It’s official.
I’ve given notice at UVM and begin work with Fry, Inc. on October 2, 2006. What was once sort of a dream is becoming a full-fledged reality. I’m reminded of the scene from Annie Hall in which Alvy & Annie are at Tony Lacey’s party and we overhear a snippet of a conversation:
Right now, it’s only a notion. But I think I can get money to make it into a concept. And later turn it into an idea.
[source:
WikiQuote]
It sort of went that way. A notion in Katie’s head years and years ago, countered by my own fear of moving and great change being clouded by a “good job with great benefits” and being responsible for my (now late) brother. But now Billy has passed, and Nicholas was born, and with this the need to be less than 300 miles from anyone called family became stronger than ever. Katie’s notion never died, and in fact, it became a concept, then an idea, then a seemingly never-ending series of “plans du jour”, with many near starts.
None of them seemed quite right though. None of them had the potential to be my Annie Hall (if I can even compare myself for a brief instant to Woody Allen (which I can’t, so I’ll stop)). Then I ran into an old friend at a wedding and everything began changing. While running around Rhode Island looking at strange (to both of us!) towns to consider calling home and interviewing for jobs that only fit in some ways, a job that seems like the perfect fit becomes available in the old country (my old country, anyway).
So here I am, with only a few weeks left at UVM before doing what most of my friends did ten years ago– moving home. With any luck it won’t be nearly as crazy as it sounds, but I have a feeling that that’s not going to be the case.
Stay tuned…
Written on August 29, 2006 Filed under Day Job; Life
So, Burlington alt-weekly Seven Days ran a story this week on Front Porch Forum. It’s a good piece, that tells the history of the concept and really touts the community-building spirit of the site.
Check out the article and if you live in the Chittenden County, VT area, please swing by Front Porch Forum and take it for a spin.
Update: The author, Cathy Resmer, also posted to her 7D blog about FPF.
Written on August 17, 2006 Filed under Life; Web
So, I found this in my brain’s internal spam folder this morning… Not sure how it wound up there:
From: Legs
To: Brain
Subject: WTF?!
So, what the hell, man? I mean, sure… we can go to the gym and all… a mile here on the treadmill is cool.. Even a few on the bikepath is okay here and there. 400+ lbs on the leg press, no prob. But RUNNING SEVEN MILES?! Dude?! I mean, come on! Really, what the hell?
But seriously, had we known this was coming, we would’ve seriously kicked you in the ass several times a day, every day.
But no.
So now we’re just going to sit here, not doing anything. And then, when you really want us to do something, we’ll send pain impulses back with each tiny movement. We’re going to numb your ass until you can’t do anything but moan in agony.
Sleeping is going to hurt, you dirty bastard.
You just wait….
- Legs
This was apparently written by my crazy legs (I think it was actually penned by my right, because my left leg wouldn’t use that sort of language in an email) in response to running the Falmouth Road Race on Sunday. They’re right, it was a little over seven miles, but perhaps I didn’t make it clear to them that we were collectively training for a seven-plus mile race. And they’re making good on their promises of bizarro pain that I didn’t know could be created by one’s on doing.
So, here I sit (my ass LOVES to work– literally, he shows up early and goes home late every day… Gunning for promotion or something) writing this whilst I wince in pain, yet all the while, thinking about trying to beat my time (1:23:09) next year.
Oh yeah… Katie beat me by eight minutes, fifty-three seconds at 1:14:16.
Written on August 15, 2006 Filed under Life
Congratulations to Allan Odgaard for producing TextMate, the Best Developer Tool according to the good people behind the Apple Design Awards.
And, they’re right. After being a staunch BBEdit supporter for many many years, I was blown away by TextMate’s ease of use (once I got past the subtle differences between it and BBEdit), its elegance, and its scalability. Hell, I’m writing this post in TextMate, and when I’m done with it, I’ll choose Bundles > Blogging > Post to Blog (Cmd+Ctrl+P) to fire it off in less time than it takes to log into WordPress’s Dashboard.
So, I’ll raise a glass to Allan and say “Huzzah and Thanks!” for practically single-handedly developing what, in my eyes, is one of the best OS X apps ever written.
Update: Here’s
Allan’s post about it.
Written on August 9, 2006 Filed under Apple; Web