I'm one of those people who doesn't stick at one profession all the time. Not because I have a short attention span or get easily bored. On the contrary, once I start a project I take it to it's conclusion, and make sure I've done the best job I can, and derive great satisfaction from it's completion.
   No, what I've learned is that I have a wide range of core skills, all of which I am very good at and all of which interest me. Without bragging I can honestly say that I am an excellent programmer and a stickler for detail. I hate to let the slightest bugs get through, and I also want my design to be as easy to use as possible. Programming is great for me because I'm in absolute control.
   But then I'm a published writer with over 500 articles and two books to my name. I love writing as much as programming. I need to do both (but not necessarily at the same time). That's where being a Cover Disk Editor was so fulfilling for me as I had a few pages of editorial to write after compiling each set of discs.
   And then again, I love a bit of wheeling and deeling. Taking a chance. Trying to come up with a promotion, contest or offer that nobody else has achieved. Would anyone else have gone to Lotus and asked to give away a complete and fully working version of Symphony? Future Publishing thought I was mad and would never get anywhere. Well, I did. Lotus had a new version coming out and I thought they could only say no. But they didn't. They actually agreed with me that it would be a spectacular promo. And it was. After that I pulled this off again with several other programs until every other cover disc was copying me, at which point I turned to other ideas.
   It was another impossible notion to contact the BBC and make out that I ran a huge Internet Radio station and that they ought to come and film us. Well, I did run the station and we did have 30,000 visitors per day, but it was run from a 20ft by 20ft attic room at my rented office, and we hadn't even worked out how to make a penny! But BBC2 were intrigued and they came.
   So, you see, it's all these three things that I enjoy and excel at. And where they come together I excel the best. Wherever there's new technology combined with some form of publishing and the need to evangelise about it, that's where you'll find me. Give me a challenge. Tell me something can't be done and you might just tempt me into trying it.