'm back. Really, I am. Just took a bit of a break from my random nattering which is likely to be as boring as hell, and yet, according to my blog stats, SOMEONE out there is reading (or maybe it's just googlebot indexing my blog for some odd reason).

I was reading some "tips" about how to stay current as a technical writer. Mostly good advice. The problem is, I don't really want to be a modern day technical writer. I liked being the old fashioned kind. You know...the one that wrote the online help and administrator manuals. I liked putting chunks of content together, group huge, dense tracts of text into nice lists, tables, and diagrams.

Alas, that's not the wave of the future. Sigh. Alas, I find the topic of DITA to be a big, boring, blog of blather. Alright, I admit, it has a lot going for it regarding reuse and efficiency. And, perhaps if I had implemented it where I work today, I would be regarded as innovative (but expensive) and maybe I would have a nice content management system that allows me to use content in product documentation AND the web, instead of the crappy process I have to use today. I sort of regret that I took the inexpensive route. And, not using DITA could be a bit job limiting (yes, I'm sure I'll have to find another job within the next couple of years...more about that in another post).

I'm feeling nostalgic for the good, old days of technical writing. Social media, screen casts, video productions...sounds pretty cool and exciting, eh? And yet, I'm having trouble finding the motivation to be bothered with learning all the new stuff.

Perhaps I'm really ready to retire, eh? Too bad I can't afford to do so.