How I See It: Reflections on spirituality, technology, and the art of everyday life

  Weekly Update 01/24/2026 – 01/30/2026 Things at work are going well. I’m learning a lot about integrating APIs with PxPlus using the Cordedll system.   Apart from work, this has been my annual week of remembrance, with January 27 marking the anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire in 1967 and the 28th marking the anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Next week we have February 1 st and the Columbia Disaster.  Remembering these events made me think about memory, especially visual memory and visual memory deficit: “a functional limitation in visual recall or recognition that interferes with daily tasks such as reading comprehension, spatial navigation, or visual learning.” It seems that you, Muggles, have a much greater ability to recall visual memories than I do. That made me think about what visual memories I do have. I remember being in a car, turning left from Riverside Drive onto Van Nuys Boulevard, when I heard the announcement about the Apollo 1 fire. I reme...

 01/17/2026 – 01/23/2026 This has been a good week. Things at work are going well, and I am learning a lot while making solid progress. I am relearning and remembering a great deal about FACTS software. It has been a very long time since I last worked on that platform, but it is all coming back to me. I have even found myself hitting “P” after loading a program. That is a habit I picked up in the 1990s when working with FACTS. The “P” command was used to enter the program’s password so I could access it. I stopped using “P” when I moved from FACTS to MAS 90, where it was not needed, but the habit has resurfaced now that I am back in FACTS. Even though the “P” command is no longer required and locking is handled differently, I still find myself doing it. The biggest event of the week was PAYDAY. This was my first payday since October 2022, so it was a big deal. It felt good to have money coming in again. Between October 2022 and January 2026, I spent some time on unemployment unti...

  01/10/26 – 01/17/26 My week has been dedicated to my new job. I have finally reached the point where I am doing real programmer-type work. I have been reviewing the FACTS code to understand how their credit card processing software works and how we can use that code to integrate our own credit card system. I have found this to be educational work, and it has taken up most of my time this week. This was also the end of the first pay period of the new year, so I turned in my timecard and am looking forward to getting paid next week. I also spent some time redeveloping my budget. I like budgets, but somehow I lost my old template and had to rebuild it. I now have a solid template in place, including the ability to set up payments based on a percentage of net pay, fixed dollar amounts per month, and amounts set aside each month for recurring expenses such as bills that are paid every other month, every three months, every six months, and annually. Part of my new financial plan inc...

Hello, and welcome to my weekly update for the week of January 3, 2026 through January 9, 2026. It’s been quite a week. I was finally back to work for the first time since October 2022. The week is a bit of a blur to me. I’d like to tell you all sorts of interesting things about what I did, but I just can’t recall events in that level of detail. Much of my time was spent on onboarding: a lot of meetings, a lot of documentation, and a lot of discussion about company policies and how things work at EBizCharge. I met many of the people I’ll be working with and enjoyed getting to know them. One familiar name from the past came up as well: Tim Plotner. Tim is one of the main architects who developed the FACTS software back when it was still owned by Software Solutions. I spent part of the week getting a copy of the system up and running and reacquainting myself with how FACTS works. It has its own screen editor that relies on its own metadata rather than Providex’s NOMADS system. Fortunatel...

  Happy New Year Since it’s a new year, I’ve been thinking back on New Years past. I remember those early ones as a kid at my parents’ house, especially the New Year’s Eve parties they threw for their friends who also had kids. There was always food, and lots of it. At least one six-foot sub from Vitello’s, sometimes a six-foot meatball sandwich as well, along with plenty of other things to eat. The house would be broken into several sections. In the garage, we showed movies, but not the way people do today with TV projectors. We had a pair of cinema-quality 35mm film projectors, and my father borrowed movies from friends at the studios. In the front room, we showed films on 16mm, not as professional as the setup in the garage, but still impressive. Other parts of the house were set up for games, some using early home systems and others using arcade machines like Ms. Pac-Man . It was a fun evening for everyone. As an adult, I also find myself thinking back to those mornin...

This is the first weekly update I’m connecting to my New Vlog.  The Vlog entry and the Blog entry share the same information, just presented in a different format.  The Vlog is more informal, while the Blog is more structured. You can see the blog at https://youtu.be/rEvOA71pvK0 I’m Becoming a Senior Software Engineer II When I asked Astra (ChatGPT) what the difference was between a Programmer and a Senior Software Engineer II , and why the title had changed since my youth, here’s what it had to say. There was a time when the title Programmer carried real weight. It meant someone trusted to write correct, efficient code on systems that were expensive, shared, and unforgiving. You didn’t deploy often, you didn’t get many second chances, and you were expected to understand not just the language, but the machine, the data, and the business problem behind it. The title didn’t need embellishment because the responsibility was implicit. Over time, that changed. As tools became eas...

Weekly Update 12/13/25 - 12/19/25 It has been a stormy week, weather-wise. Twice this week, we have been hit by an atmospheric river. This caused very stormy conditions; in fact, my next-door neighbor had her shed destroyed on one of those nights. Total rainfall was up to 3 inches. I spent a good portion of the week working on publishing two books. Right after high school, I wrote a book I titled The End of the Beginning and the Start of Eternity , a sci-fi story about a future time when suffering and violence have been eliminated, and the results. Several of you may remember helping me proofread this and giving me suggestions and opinions in the distant past. My second book is titled From Crack to Kitty Litter . This book tells the story of my late wife, Linda, and her struggles with drug addiction. I have wanted to see these published for some time but did not feel comfortable facing the battle to get them published conventionally. A few years ago, I looked into self-publishing...

This has been a relatively uneventful week. Most of it has been rainy, as the Pacific Northwest has been sitting squarely in the bullseye of an atmospheric river. It dried out a bit toward the end of the week, but I’m told the rain is expected to return next week. On the job front, I’ve sent out several hundred copies of my resume to companies that use PxPlus (Providex), BBx, UniBasic, Sage 100 (MAS 90), or Infor FACTS. Since these are all cold contacts, I’m not expecting a large number of responses, but I only need one. Past mailings have led to a few contacts. Among them is the Irvine position for an Infor FACTS developer. Early in the week, I heard back that I’m still being considered. At the same time, I’ve seen the job posted on several boards, including Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter. So while I’m not out of the running, they are clearly still looking. I haven’t heard back from the London role yet, but I’m still hopeful. I was hoping to start something this month, but with ...

This has been an eventful week.   On Tuesday, I woke up trying to sneeze but couldn’t quite get it out. Then I noticed the scratchy throat and the stuffed head. Yes… You guessed it, I have a cold. I went to the doctor on Wednesday to make sure it wasn’t COVID, and thankfully, the test came back negative. Just a mild head cold. As of Saturday, I’m still a little stuffy and tired, but overall improving. On the job-search front, I had two interviews for a position in Irvine, CA. The first one went very well. They even gave me a short coding test, and not only did I solve the problem, but I also found a bug in the original code that made the tester laugh at his own oversight. I left that call feeling hopeful. Within an hour, they contacted me to schedule a second interview, which I had on Friday with three senior leaders. This round focused more on modern tools and frameworks than on my legacy strengths, so it didn’t go as smoothly. I made sure to highlight how quickly I pick up ne...

Weekly Update 11/22/25 to 11/29/25 It’s been a busy week, and a good one. The most important news is that I finally heard back from the team in England. Things are moving in the right direction, and they estimate they’re about 90% certain this opportunity will pan out. Next week, they expect to give me access to a test environment along with a full year of support tickets . If everything lines up, this could be the start of something solid. Beyond that, there have been plenty of other pots boiling. On Monday, I interviewed with a company in California looking for someone with Infor FACTS experience. I spent four years working on FACTS in Providex , and I’m certified in FACTS 7.0 with 20+ years in Providex overall. But the current release is 9.x, and I haven’t touched it in two decades. Still, finding anyone who knows a legacy system like FACTS is rare, so I’m hoping the door stays open. They said they’ll get back to me early next week. Two other recruiters reached out asking...

Weekly Report 11/16/2025 - 11/22/2025 My Weekly Report This week I made a decision: I’m no longer “unemployed.” Instead, I’m officially creating my own company — Odell S Hathaway III Consultancy . I’ll still be applying for full-time roles. Still, I’m also opening the door to contract and hourly work where I can bring my unique skill set to the table: PxPlus (Providex), the various Business Basic families (UniBasic, BBx, B32, …), and more than 20 years of experience in software development, data validation, debugging, and technical support. It feels good to finally put a name to the work I’ve been doing for so long. Job Front I’m happy to say I have an interview on Monday for a position working with Infor FACTS , an ERP system I’ve supported in the past. It’s built on Providex, so this might be a very natural fit for me. I’ve got my fingers crossed (which makes typing a little bit more challenging). I also heard back from the London opportunity . They were going to be having a meetin...

Weekly Report 11/09/2025 - 11/15/2025 Weekly Update: Progress, Preparation, and Staying Ready for the London Opportunity The good news is that I still seem to be in the running for the London position. I haven’t heard anything this week — but honestly, that’s better than hearing that it isn’t going to happen. Most of my week has been spent preparing in case the London opportunity does move forward. I updated my Apple Watch, iPhone, and desktop to show both local time and London time, and everything now adjusts automatically for Daylight Saving Time and British Summer Time. Since the time difference between Vancouver, WA and London is a concern, I’ve shifted my sleep schedule so I can begin work at 6:00 a.m. Vancouver time (14:00 in London). I also configured my iPhone so that if an email or text comes in with “911” in the subject line, a loud alarm will sound — that way I can respond quickly to Priority One support issues at any hour. I made sure Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and WhatsA...

Weekly Report 10/26/2025 - 11/01/2025 How I’m Using ChatGPT to Find Remote Sage 100 / PVXplus Work For a long time, I was searching for remote work the traditional way — scrolling job boards, sending out applications, and waiting. But despite more than 20 years of experience working with Sage 100 and ProvideX (PVXplus) — building and supporting business applications, developing data tools, and solving real-world problems — I wasn’t seeing much success. Then I tried something different: I started using ChatGPT as part of my search . Step 1: Automating Job Searches The first way I used ChatGPT was simple but powerful — I asked it to scan job boards regularly for new Sage 100 and ProvideX positions. That alone changed the game. Within weeks, I found several opportunities I had missed before, including one that led to a job interview. But as helpful as that was, I realized something important: many of the companies that could use my skills might never post a job onli...