What do you do for a living? AKA, how do you finance your gear? :)

I'm a security consultant and hardware consultant. Most of my work in both areas is commercial and institutional. I write a lot of hardware schedules for commercial and healthcare, and have a good niche in writing ligature-resistant hardware for psychiatric facilities.
The security side is mainly Threat/Risk Assessments (TRAs) and operational security. I also develop policy and standards documents for clients regarding CCTV and other security technologies.
I'm one of the few people in my area with a lot of expertise and experience in Masterkey systems, so I do assessments of existing systems and help my clients develop key control policies. Everyone wants their security to be 'fire and forget', and it just doesn't work that way.
I'd retire but new clients keep hunting me down.
 
I'm a security consultant and hardware consultant. Most of my work in both areas is commercial and institutional. I write a lot of hardware schedules for commercial and healthcare, and have a good niche in writing ligature-resistant hardware for psychiatric facilities.
The security side is mainly Threat/Risk Assessments (TRAs) and operational security. I also develop policy and standards documents for clients regarding CCTV and other security technologies.
I'm one of the few people in my area with a lot of expertise and experience in Masterkey systems, so I do assessments of existing systems and help my clients develop key control policies. Everyone wants their security to be 'fire and forget', and it just doesn't work that way.
I'd retire but new clients keep hunting me down.
My gear is financed through my company; I use the camera and various lenses to demonstrate and illustrate video and imaging to clients and to conduct site surveys and assessments. Instead of writing copious notes when I do a survey, I take suitably composed pictures. If I shoot a doorway with everything lined up, I can scale all the hardware and dimensions in my office. It's a great way to do nighttime lighting assessments because the pictures can be manipulated to show what the scene looks like to an observer's naked eye.
 
I teach at a small rural highschool. German language and literature. Nothing fancy, but it's what I'm sufficiently good at apparantly, and it's still pretty much what I want and enjoy after all these years (even though the administrative side of things has become more and more of a burden). I don't have a family and am living alone, so finances are not an issue.

The job can be demanding and time consuming - and has been even more so after the switch to remote schooling. But I always try to tackle every situation - it's what we do, after all: No two days are the same no matter what, you have to assess things and adapt constantly. As such, the current situation has been an impressive learning opportunity - we have to develop methods that *will* change the way we do things in the future.

On the side, I also do a lot of writing. In the last couple of years, less poetry, more short stories, more stage scripts (musicals, dramas). And I also play various saxophones in several orchestras and bands; all this had to be suspended for the time being, though. If I could start over again, I'd probably end up somewhere in the music business (bottom feeder, probably ;)).

M.
 
There was, once upon a time, when I spoke three languages when I was a child. That time is long gone now and I totally suck at languages. I really should learn German though, my research project involves Leica.
If I can ever be of any help, just tell me. Just remember that I'm strictly a "German as a first language" teacher - I know I'd struggle with teaching it as a foreign language. But I think for English speakers, developing reading skills should be achievable without too much trouble. And since Germans - as well as the Swiss - love an English accent (and also love to correct genus (grammatical gender) mistakes), you should be fine trying to speak it, too. German isn't difficult until you get to the fine detail - of which there is unfortunately quite a lot. But then, must native speakers struggle with those bits, too ... I think it's not much different from English in that respect, to tell you the truth.

M.
 
Of course, thanks for asking :)
Here is the link to a gallery of some of my illustrations on my site:
You can browse the comics as well, although under the category BD (bande dessiné stands for comics in French) or by their respective titles.
Wow - good stuff! I'm a comic buff, but also am very selective ... This is very good work, and quite diverse :2thumbs:

M.
 
Of course, thanks for asking :)
Here is the link to a gallery of some of my illustrations on my site:
You can browse the comics as well, although under the category BD (bande dessiné stands for comics in French) or by their respective titles.
Wow, a fantastic talent and imagination on display there, thanks for the link.

Barrie
 
If I can ever be of any help, just tell me. Just remember that I'm strictly a "German as a first language" teacher - I know I'd struggle with teaching it as a foreign language. But I think for English speakers, developing reading skills should be achievable without too much trouble. And since Germans - as well as the Swiss - love an English accent (and also love to correct genus (grammatical gender) mistakes), you should be fine trying to speak it, too. German isn't difficult until you get to the fine detail - of which there is unfortunately quite a lot. But then, must native speakers struggle with those bits, too ... I think it's not much different from English in that respect, to tell you the truth.

M.
Nope, nope, nope... Speaking both English and German as foreign languages, I find German grammar considerably more difficult than English grammar, even though Dutch and German are so closely related that it prompted the English to take the native word for German - Deutsch or Duits - and apply it to the people of Holland :)

Modern English being a lingua franca between Englishmen, Scots, Welsh and French-speaking Normans means that its grammar is considerably simplified compared to old English and compared to more stable European languages. That, and the English vocabulary is now half Romanic and half Germanic in origin.
 
Of course, thanks for asking :)
Here is the link to a gallery of some of my illustrations on my site:
You can browse the comics as well, although under the category BD (bande dessiné stands for comics in French) or by their respective titles.
Both the range of styles on display and the level of execution are really impressive!
 
Of course, thanks for asking :)
Here is the link to a gallery of some of my illustrations on my site:
You can browse the comics as well, although under the category BD (bande dessiné stands for comics in French) or by their respective titles.

I really like your work. It gives me an idea to practice my rubbish French 🤔
 
Of course, thanks for asking :)
Here is the link to a gallery of some of my illustrations on my site:
You can browse the comics as well, although under the category BD (bande dessiné stands for comics in French) or by their respective titles.


That's some fantastic work. So much detail in the illustrations, strong bold lines. Are you hired by the writers to illustrate the comics or are you one of the authors of the comics too?
 
That's some fantastic work. So much detail in the illustrations, strong bold lines. Are you hired by the writers to illustrate the comics or are you one of the authors of the comics too?
Actually I'm usually hired by the editors to illustrate the scripts they obtained already from scriptwriters. But I also did my own, both writing and drawing, as well as collaborations with friends/writers when we developed projects together to propose them to publishers.
 
drd: the more important question is, did you see the Wire? ;-) I'm a financial investigator at the police, a bit like Lester Freamon in that show...

Used to work at two of the big 4 accounting firms, doing tax returns and tax accounting mostly for international companies using the Netherlands as a tax haven :-( but i always saw it as a way of gaining the experience necessary for getting my dream job, which is what i have now.

I investigate everything from bankruptcy fraud to laundered drug money and from calculating the proceeds of environmental crime to financial crumbs that might lead us to a kidnapper... Occasionally a murder case to see if there is a financial motive, to find a suspects location, or to confiscate money to be given to the victims relatives. It's a lot of numbers and spreadsheets and legal documentd, in short the things that most people find dreadfully boring... but first of all, even when I take a shower I tend to think in numbers or in abstract concepts applying to whatever situation is on my mind, and secondly, the subject matter just makes it absolutely thrilling. So I'm having a blast!

Reading your description of what you do and have done, Bart....doesn't sound boring to me at all: it sounds positively riveting. Never a dull moment, as the saying goes ;)
 
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