Does anyone still read this?

I have been told by many that I need to blog more.  I’ll admit I go through spurts where I write a lot and then go dark, so right as I reclaim some readership, I leave them high-and-dry.  What can I say?  Sorry about that; let me make amends by offering up somewhat of an update on things.

So let me start by recounting some goings-on from the last six months or so.

In mid-April I was notified that I was being laid off by Nokia.  There was no rhyme or reason for my being selected as I was a top developer integral in several projects.  But for me, it was a “free at last” kind of moment.  While the technology and experience were great and very relevant, the corporate dysfunction had greatly diminished my enjoyment of the job.  Fortunately, Nokia is a very generous and humane company and so my employment didn’t end until the end of June and I was paid a severance package and my first-half bonus.  I was, at first, pretty bitter to be selected and then given no reason, but I’m convinced it was best for my career.

Meanwhile, Suzanne had an upheaval with her job a few weeks after I got my layoff notification.  The attorney that she works for decided to leave the firm after some 22 years there.  Since they’ve been working together for 7 years, he really wanted her to go with him.  And so after some time to think about it, Suzanne decided to go.

But here’s where it gets funny.  She and I had a previously-scheduled trip to Kauai set up for mid-May.  As terms of my layoff, my last day to report onsite to Nokia was in mid-May.  And as luck would have it, Suzanne’s last day at her old job was that same day.  The next day, we went to Kauai for two weeks both with no jobs; though hers was lined up for her return.

Kauai was great as usual and that’s been well-profile on here, so I won’t say much about it.  In late June, I ended up temporarily contracting with a company called Click Here which is an advertising agency.  I then transitioned into being a full-time employee.  I was lured there by the prospect of working on great websites, with talented designers, and using Ruby on Rails while working on my Mac.

Also in late June, Suzanne and I went to The Police concert.  They were awesome!  I was so in awe when I saw Sting take the stage — what fabulous shape he is in!  I told Suzanne that I was completely letting her down in that regard.

The rest of the Summer was rather uneventful, but I was growing disenchanted with the new company I was with.  There were many reasons for this, but I won’t go into them here.  So after about three months, I decided to leave the company to strike out on my own.  I’m currently working up my own little freelance development company.  So these days I’m busy planning, marketing, and doing client work as I have it — and for now, I’m doing so from home.  I can’t tell you how nice it is to work at home.

So now we’re mostly caught up, I’ll try to blog more often with smaller tidbits that are hopefully more interesting and more current.