Programming Mentors?

[Scott Gonyea]

Hi,

I'm a self-taught programmer, and I am very good at motivating  
myself.  However, a road block that I run into (on repeat) is the  
lack of any direction or knowing how to pursue programming,  
professionally.

I'm wondering if there are any sort of "mentorships" that people  
would be willing to offer.  Whether it's professionally or on just a  
side project, I would not ask for money.  Only a little direction and  
encouragement.  I can write code or put together well-thought out,  
and well-designed documentation.

Is this possible?  Do people offer this?  I've worked on the .NET  
Framework (as well as WinCE embedded devices), Win32 and Linux (x86)  
ASM, and just about everything in between (including C/C++), for both  
Linux, FreeBSD and (lately) Mac OS X.  I'm well versed, and I learn  
exceptionally fast.

I want to take what I know, and give it the experience it lacks.  I  
sincerely hope this is appropriate for this mailing list, and if not  
then I apologize, deeply.

Regards,
Scott Gonyea
sgonyea at mac.com