I honestly don’t think I look expensive. Of course, while I’d like to be paid well for my work I often work for free or less because the project is interesting, or tugs my heart strings. You know how that goes.

Hey, thanks again to your influence, I’ve got my bloglines up and running. Much more accessible than Google Reader. Nice.

Thanks for your note, Laura! I like that you and Julian probably represent the full range of the generation with Julian being the early technology adopter and your experience being a little bit slower, perhaps. As a parent of a 4-year-old and a 20-month-old, I have been constantly balancing how much technology they’re exposed to – both at home and at school, and it’s no easy task. Thanks for sharing!

I typed a lot of papers in middle and high school, but I never learned PowerPoint until college, when I needed to learn all the Microsoft and Adobe software for my Technical and Professional Communication major. I don’t know what I’d do without all that software now.

The world has changed A LOT in the past 10 years since I was 13. I can’t live without my cell phone/PDA (no land-line), I’m constantly checking my email and Facebook, I got my current job partly because of my online portfolio/website, and I work at a software company.

I think, though, that I had just the right mix of low-tech and high-tech in my life. Kids now start playing computer games and talking on cell phones way too early and I think they miss out on slower things in life. I guess many older people would say the same about me, too.

While I believe in the value of education, I know I would have had more fun in school had there been courses like Bioinformatics way back when. I think we earn our education so many different ways, and a degree is only one representation of that paying of the dues. Plus, the present-day preoccupation with academic credentials when hunting for a job frustrates me, because many organizations filter candidates out for their lack of credentials rather than comparing those candidates to others with relevant experience.

Fortunately for me I have a constantly evolving web presence. I posted a bit about finding my current career in my own blog, which I started just after meeting Anne and others at a conference. I’m pretty sure my web activites helped to encourage forward-thinking employers to consider my services in the absence of a specific piece of paper. Some even commented that they thought I’d cost too much (a comment I didn’t expect).