action figures sold separately

Update: i have now officially left behind my contracting business, at least for the time being. if side jobs come up in the future, i will likely take on little projects here and there, but for now i’ve made a big career shift. after moving to portland this past summer, i was poised to get the business i’d built up in the SF bay area going again: doing the kind of work you see on the biz card here, and more, for grassroots non-profit organizations. of course, it would take a while to establish my base and i’d have to do some amount of home theater and whatnot in the meantime, but i was ready: i had gotten my license to be a general contractor, placed ads, etc.

well, in a bureaucratic snafu of huge proportions, a staff member in the licensing section of the oregon building codes division told me (at 3:15 pm on 13 aug 02 for the record), that i did NOT need an additional license with BCD in order to do only telephone jacks and computer network wiring, as long as i wouldn’t be working on electrical wiring or the circuit breaker/box, my CCB # is all i would need. i trusted that this staff person knew the law. she even took down my info and had me write down her name and number for people to call if there were any questions about my work.

so i studied hard and passed the test and got my license. as it happened, in november i got confusing reports of other contractors getting permits denied and licenses suspended and so forth. when i called to clarify matters, i was handed from person to person until i finally spoke with the director of licensing. he informed me that the previous staff person had been wrong and that to do any of this kind of work, i would need two additional licesnes, pay additional fees and do about four more years of basic apprenticeship. no thanks.

after much deliberation and talking it over with friends and family, i’m going into something i’ve wanted to do for a long time, teaching. if everything goes as planned, i’ll be entering a master in education program in the spring, and in a year to a year and a half i’ll be certified to teach high school technology classes. i’m actually so excited for this change. it will be a chance to work in a community of folks in a way that i’ve not had for many years, plus i think i’ll be doing a lot more good in the world. so that’s the deal. stay tuned for more developments