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First of all, while Gypsy has always distrusted the Libertarian Party, Willy has only lately come to the realization that these guys are beyond redemption. They just can't seem to get the distinction between politics...the art of the possible...and religion...the fairy tales of the "enlightened." But, those are subjects for another column at a later date.
Today we are going to tell you what we are up to. Now that both of us are officially "old people"...Willy is 67 and Gypsy recently turned 60...we have decided it is time for new careers. Gypsy, who has long worked part time for Proex...a one-hour photo development retail store...has decided to get into photography more seriously. She has always taken a LOT of photos...our home is a virtual photo gallery of our family and friends...but has recently begun to enlarge her vision to include what is usually considered the "art" of photography. She has begun to erect a new Web site to make this work available to our family and friends on a need-to-know basis, and has decided to share it with all of you as well. (Clicking on the words "Web site" above will take you there...or...if you are reading this in text format, at URL: http://www.dreamagic.com/gypsy/photo/index.html)
Willy, on the other hand, has gone back to school. Involved recently with the State of Minnesota in a dispute over being underpaid...while THEY assert that he is overpaid and must refund to the State previously earned income...he was reminded that he had finished all the requirements for a Ph.D. in Mathematics several decades ago, before renouncing it in protest to the Vietnam War. He wondered if any of this work would be credited toward a Ph.D. in the field of Computer Science, a discipline that did not even exist during his last involvement with higher education.
To make a long story short, the Computer Science Department of the University of Minnesota welcomed Willy with open arms into their Ph.D. program. In addition, there is a project that Willy has been working on in his spare time sine 1990...the parsing and understanding of natural language. In plain English...HAL...of the movie 2001 fame. This will be Willy's thesis project. Watch for it on the Web within a year.
The question of money...to pay for tuition, fees, books, etc...is somewhat sticky. Raising fifteen children left little room for "retirement" savings and, as we have detailed elsewhere, there is little gainful employment in the computer arena for people over the age of sixty. Costly medical insurance doncha know? We have put out feelers in every direction we can think of, seeking grants, loans or, most desirably, employment, but no bites so far. We welcome any suggestions from you, our loyal readers.
Finally, our youngest son Roger...one time fifteen-minutes-of-fame Teen Movie Critic...perhaps inspired by our actions...or perhaps just tired of our bitching...is seeking a new career for himself. Ever since we "retired" from writing this column and have spent so much of our time on other endeavors, he has been searching the Internet for articles on politics, current affairs, history, etc. Mostly this was for his own enlightenment, but he also included us and a few of his friends and siblings on his "distribution list." Each day he emails us one or more articles he has gleaned from the Net, some following threads of thought from both the left and right political spectrum, others simply interesting pieces. We have been exceedingly thankful to him for this service he has performed for us.
Recently, it occurred to him that there might be others on the Web with little time for searching who would appreciate such a service and who might pay for it. However, he knows little about marketing (and we're not much better) and is at somewhat of a loss as to how to find out if this is a viable concept. He does know that there already exist services that do this and that they are very pricey.
So we put the question to you. Would YOU pay for a service of this sort? If so, how much? What subjects would you be interested in? Roger is most skilled in the area of current events and history, as well as having an encyclopedic knowledge of media. Please get back to us with your suggestions and we will pass them on to him.
Talk to you later...
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