Healer, Magician, Necromancer. I am these. Because I possess rare talents & arcane knowledge, I heal the ailing, I use spells to effect change, I raise the dead.
I am not alone. We are many, we wielders of powers the majority fear.
I am a computer technician.
You're asking yourself why I use these terms to describe my abilities. The correlation is clear: We make crippled computers work more smoothly; we enter bizarre runes on dark screens to make these demons of technology do our bidding; we bring back to life the very monsters which allude so many.
We who possess these talents & knowledge are highly desired by individuals & massive corporations, yet, because we hold the power to make or break, we are equally despised.
Assuming we can even get work, we are often paid very little. Can you imagine this? We live in a society wholly reliant on computer technology, & the very people who can keep a corporation sucking so much of our money for so little in return, are treated with complete disdain.
And worse, being unemployed & actively seeking employment, I find most job postings for computer technicians not only pay less than $15.00 per hour but require the skills of a mid- to high-level Administrator or Engineer.
They always want more for less.
Yet I -- even I -- can't get work.
While the numbers of unemployed continue to grow, our government's solution is to force us to work even harder at finding a job -- jobs that don't exist -- or we may not qualify for assistance. They don't care that I've been applying, for over a year & a half, for every single job for which I have any hope of qualifying. They don't care that employers in fields other than the computer technical -- if they see my resume at all due to the thousands received -- see that I have computer experience & reject me outright because they know I'll leave eventually, if a job in the computer field is offered me. They also don't care that I apply for work anywhere I find a job posting for a position which might realistically involve relocation.
And why is this? It's not that I have any great desire to continue to pursue a career in the computer technical field. I never have. I hate technology. I hate our reliance on these stupid machines operating by instructions written by stupid humans. I hate that I have talents allowing me to make them work.
I have other talents, just look at my blahgs. I can write in most any form & on most any subject. I also, somehow, manage to produce pretty pictures -- particularly a talent for producing pretty pictures in little or no light -- a talent many noted photographers don't possess. But do publishers have any interest in even giving me credit -- let alone payment -- for these talents? Oh, no. Allow Mr G Angus Fergusson to use a talent of his that he actually like? We can't have that.
So, I have often been forced to turn to my magical computer talents, to my talents in reading people & in finding solutions to satisfy a customer, or even my research abilities -- as disgusting as it is to make another more wealthy by my abilities of manipulation.
OK. So, writing & photography are also forms of manipulation, or even magic. Very true. And I can't promise I would enjoy doing these things for a living if I were lining the pockets of those who respect nothing but money. But this is a pipe dream, anyway. I'm not respected for my talents in any field.
I am a magician, yet not a successful one.
