(Vocational) Memoirs of an ADHDer

I've loved art since I was very young. When I was in school, my town had an art and music summer program, free to "townies", so I took advantage of the training in art and crafts (like ceramics, cartooning, pen and ink, wood shop, sewing, and many more).

I discovered somewhere along the line that I had a bit of a talent for design. I learned to knit and crochet (the crocheting I learned the basics from a friend when I was in 5th grade and the rest I taught myself and the knitting I learned from the summer program) and began knitting and crocheting "Barbie" doll clothing (which I sold through a local concession store).

I attended Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where I completed 19 1/2 credits in art and jewelry design (and science). I began creating jewelry pieces, mostly using the "lost wax" method (I made a mold from wax -- sometimes adding plastic buttons -- and sent the wax mold to a caster to be made into silver or gold). Friends saw my designs and started asking to buy them. So I started selling my designs to friends, coworkers and my Mom's coworkers.

A few years later, after taking some programming classes at Baruch College in the graduate program, I became interested in creating art on computers. My brother, who was a programmer, taught me some commands that I could use on the Apple II series computers and I was "off" on my way.

I took some classes in computer art at Rutgers (I earned a total of 32 credits post Bachelors in art, computer art, and computer programming) and continued doing graphic design, mostly freelance.

I have continued with graphic design, working both in Mac and PC environments (I mostly use Canvas Draw on Mac and Corel Draw on PC). I have created a line of Cafe Press products (samples of which are in a module below) and Zazzle (samples of these are in three modules below).

My first exposure to computers was in my first year of college. Back then, many of the computer labs in colleges used punch cards. I had some programming to do for my calculus class at Rutgers. But I didn't really learn anything about programming then.

My first programming classes were graduate level classes in Fortran and Cobol (though the college computer lab was switching over to monitors and consoles rather than keypunch and punch cards, I still used the latter since the wait for a machine was quite a bit shorter). I did well in both classes. I then programmed in Apple basic with some graphic work using commands that my brother taught me. I then took two programming classes in the computer art program (using Mac in one and PC in the other) and one Pascal class in the computer department.

I later got a job with AT&T as a Cobol and PLI programmer. The group I worked in wrote programs that matched on file on another file and put the results out in a new file or a report. I worked there for almost 2 years.

Since then, I have used my programming knowledge as a Technical Writer. I earned a post Bachelors certificate in Technical Writing. I got a job writing a 200+ page user manual for a ticketing machine. I also added a lot of the graphic images in the manual and also created a manual with screen capture images of many different functions (this manual was over 100 pages).

I currently write blogs, squidoo lenses, and a regular column for my local Jewish community's independent Jewish newspaper.

I started tutoring math in high school. I was very good at it and I helped a lot of schoolmates who otherwise would have struggled through math. By the time I was a senior in high school, my tutoring abilities were sought out by many students, including my own elective senior math classmates.

When I was in college, I started tutoring for a program called Upward Bound for college bound high schoolers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. I worked for Upward Bound for several years.

Recently, I began tutoring again, though now I tutor just about every subject, including English (and writing), History and Judaic Studies subjects. I've been tutoring privately now for over 5 years.

Check out my other squidoo lenses:
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Yocheved -- Mother of Moshe (Moses)
Purim, Esther et al
Being an internet small business owner
Why I'm a Red Sox fan
Pythagorean Theorem
My Blogs
Top 10 Presidents
Bottom 10 Presidents
How Can We Appeal to G-d for Forgiveness?
Math Tips 2
Searching for a Fashion Partner
Math Hints 3
One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz)
Presidential Tidbits

Check out my blogs:

Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes

If you are interested in one of my designs but you want something a little bit different, or you like my artistic style but don't see the sort of image you are looking for, I do custom designs also. e-mail me at compugraphdesigns@lennhoff.com with your idea (there is no extra cost for this).

You can link to my sites through the Cafe Press and Zazzle links.