It’s Monday, so that means the Startup Junkie has struck again. This week I wonder which is best — full-time or contract employment. I’d love to hear feedback. Send your comments to jonathan at colaspot dot com.

The ground fell away as the little plane climbed into the blue. The first flight of each plane he built was special — the first leg of the journey of a lifetime.

If you haven’t read this series of posts from a few weeks back, I’ve been itching to sell my Tablet PC and make the Switch to a Powerbook. I made myself wait until Apple came out with new, higher-resolution models — which was originally rumored to take place a month ago. Uncle Steve made me wait until last week, during which time I halfheartedly watched two dozen Powerbooks come and go on EBay, but after last Wednesday, I have no more excuses.

I took the plunge on Monday and surfed on over to the Apple Store. After a brief but violent disagreement with the Apple Credit application, which I lost (I couldn’t convince those automated anti-fraud questions that I did not know anyone named “Barbara Rd”), I dropped the order on my poor Amex card and eagerly awaited the email that said… my order should ship by the end of the week, and should be here by the end of next week.

Like Tom Petty said, when it comes to gear lust, the waiting is the hardest part.

OK, so here’s the payoff. In Step 1, I listed things that I’m good at. In Step 2, I came up with things that I enjoy and feel useful doing. Refer back to those two lists when necessary. The last step involves a little more thought:

NOW: think of ways or activities that involves SEVERAL of your talents, gifts, passions, and unique characteristics at the same time. We want to kill two (or more) birds with one stone OR, better put, hug two or more birds with one embrace. The more passions and gifts that you can intersect at one point the better. If, for some reason, that intersection of passions does not have a commercial component, modify it with more passions or talents until it does. At the intersection of many passions and talents, there should emerge a service, or a product, or an artwork, or a body of information that can be spun off commercially. This way you get to pursue your passions, grow your talents, give of yourself to others, contribute to a greater good, and, as a by-product of all this playing around, generate wealth.

Without further ado, here are the “intersections” I came up with.

• Novelist (that one’s easy)
• Tech writer (web copy? manuals? help books?)
• Professional researcher (is there such a thing?)
• Blogger (wouldn’t that be fun?)
• Columnist; more specifically…
• Tech pundit, a la some of these guys
• Product evangelist (I don’t think I can be smarmy enough)
• PR (see above; plus, public speaking has never been a forte)
• Combining the previous five, we get this guy or this woman.
• Translator
• Tutor
• Producer (music)
• Editor (literary and/or web)
• Corporate pilot (I love travel, but this might be taking it a bit too far)

My first thoughts on this list: if there’s one thing all these jobs have in common, it’s that none of them appear easy to just break into. I’ll probably have to do a few more passes through step three, until I find one that will instantly pay off with no effort I can bootstrap without killing myself or going flat broke.

I’ll try to limit the amount of pimping I do for Colaspot (oops, did I just link to it again?), but I wanted to point you SRC faithful at my weekly column. They’ll be posted each Monday; here’s the first one from last week.

This week I hype Seth Godin and opine about why small businesses rule. Start your Mondays off right with the Junkie.

“Passion and justice don’t go hand in hand,” she declared. “One is incompatible with the other. How can you have mercy and know what someone did is wrong at the same time?”

“Ask your mother.”

Yesterday, in Step 1 of the Passion Intersections exercise, I made a list of things I have a talent for. Today, it’s on to the next step:

Now make a second list of all those things you love to do or feel passionately about. Include on this list the answer to this key question: what do I GIVE that when I’m giving it I am filled with great joy. Chances are that you love giving what you have in abundance. And what do you have in abundance? Those gifts or talents you put on the first list.

It would be extremely helpful to consider WHY you like a certain activity. What are all those things about a particular activity that feeds your passion? If something lights your fire then you must have some insight into why it does and in what ways it does. Write down what about it inspires you, what pleases you, what reveals more of yourself to you, what makes you laugh, what about it contributes to a greater good, etc.

I love:

• reading a good book
• helping someone understand something
• connecting two people I know who have something in common
• solving puzzles (not fixing broke stuff)
• flying
• introducing someone to something new
• coming up with a great idea
• writing something that someone will enjoy reading
• playing music that people like listening to
• flying
• finding a newer, better way to accomplish something

I think that does it for Step 2. 1 and 2 were the easy part. Step 3 is more complicated, but should be fun. Tune in next time.

Hot liquid is just the thing on a brisk evening like the one we faced the other night. The team was losing; all we had to look forward to was that steamy cup of cocoa after.

I linked to this post on The Lazy Way To Success a few weeks ago, about finding your calling — a vocation that fulfills one of your passions. I didn’t actually do the whole exercise, because I’ve done it informally at least once. But in the interest of completeness… here we go.

Step 1. “First, make a list of all your gifts. In other words, what talents or characteristics do you possess that are special? What makes you unique?”

• Writing (we’ve pretty much established that)
• Music production (I have basically no studio experience, but I like putting my stamp on a song — giving it a sound of its own)
• Trivia (my short-term memory isn’t so good, but my long-term memory is to die for)
• Languages
• Teaching / mentoring
• Reading
• Aviation (I haven’t had much practice lately, but I have a knack for flying)

Check back tomorrow for Step 2.

She stirred the concoction in the saucepan, slowly, teasingly.

“What’s in there? Smells wonderful.”

“A chicken stock base, some special spices, this and that.”