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Subject:Whining and drivel...the final frontier From:Gus Lemming <lemming -at- PTS -dot- MOT -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 6 Oct 1994 18:53:18 GMT
To the technical documentation world:
Thanks to all who directly responded to my last thread. Consider me well
spanked.
To Virginia: sorry for the badly aimed thread. I'm not sure, however, if there
is
a Santa Claus.
To Oklahoma: you truly are OK (with the possible exception of Barry Switzer).
To the bit.listserv.techwr host cpu at Oklahoma State: bleep, bleep, bloop.
The sun was in my eyes. My dog ate my homework. I am sharing the same brain
with
my officemate, and he was using it that day. I ingested an unusally large dose
of
monitor phosphor through my pupils, and was prone that entire day to episodes of
stream of consciousness.
Sorry to anyone offended. I was just trying to inject some levity. In some
cases I suppose, it turned out to be tavern-level humor. I violated one of the
rules of any writer worth their snuff; know your audience.
It reminds me of my technical writing professor. This guy was really cool.
He was my college's writer in residence for a year, and he came from the real
world.
You know, not like so many professors who couldn't deal with reality and escaped
to
a life of academia. Every now and then, he used to come over to my house for
beers,
and I would pick his brain with all these wide-eyed questions about life after
graduation.
Anyway, not only did this guy teach tech writing, he was a published author too.
And I really wanted to do some kind of creative writing, even if it was writing
copy for an ad agency (which I did for a few years). However, I was uncertain
if I could really do it, so I would also ask many questions about tech writing.
I'll always remember what he said, "Chase your dreams. Don't worry about
technical
writing, it will always be there." I think I now know exactly what he was
saying.