"I work for a software company"

-by Jeff (Customer Support Engineer) Such is the answer I got used to providing to the question, "What do you do?"  Well, how else do you explain product support and account management for an online sourcing / procurement / contract management solution?  That is the work I've been doing for the past six years, originally at the small private firm of Procuri, and then at Ariba after it acquired Procuri in 2007.  Now I begin a new adventure in the world of telephony / VoIP / Cloud IVRs.  So now when people ask me what I do, I'll tell them...  Hmmmm. Whatever you call it, it's my job to learn new applications (which I love doing) and to find efficient ways to use them, so that when clients call in and ask questions, they can expect knowledgeable responses.  I also have a knack for calming the excited and anxious, so that any (gulp!) bugs that find their way into the software can be repaired.  I feel very fortunate to be in an environment where innovation and collaboration go hand in hand. I am also waiting to file my dissertation at UCLA after a rather lengthy hiatus, which I believe makes my committee chair happier than me.  So if anyone is suffering from a bout of insomnia and is looking for a drug-free sleeping aid, take a gander at http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0601/spisak.htm.  OK, I wrote this article a decade ago and it is terribly dated, so please don't judge me on this little jewel.  My real field of research interest is in the difference between terror and horror theory, especially in theatre, as it evolved from the French classical stage up through modern cinema.  It’s a “smart” way of saying that I like scary movies.