Almost a year ago I write here that I was working on a long piece, my swan song, about me leaving journalism (with fear & loathing). It is still sitting on my hard drive as a draft. It has been so long since I worked on it I have kind of forgotten where I put it.
That is a bit sad. Not only did I have to leave a craft I enjoyed and was very passionate about. I have also forgotten where I stashed some of my most personal write-ups.
Writing is, to put in bluntly, something I do not do any more. Not only do I not have the time to do it, but when I do, like now, it is like pouring salt & Tabasco into a wound while twisting a knife in it.
I even have had to stop reading my favourite author, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Not because I do not enjoy his writing any more, but because he was not just my biggest inspiration, when reading him I got a greater boost than any coffee or drug would give me to sit down and write for hours.
That is something I cannot handle any more. Realising that I will never be a journalist again, having to give up what you truly enjoyed. It is not easy to face.
I am not even on my deathbed and I already have decided what my biggest regret in life is.
Which is why I cleansed dokterw.me of anything related to journalism. I have even taken down my portfolio. It is gone. Not relevant any more.
That does not change the fact I also have a passion for IT. I enjoy my new job working with EDI (electronic data interchange), but it has one thing IT (at least from my experience) lacks. You never truly know what will happen tomorrow or even an hour from now — even 5 minutes from now can be very unpredictable in journalism.
It allowed me to meet a lot of interesting people in Australia. Musicians, politicians, ordinary people with extraordinary stories. I even met the American actor, Chris Judge.
What has drawn me to both journalism and IT is my hunger for knowledge. I want to know why. I want to learn how something works. I want to share information. I want to go against the grain and do what is unexpected.
Doing the unexpected in journalism you tell the stories no one else tells, and you tell them differently from everyone else. In IT, to do the unexpected, you need to figure out how the systems work and how you can tweak them and make them do what you want them to do.
Yet, in IT you usually end up at a desk and the only travels you do are through the Internet. While in journalism, if you are lucky, you will travel the world so you can tell the stories from each and every corner.
But I digress…
I could digress further, on how shit journalism has become and how some journalists are lowlife scum, but that’s for when, and if, I finish my true swan song.
From no on, if I post here it will most likely be about something IT related.
That is, if I ever get the time. Because lately I only have time to eat, sleep & work. I do not play games anymore, I have not had time to learn Python yet (something I have planned for a year), I have stopped making music, I have stopped tinkering with computers & networks, I do not read books any more, & as mentioned, I have stopped writing.
Take care for now.
Dokter 