Tonight I backed up three of the (how many?) websites I’ve created. I find the very idea of “backing up” very… satisfying. The thing I liked least about what I used to do and most about what I do now is that at the end of the day (literally, not figuratively), something exists that didn’t before. Now, you might argue that web pages are a bit intangible by their very nature. But you can look at them and show them to others and…once you’ve burned them to a CD…hold them in your hand. A few hundred megabites that represents *hundreds* of hours of work and thought (and whatever creativity I could muster). My best efforts. Tomorrow I’ll stop by the bank and slide the CD’s into a safe deposit box. And if the servers at MyHosting.com or Learfield go up in smoke… I’ll upload my files to a new server and all those hours live on. KBOA: The Early Years, The Basement Diaries, Amberjack Landing, *this* blog… one day they didn’t exist, the next day they did. They do. They will.

My previous job was to persuade other people to do things they usually didn’t want to do. To talk them into it. To check to see if they did the things they were “supposed to do.” And agreed to do. Nothing new was created unless I was able to convince someone else that it should be. That’s why “managers” make more money than the people they manage. It’s a nearly impossible job that isn’t very satisfying, even if you do it really well. And –here’s the best part– the people you’re paid to manage resent you for trying to do it (as they should) and long for they day they get to be in charge and manage others. Talk about punishment fitting the crime. But I’ve escaped, like Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption. If there were a book, we might call it “Life After Management: Clawing My Way Back Down the Corporate Ladder.” A little long, maybe.