Monday 20 September 1999
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Pic of the day: Time to confess ... I've been secretly playing Ultima 7
every evening for days now.
You know you just may have played too much Ultima 7 when you find yourself humming "Rule Britannia" at the office. But by then it is already too late. It no longer feels like a shameful, illicit thrill when you reboot your computer in the evening for half an hour of trekking through the kingdom that was once called Sosaria. No, it feels like a human right or something.
Not that the Avatar's travels are not punctuated every few minutes
by meal breaks as the companions go "I am very hungry" - "I must eat
now" -"Aieeee!"
At least I did resist the urge to play Ultima 7 in the morning. Not that
I did not have enough to do at work when I got there. Today was the
first day of the introductory course for our poor new PC users. In my
first class there was one - count him, 1 - employee who did not have
a PC at home.
I am not concerned about standing in front of a group of coworkers. Or any other group. I may be fleetingly nervous, but it's far less scary than constipation or a deep cough. It's way better than being passenger in a bus on the winding road in the steep hillside that runs into the sea, between where I live and the city. And don't mention the dentist (who I really ought to call real soon now, as I've lost a rather large filling). When I was a kid, I liked going to the blackboard. This was probably in part because I trusted that I would know the answers. Then again, I do so now too. In mercantile school, I would help teach the others basic (really BASIC) computer skills. In college, teachers would sometimes just go away and I would explain stuff to my fellow students. It is just the way I am. I am a teacher. But I am not a teacher by profession. Because they do not primarily teach. They babysit. Not just the first graders. Way up into their teens, most pupils are just "kept", not taught. Or only incidentally. Not because they love to learn. Or even particularly want to.
But wherever people want to learn, my teacher nature wakes up. It's
like those birds who just have to feed the gaping beaks. Instinct
takes over. I don't need to be an expert. If I know some small things
that I don't think everyone else is aware of, I'll try to share.
Generally I think it works quite well. Perhaps just because I do it by
nature, not for some greater goal. It is just the way I am.
One funny thing that happens almost every time is that my voice runs out. On an ordinary day, I don't speak much. I will ask a few questions to a user who has a problem. Then, half an hour later, I will discuss something with a fellow staffer. Then, a while later, I will answer a phone. It does add up, but not all that much. My voice is simply not accustomed to that much use. And of course, I rarely use it at home, except for some humming and singing now and then. But then I can just change to whistling after a while. When teaching software, whistling just doesn't do the trick. Even in a mostly female workplace. |