W had Barbie castles, and cars, and we had those imaginary conversations between Barbie and ourselves, we were Barbie. We were Barbie with her Blonde Handsome boyfriend Ken.

Or We were GI Joe, or we were cowboys, hiding behind bushes and furniture to ambush somebody.

And oh, Imaginary Friends we had along with us during our days. And then our stuffed animals.....I had one. His name was Rabbit. Rabbit was like a huge wonderful pink Bunny Rabbit. Rabbit went with me to College. My Suite mates one day, knowing my affection for Rabbit, took him and hung him from light fixture in my dorm room. And rest of story contains profanity and revenge, and lots of beer !

While we were in elementary school, we had plays and ball games, relay races and spelling bees. We wanted our parents and friends and grandparents to come looky see !! "Come ‘looky see' who I am being and what I can do!"

Then we went to high school and college and added athletics & Drama & Glee Clubs to our agenda of ‘come looky see'. Parents, Grandparents, Friends came, because we said.. "come

looky see at who I am being!"

Then we left school, and all of that playing cowboys and Barbie and Ken and GI Joe, and Rabbit......and all of our ‘come looky see' came to a screeching Halt !

WHY????

Do you know what we were doing before we Halted ? We were displaying a frequency in our imagination. The Fiber Optic to Gods, and we just said NO????? We believed in moment, what we were seeing in our minds eye. We were having fun and affection and tons of energy was being spewed all around us.

And we were running around and telling everyone, "come looky see what I can do !"

So what happened to all of that wonder, and Imagination. That stuff that if you're SMART, have figured out by now, that this is what shapes your life, your LIFE !

by Richard Stooker

A few months ago a high school student sent me an AllExperts question which boiled down to:

Which computer career pays most money and has most job security?

I was floored.

Job security?

Does this 16 year old kid write term papers on a typewriter? Call her friends on an AT&T Princess phone? Twirl a hula hoop? Listen to a transistor radio?

Make most money?

Does anybody really give credence to those tables showing that in Boise ID average programmer makes $1544 more than average networker?

Who cares? Do you want to be average? Is anybody average?

The truth is, although it'd be irresponsible of me to have advised her to study COBOL, she'll make most money at whatever career she enjoys, given some reasonable demand in marketplace.

The more she works at giving her employers her best, more money she'll make.

The more she uses her skills to solve more problems for more people -- and this can and should be some activity far beyond normal employment -- more money she'll make.

Chances are, by time she graduates from college highest paying computer skill will be something nobody has yet heard of.

In long run, she'll make as much money as she sets out to make. No more and no less.

Some computer programmers are now on welfare.

Bill Gates is richest man in world.

The more you *create your own job* -- whether you're formally an employee or not -- more security you have.