mckenziemedia
John
John stood on the southeast side of the Adams Street bridge, near Wacker. He created a sandwich board of sorts that he wore around his neck that included his resume, his skills, and experience. The first thing he asked me was if I wanted his resume. He's a programmer and has been into computers since they first came on the scene. "It was just two floppy drives and about 10 megabytes of RAM. 'PFS'", he said, "pretty f***in' simple. He's been out here since around December. His dad passed away in October and he lost his job around the same time. He had unemployment benefits, but now due to a legal snafu, his fighting to get them back. He has a link card and an apartment, "and an ink jet printer", he said, pointing to his resume. "My dad was a lawyer", he continued, "I used to sit on the toilet and read his legal books and would ask him, "what's this mean, what's this mean, what's this mean?!" He said he learned a lot because of that. He originally was going to be a nuclear engineer he said, but "once they got into quantum theory and all that stuff, my head exploded." So he opted for computers. In the early days he was coding in a back room of an office building, "the whole room smelled like smoke...all we did was smoke and drink coffee", he smiled. Before that, he worked on a cruise ship and told me all these stories about how he would inspect ships as a quality control person to see how people were being treated and how the facilities were kept, and how he would treat the crew and staff with liquor and food as a way of giving back. He still follows that same philosophy. Beside him, he had cups of suckers and pens. "If people give me some change, they can have a sucker. If they give me more they can have a pen". The police came up to him awhile back and asked him if he was selling these items (because you need a vendor's license to do so), "I said no...these are premiums--a way of saying 'thanks' if someone donates to my cause". The policemen said 'great' and went on their way. Something tells me John's gonna find a job...
John
John stood on the southeast side of the Adams Street bridge, near Wacker. He created a sandwich board of sorts that he wore around his neck that included his resume, his skills, and experience. The first thing he asked me was if I wanted his resume. He's a programmer and has been into computers since they first came on the scene. "It was just two floppy drives and about 10 megabytes of RAM. 'PFS'", he said, "pretty f***in' simple. He's been out here since around December. His dad passed away in October and he lost his job around the same time. He had unemployment benefits, but now due to a legal snafu, his fighting to get them back. He has a link card and an apartment, "and an ink jet printer", he said, pointing to his resume. "My dad was a lawyer", he continued, "I used to sit on the toilet and read his legal books and would ask him, "what's this mean, what's this mean, what's this mean?!" He said he learned a lot because of that. He originally was going to be a nuclear engineer he said, but "once they got into quantum theory and all that stuff, my head exploded." So he opted for computers. In the early days he was coding in a back room of an office building, "the whole room smelled like smoke...all we did was smoke and drink coffee", he smiled. Before that, he worked on a cruise ship and told me all these stories about how he would inspect ships as a quality control person to see how people were being treated and how the facilities were kept, and how he would treat the crew and staff with liquor and food as a way of giving back. He still follows that same philosophy. Beside him, he had cups of suckers and pens. "If people give me some change, they can have a sucker. If they give me more they can have a pen". The police came up to him awhile back and asked him if he was selling these items (because you need a vendor's license to do so), "I said no...these are premiums--a way of saying 'thanks' if someone donates to my cause". The policemen said 'great' and went on their way. Something tells me John's gonna find a job...