If I want to freak myself out in the dark hours before dawn, all I have to do is start thinking about everything I don’t know about the web. I’m angling to go back to work after Jane turns 2, but doing what? Lately, every writer--I mean "content provider--job description seems to REALLY be saying:
"Wanted: Recent college grad to singlehandedly transform our lumbering Industrial-Age business model into a content-management-system for the 22nd century and beyond! And oh yeah, you’ve got to write at least six news stories a week, too. Pay: Club Penguin coins and all the Taco Bell you can eat."
I recently applied for a freelance gig on craigslist that I now realize was for someone entirely techno-savvy. I must have written a good cover letter though, because I actually landed a phone interview. Unfortunately, I hadn’t the foggiest what DRUPAL (A restaurant on Devon? I hear they have really good samosas there) and web 2.0 were.
At first, I tried to bluff my way through but then I just said hey, I’m a good editorial person and I can learn the rest on the job. I didn’t hear back.
This week, I’m signing up for a web class at the local community college. It’s on the internet, so while Jane sleeps I can learn what she’s probably going to know by osmosis in a couple years. Just by being adventurous and pressing all the buttons, she’s found features on my cell phone that I would never in a million years have discovered on my own.