What do you do for a living?

UGH, I'm still trying to decide what to write here. I want to include original content, not just quotes. But I leave the personal stuff for my journal. I want to show you guys my poetry or essay writing, but I refuse to do that because of publishing laws (which state that anything you've published publicly on the internet can't be published by another company, you can only self-publish-- Lisa, correct me on that if I didn't quite get it right).

And I do actually fantacize about having my poetry published someday... and I DO fantacize about writing the umpteen novels I have ideas swirling around for in my head.

I want to show you all that I am authentic, that I am real and have a lot of thoughts (a L-O-T of thoughts!! Too damn many!!), and really grow the potential for a sense of community. But where to start? I know... the beginning.

I've spent almost 5 years over at livejournal.com, slowly building a tight network of friends. Most of them are "real life" friends... or people I see face to face on a regular basis. Others are some I have met in person... spoken to on the phone... sent letters, cards, emails, and gifts to-- in other words, we have an authentic connection.

So, as far as Gather goes... I'm stumped. I like to play the part of the observer as I'm dipping my toes in the water to test it. What I've observed so far is... It seems that the majority of the Gather population is here to "earn points" and get gift cards. While that's a nice perk......... a lot of you end up making a lot of great online friends in the process. The sense of openness and community, and joking around with each other... and wordiness, might I add, is mystifying to me.

I am an introvert! I have a small group of very close friends. I'm knit rather tightly with them. To let in new people is altogether daunting yet thrilling. I am, for the most part, private.

So, this is what I do. I talk about what I want to do before I can just do it. So now that I'm talking about my desire to share... I will be able to share soon. It's just my process... and we all have a process, don't we?

By the way, Gather is friggin ADDICTIVE!!!!!!!!!! I could literally spend all day here, requesting connections and finding groups and interesting people. It's ridiculous!!

Ok, let me start this process.

I am an instructional designer. WTF is that, you ask? If you have ever taken a training class through work, or read a training manual to learn the software your job requires, or watched videos to learn procedures-- that's the kind of thing I do. I create training for adults, and mostly for software companies. I can learn software quickly (end-user software such as QuickBooks, Excel, etc... or internal software that's only used by employees), and that has proven to be beneficial in my work. I am a decent technical writer, and I have a knack for designing training that is accessible and easy to use. So... that's what I do.

What I'd LIKE to be doing is getting paid to make jewelry and shop for beads. It is my biggest passion!

Let me ask you.....................................

What do you do for a living?

Is it what you want to be doing? If not... what would you rather be getting paid to do?