I help my parents out with their two businesses. My father has a popcorn business and my mother is a Mary Kay consultant. I did research for the popcorn business and I am working on a web page for it. I did the inventory and helped with the taxes with my mother's business.

I got a $20 popcorn pot that pops popcorn like a $400 machine and I am experimenting with it. I can use the same oil as movie theaters and get yellow popcorn, and I found a place to buy the same butter topping that movie theaters use. I just figured out how to make kettle corn and caramel corn, and I am looking for a cheese flavoring and possible ways to make my own flavoring. I figured that if I use Jell-O instead of sugar for kettle corn it might give a different flavor, but I hadn't experimented with that yet. I thought of maybe selling homemade pre-popped popcorn on eBay provided I can afford the startup costs to pop and package it.

I have been fixing computers on the side, but despite me having 20+ years of experience, people don't want to listen to me to buy a new antivirus or upgrade hardware that is failing on them, and come to me when they have problems. I told them to take it to Geek Squad or Fire Dog or some mom and pop computer store and see if they can get a second opinion. They were shocked at how much it cost, and I was doing most work for them for free or almost nothing. These other places still couldn't fix their problems, I wonder why? I fixed a few of them that the others said couldn't be fixed, but they were challenging.

Anyway I am trying to get out of hardware and computer repair work, I am not charging anything for it practically and I am just doing favors for friends and family members. I am learning C++ and soon to move on to C# and Visual BASIC 2005 to hopefully develop software applications and after I do that, maybe start my own company up. I can also do business consulting as I have a bachelors of science in business management with honors now, and I ran two small businesses before and I am helping my parents out with their businesses.

I am not yet medically cleared to work, but I am getting close to doing at least part-time work as I am making improvements on my mental and physical health.

Yes it has been an annoying trend, people want their systems fixed for almost nothing without spending any money on replacement parts. Funny that they don't act that way when a garage tells them the same thing about their car and how much they charge for labor.

Even harder is trying to convince them to switch to Linux. Without buying a new modem or wireless card, their old ones won't work under Linux due to not having a driver. I switched a few friends and family members to Unbuntu Linux only to switch them back after the Internet did not work for them and they refused to buy new hardware to make the Internet work. My Gamehead brother, aka Black Demon, luckily had a Realtek network card that worked under Linux. Just that WINE didn't work as well as he hoped and he got a lot of lag, and some of his games wouldn't run no matter what the WINE site said how to make them work. We are half-German and half-Irish and he learned German in high school and plays with people online from Germany so he learned a lot of swear words. He cussed about it such that even CRConrad would blush from hearing those words. :) I had to switch him back to XP, and he said he would only move to Linux when Linux native versions of his games are made.

I am making progress, my wife is a LPN in a nursing home and works with mentally ill senior citizens, so she has helped me out as well. My doctor keeps making adjustments to my medication so that helps as well.

My wife might be the President of a company I found, I've been teaching her what I learned in college about business management for her work as a manager at her employer. It helped her get promotions. I taught her a bit about using the computer so she can check the bank and credit card statements online and use email.

My parents are in their 70's and I taught them how to use their computer and email and web browser. They use Firefox and Thunderbird, so at least that gives them some protection. No problems with their system, just the time it takes to answer their questions and tutor them in using the software. TurboTax was the most recent challenge.

Good idea, take a nominal fee, and if they need to pay more and they don't make payments at first have them sign a promissory note with the computer or other stuff as collateral. Of course that will scare away the deadbeats, but just the people who don't want to pay anything would be screened out. My former two businesses went under because of deadbeats. Sage advice, thank you very much.

Thanks, slow and steady wins the race. It also produces a better quality product and/or service.

I figure since no company will hire me, I might have to start my own small business in order to go back to work. Mental illness discrimination is terrible in most businesses and they make up excuses not to hire you after reviewing your medical history to avoid discrimination lawsuits. Sadly the ACLU doesn't care that I am discriminated against for being disabled, or for being a Christian, or for being white, or for being a man, but if I was anything else, or maybe famous, they might help me out instead of reject helping me.

I figure the government, the ACLU, and any other organization isn't going to help me, so I might as well help myself. That will take a lot of time.