Last night marked another end of an era. I’m gonna miss my car, but I’m happy somebody else will get to enjoy it. Tomorrow I’m heading to the Honda dealership to get a scooter since my commute to work is only 2.5 miles!

You’ll be missed Yellow 6, you were a good car.

I got married and went to Puerto Rico for my honeymoon. It was fun. Upon arrival back to Texas I found out that my company basically ran out of money and couldn’t pay me anymore.

I have been looking for a job for the past three weeks and I have finally found a new home. I start Monday working for Worship House Media where I will continue doing what I do best, being a Web Application Developer.

Wish me luck!

Go to racenation.com to check the newest social network for runners, swimmers and cyclists.

www.racenation.com

I’m trying to be optimistic here, but today, on celebrating Earth Day, I can’t help but think about the myriad of problems we face on our abused overpopulated planet. We look around today and see rising oil prices caused by increased demand on a limited supply that will only shrink over time. We see the increased pollution problems that countries like China and India face everyday, caused by the massive growth of their populations. Extreme poverty and hunger abates many parts of Africa, and yet here in the US we continue on with our lives unburdened and not worried about any of this.

I feel guilty.

I just want to bring attention to an excellent article called The Problem of Growth, that tackles many of these issues and highlights the one major problem.

We live on a beautiful planet, with limited resources and we simply cannot keep growing and wasting our resources forever. We need to face the truth and make tough decisions for the future of our children and the future of the human race, or else we wont be here to celebrate many more Earth Days in the future.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3721

There rumors about the Cowboys trading for “Pacman” Jones and that makes me pretty excited. He’s a great football player and although he seems incapable of making good decisions in his personal life, the idea of having a corner of his caliber makes me giddy with excitement. The Cowboys have a really good defensive line, but so often last year they were undone by crappy corner play. If bringing Pacman can give the boys’ that little extra boost, I’m all about it.

Just one more month until the NFL Draft…

So, what is this new job? Well, I’m basically working as a Microsoft .Net Web Developer for a small startup, and when I mean small, I mean small. There’s a total of five of us working on a daily basis. Three of us are programmers, a lead project manager and our boss. Thats it.

We get to basically build our own schedule, and right now we are trying to stick to a regular 9-5 work schedule on the weekdays, although it really ends up being more like 10-6. We wear pretty much whatever we want every day (goodbye slacks and buttoned up shirts) and work either @ home or at our boss’s house.

It’s great.

Although there is no doubt that on taking this job I’ve incurred a lot of risk, I think that so far it has all been worth it. I have no regrets. Even if the worst happens and I end up unemployed (cross my fingers), I believe I have learned so much about myself and the things that I want to do with my career to make the experience extremely valuable.

For starters, working as a programmer on a real public facing website or building a product is way more fun than working on IT for a big corporation. It’s much easier to get motivated to work when you know that what you are building, and that the decisions you are making affect everything around you, not just some finicky prima donna user on the 9th floor. Is it more stressful? Sure, but it’s a different kind of stress, one that gets your creative juices flowing and makes you take on the challenge every day.

It’s also great to work on small teams and under a relaxed atmosphere. I believe that is the way programmers where always meant to work. Software development is a creative endeavor. One that requires the most out of our mind at every step of the way. Communication is very important as well as collaboration. I believe corporations work against that. Always pushing the opposite way, believing every worker is just a part of the machine. I am glad I’ve had a chance to work on a place like this, so that I can take this experience with me everywhere I go in the future.

I’ve also realized how much I enjoy web design and product design, and I hope to keep on sharpening my skills and continue to learn so I can eventually be my own boss. That’s definitely one of my goals now.

I do not miss being bored out of my mind in my cube under those glowing neon office lights. Not for a second. I hope that in the end I am able to look back at this time in my life and say that this was one of the best decisions I made. I hope for that to be true.