A lot of cool things have been happening in my life lately. Most of it is good news. I have not been posting on my blog much because I have not had the time. I started a new department at Walmart and so far I enjoy it better than stocking. I work in Maintenance which really means I am helping clean the store. Sometimes emptying trash, sometimes sweeping or scrubbing the floor, and sometimes cleaning the bathrooms, which is difficult only because there are a lot of little things to remember such as filling the supplies and also mopping the floor in the correct way.
But I think what I love most about my new job as a Maintenance Mop Monkey is how my brain is free to think of other things while I am working because it takes a lot less concentration than stocking does. What am I thinking of during this time? The image below is a fine example of my thoughts!
I have been programming in Assembly Language for DOS lately. I find Computer Programming to be suspiciously relaxing because the world of math and computers is one where humans can’t hurt me.
The only risk I face while on my computer is when I get on social media and see hateful things directed at Transgender people, immigrants, or people in other countries. There are plenty of things I could say about what is going on in the world. However, I am not going to do any of that because I have realized that to become a better writer, programmer, and Chess player, I must maintain my supreme autistic focus because that is my gift from God.
Anyway, when computer programming, there are only numbers. The arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division never change and I can count on them more than I can people. My time is better spent improving my code and working on my current book project for teaching DOS Assembly Language. I have even created a simple cover for it.
The theme is black background with white text because this is the way the DOS (Disk Operating System) looks.
The goal of this book is a little bit different than most of my books. In fact the target audience for this book is very niche. People don’t write programs for DOS unless it it for fun. There is no money in being able to write programs for DOS because the rest of the world has moved to Windows, MacOS, and Linux which support 32 and 64 bit systems with more capability and 16 bit DOS.
Instead, this book will be my first computer programming book for the purpose of both teaching Assembly Language to the nerds of the world and as an exercise of my Technical Writing skills. This will be the third technical writing book.
The first book was Chastity’s Chess Chapters for teaching Chess to people of every kind.
The second was Minimal Markdown for Authors for teaching other writers how to format and publish their books using similar methods to what I have used.
This next book, Assembly Arithmetic Algorithms, will be my entry into publishing books about computer programming. This special interest of mine has gone largely ignored because people who write computer programs are *not normal people at all! Computer programming takes concentration, lack of a social life, and the ability to read a lot! I read programming tutorials and books when I have free time. Some of them are free online and others I have bought from various sources in paperback and digital form.
I can’t claim to be a great programmer, but what I can do is squeeze the information I have learned into a form that allows other people to learn the same things faster. Aside from teaching Chess, I also volunteer to teach computer programming to friends who are interested in learning. I can easily throw together lessons based on questions they have. Where I will find the time for this? I don’t have a clue.
But the goal of writing books and recording video tutorials is so that eventually I can have a career that does not depend on working at Walmart forever. Although Walmart is going fairly well, I know that the wrong people in management can take away my job if they feel like it. What they cannot take away is my writing, math, and computer skills which I hope will make a difference for people even after I am long dead.
Also, my Creative Writing diploma finally came!
I found my time with Full Sail University to be quite positive. I was inspired as I learn the potential there is for someone with the patience to write. My experience with Open Source Software will also be an asset to me because I can use tools that no college or tech company even will know about.
As I think about possible careers, I think how much potential I have in terms of experience at previous jobs but also skills of writing and technical details that most people simply haven’t learned because it takes someone with the willingness to learn for the fun of it even when there is no promise of financial gain. If I do make money in a future career using my skills, that is great, but it is not the primary motive.
I remember the words of Carol Keepes who used to be my Assistant Manager back in 2012 when I was a courtesy clerk at Hy-Vee. She said “90% of what people do, they wouldn’t be doing if it wasn’t about money.” I think about this often and it is the reason I have made decisions in life that look foolish to most of the world. I want to make sure that I did things because I really loved the process rather than viewing them as a means to an end.
See my post The Prayer of Saint Chastity for clarification on my priorities.
Chastity White Rose 
Leave a comment