The day JOB! We all have one, whether it's working for "the man" or working for ourselves with us being "the man". I have had many JOB's, I started working when I was 11 years old. This wasn't some sort of high paying job or anything, in fact I was working for room and board in Castleford, Idaho. This job was on a working cattle ranch! The Heil's ran about 5,000 head of cattle on 15,000 acres of their own ranch and on another 15,000 acres of leased Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. While this was an interesting job, I learned to drive a stick shift pick-up truck, ride horses, string barbed wire, set irrigation siphon tubes, turn and stack hay bales, I think the primary purpose of this job was to put me in a place my Mother wouldn't worry about me during the summer. You see, she and my Father had separated at this time and while my younger brother and sister could be put into a day care type center, there really wasn't anyplace to put an energetic 11 year old. So, off to the ranch I went. So I really must thank Larry and Marcella Heil, their parents and the other adults on the Heil Ranch in Castleford for truly teaching me what it meant to take responsibility and instilling in me a work ethic which has stood the test of time to this very day.

Over the years I've done a lot of things, let's see if I can get them all down in order:

1. 1968 - Ranch hand, Castleford, Idaho. (Age - 11)
2. 1970 - Surrogate Parent, Twin Falls, Idaho. I became responsible for my little brother and sister after my Mother died from breast cancer. This continued until 1972 when my Father remarried.
3. 1971 - Mailboy in a Bank - Fairbanks, Alaska. (Age - 14; This was the only job I was ever fired from, but that is a story for another day.)
4. 1971 - Weekend Grocery Bagger - Ft. Wainwright Commissary, Alaska. (Age - 14)
5. 1972 - Fry Cook, A&W, Twin Falls, Idaho. (Age - 15)
6. 1973 - Laundry, Twin Falls, Idaho. (Age - 16) This job only lasted for 2 weeks, sheer boredom!
7. 1973 - Busboy, Blue Lakes Inn, Twin Falls, Idaho. (Age - 16)
8. 1974 - CocaCola Bottling, Twin Falls, Idaho. (Age - 17)
9. 1974 - Banquet Staff, Holiday Inn, Twin Falls, Idaho. (Age - 17)
10. 1975 - United States Army (Age 18 to 38)
11. 1995 - Store Manager - Harbison, Jackson Camera, Columbia, South Carolina. (Age 38)
12. 1996 - Lab Manager, A Fast Photo, Columbia, South Carolina. (Age - 39) My son was born while I was here.
13. 1996 - Operations Coordinator, Columbia Metropolitan Airport, West Columbia, South Carolina. (Age - 39)
14. 1997 - Computer Specialist, Federal Aviation Administration, West Columbia, South Carolina. (Age - 40)
15. 2008 - Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Atlanta, Georgia. (Age - 50)
16. 2009 - Team Lead - Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Atlanta, Georgia, (Age - 51)

Someday I will go into the particulars about the Army and FAA. Obviously with 20 years in one and 10 years currently in the other, I have done different things in each. I sometimes am troubled with the way we make judgements about people based on the jobs they are doing at the moment, I am sure the Heils and any of my employers before 1975 would never have guessed I would one day become an Aviation Safety Officer flying Blackhawks in the Army or a Computer Specialists in a Federal Agency. In fact, before 1975, the Blackhawk was in research and development and the Computer Specialist position was something no one could have guessed would one day exist.

The point of this article, is that for most of the content we read on the Internet, much of it is created by people with a "day job". In fact much of the work created by artists and writers is supported by some form of "day job", and in many cases is totally unrelated to what we see and observe on a web site.

It is the "day job" which allows us the time to spend on writing and developing for the Internet. Some of us become prominent enough that we venture out into the independent contractor world and turn to using our skills in solving problems for others on the Internet, the truly great, become successful building their own business related to Internet site development in any number of different specialized ways. Others find success with advertising programs, these are the few and I don't know about you, but I abhor sites filled with banner advertising or those Google ads in the middle of online articles or web log entries. It seems these days, many are jumping on the Google bandwagon.

As I have said many times and in many places, I will not succumb to the lure of easy money. Unless there is some compelling reason to reverse my decision in the future, you can rest assured there will be no advertising as long as I have my "day job" to support my online activities.

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