State of the Hearnion January 3rd, 2009
After no small amount of casting around for opinions, I say now with great authority that 2008 was the worst year ever.
Interestingly, though, those of us who feel that way had it mostly come to a close in 2008 and are excited about 2009.
I start this year as an employee of an award-winning Internet hosting company, getting paid an OK salary to play with stuff I'd be playing with for fun anyway, with a great team and with no more responsibility than your average Joe. It's a perfect space in which to recover from last year, and a great platform from which to take on more challenging work when the time comes for that.
My piece of Clue Technologies, eNova CC, issued its last invoice in December, so that chapter is well and truly closed. Customers and employees got 2 months notice, no bills were unpaid and no contracts broken. If I'd found a job for Ed, it would have been a perfect finish.
My 3 weeks of leave come to a close this week-end, and it's back to work on Monday. I've enjoyed the intense faffing, as well as some quality time with the boys. But I must say, full-time parenting isn't my calling, and I'm looking forward to hitting the office.
Yes, astute reader, it is a bit weird to be on leave in my first week of employment. But it's only my first week on paper, and Hetzner were kind enough to advance me leave. :-)
On the geek front, I've mostly been fiddling with our home network. We now have a pretty solid Internet connection, with a family-safe content filter, wireless laser printing and automatic backups for our personal computers. There's other geeky stuff (like an IPv6 certification program), but this started out as a letter to my mom, and who'd I have been kidding if I'd gone into more detail on that?
As for family, we bid farewell to Ian and Joan this month, as they head off to White River to get involved in AIDS medicine and counseling. The serendipity of Scott, a friend of over 10 years, being the one to buy Ian's practice is remarkable.
Apart from the occasional accidental triggering of the alarm system, having Sarah stay with us was great. Sadly, she opted for something closer to work, and moved out today. As a thank you present, she arranged dinner at Ginja for Pinnie and me in a week's time, complete with a bottle of wine and baby sitter!
I haven't been seeing much of Jonno (senior). He is one super-busy boy, but he seems to be getting what he wants out of it. I suspect that when we're the only remnants of our nuclear family in Cape Town, we'll be hooking up more frequently.
I think Pinnie has discovered that, not only has she had enough of her tether, but that it's considerably longer than she had hoped. Spending the better part of a year as a stay at home mummy hasn't been her favourite favourite. Still, it looks like there's at least one firm job offer on the table and she's excited about getting back behind a desk.
The boys are wonderful. They definitely bring on the joy in ways that drown the effort. Mind you, Connor's potty training isn't going too well. He just couldn't be arsed with number twos. But he's very enthusiastic about underpants and gold stars, so Pinnie and I remain optimistic. JD is getting sweeter by the day, devoting himself to the art of the coy giggle and the dimple crunch. Other than that, he's finally started taking a bottle, which is the beginning of freedom!
I hope this epistle finds you taking the actions you need to take to create the life you want to live. But in the immortal words of Van Wilder, Party Liason, "You shouldn't take life too seriously: you'll never make it out alive".
Live free or die. Oh, and never put jam on a magnet.
I'm not convinced that it was my worst - I'm not sure if I should be worried now or not - although it certainly felt that way at times. For now, I will say that it was incredibly riveting. One of the more twisty parts of the ride for sure.
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I have to agree with Sven, as for me, it was certainly an awesome experience having met some really interesting geeks that have some really interesting work. Though short-lived, the experience was invaluable. PS. I'll still own you in quake beeaatch. :-P
Inspiring... Glad you mentioned not taking life seriously, seriously. Two kids now, even better. Don't think I can imagine having offspring just yet. Make it work like you always did. Was a good post to read... catch up...