End of an Era

Those close to me are already aware of what I'm about to post, so this mainly goes out to my friends and family that haven't quite yet caught the news. I'll soon be leaving the city of St. Louis, and thus the state of Missouri in search of bigger, and better things. I don't think this really comes as any major surprise to those that follow me closely though. I've been putting in more time development wise on personal projects, and trying my best to sharpen my development chops. Other kids dreamed of growing up to be fireman, baseball players, movie stars, and so on, but as a kid none of that seemed to really fit me. As time went on, I realized I wanted to someday be a developer, and I'm now seizing that opportunity. It's been years of hard work trying to finish school while carrying full time jobs, and then post-school, preventing my skills from becoming dull by not immediately jumping into a development field.

It's all finally paid off for me though, and I've received an opportunity that I simply couldn't pass up. It's unfortunate that St. Louis is sort of a crappy town when it comes to development related jobs though. It would have obviously been a lot easier to stay in my stomping grounds of the STL, and expand my career here in my pseudo-hometown (grew up outside of St. Louis, but nearby). Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of hip and cool companies that want to leverage newer technology like Django, Python, and so on. If I wanted to be a Java or PHP developer, I probably could have pulled that off here, but I was in a unique situation. I wasn't unhappy with my job at Contegix, and didn't really *have* to jump ship. Hence, I was able to cherry pick a new position at a new company as I saw fit. That's why I only applied for dream job style scenarios, and to my surprise it panned out in the end. I guess if you keep your chin up, work hard, do the right thing, that eventually it all pays off in the end. 

Obviously, I'll be leaving a lot of friends and family behind, and that sucks. It really does. I'm going to end up a significant distance from my parents, my sister, and then of course all my friends at Contegix. Hopefully we'll be able to work something out so I can visit on occasion, and keep in touch in some way. In the end, all of this is a necessary evil of chasing my dreams, and going after what I'm passionate about. It's unfortunate that chasing my goals has collateral damage, but nothing in life is free nor easy. I hope those close to me understand that, and support me in my endeavors. I know it's hard for them too, but we'll figure something out. Oh yeah, I haven't really mentioned *where* I'm going have I? I'll cover that in another post, since I kind of want to touch on other topics first...

So, Contegix, it's been a fun trip. I've learned so much during my tenure with Contegix, and met a bunch amazing people in the form of co-workers and customers. I met a ton of people at the Atlassian Summit that I worked with on a day to day basis via e-mail, and got to put faces to a lot of names. It was an amazing trip, that I feel sort of guilty for going on now given the current circumstances. That aside though, it really affirmed my desire to dig deep and drive for my personal goals. I've also had the pleasure of working with some pretty stellar co-workers who continue to amaze me day in and day out with their intelligence and determination. I really can't thank Contegix enough for taking me under their wing, and letting me grow into a pretty good sys-admin. They've done nothing but foster my creativity, and allow me to grow as an individual expanding my toolset exponentially along the way. Sure we've had our differences at times, and it hasn't always been peaches and cream. That's any company, and this company typically handled situations with grace and upstanding character. They're obviously the best Linux based web host money can buy, but they're a damn good employer too. So, thank you to Contegix.

I'll be posting more in the near future about where I'm going, what I'll be doing, etc etc, but I mainly wanted to get this out for now so the family members that follow me via my blog can be brought up to date. Anyways, e-mail me, hit me up on Twitter, or on Facebook if you'd like to get my non-Contegix email address for keeping in touch with me down the road.

I Can Has...

A few nights ago I was outside work, taking a quick smoke break. Smoke breaks are always kind of odd for me, because it's 5-10 minutes of complete idle time that I use to re-cooperate. At the same time though, they can be really boring and awkward. Hence, this particular day I was peering in at the office of our CTO at Contegix. You see, management just moved into some new offices, so blinds aren't up yet, and our CTO's office is like a glass box of sorts. Knowing him, it likely drives him a bit crazy, which may explain why I don't seem to see him in there often. Maybe it's just bad timing though. Anyways, I believe I'm drifting from my overarching point in this rambling mess of a story...

I was standing there peering into that office, and thinking of how nice it'd be to have such an office. I mean, it's not overly large, it's not incredibly fancy, but it's his. It's his desk, chair, monitor, etc. It is a gorgeous desk though, and so large, with soooo much space to work in. When I spin it around though, and look at it from my perspective had I been the one sitting in that chair, at that desk, using that monitor, I'd realize it as such a major accomplishment for me. It seems odd, but something so simple as your own space, your own office, would be like a crowning achievement for me. I'm not sure if you've ever seen the movie Singles though, but sometimes I feel like that girl (sap) with her long list of wants in a man (except, I'm a man, and don't really want a man). By the end of the movie though, she just wants a man who blesses her when she sneezes. I think I'm getting to that point, where like, a cubicle would be a win. Don't get me wrong, Contegix does me really good, and treats me right. I'm not jealous of my CTO's office, I'm jealous of his achievements. I don't want his materialistic possessions (well, okay, maybe a little), I want his success and the respect he commands from those around him. I guess what I'm saying is I want to earn the right to an office or cubicle such as that. I want that achievement in life, that milestone.

I just can't help but feel at times that I haven't put enough into the game yet. I've accomplished a lot, and I've hit some milestones. However, I still feel like I'm so incredibly far from the mythical places that I want to reach. Hence, whilst I stood there, peering into that office I realized it's time to bear down, and work harder. I have a lot more to accomplish in life, and I'm in my theoretical prime now. If I'm going to start seizing opportunities, I better get started soon before all my chances, hopes, and dreams erode into absolute waste.

I'm going to start trying harder, applying myself more, and focus more on what's important to me. Pinning down what's important to me is a difficult task though, since I am so multi-faceted at times. There's a large chunk of sys-admin in me to go along with the developer aspect of my abilities. Personally, I think it makes for a nice mix, but at the same time it can be distracting. So many shiny things to play with, so little time I suppose :).Anyways, I hope to produce more blog entries showcasing more of what I'm working on. At times it'll be code, at other times it'll just be random cool open source applications I'm using. I hope to get back to contributing to the open source community more in the future as well. It's been awhile since I've been a good open source citizen,so I'll be getting myself back on track there. Expect cool things though, because I'm more focused and determined than ever.

First Real YaBa Release

After some six hours of banging away at the code today, I finally have django-yaba to a point where I feel comfortable "releasing" it. It's always been open source, and open to anyone's inspection, granted. However, I've never said "hey, go install this blogging application, you just might like it", mainly because I felt it needed more time in the oven. Now it's to a point where it's stable, runs fairly lean, and has all the core features I feel a blogging application should have in order to be deemed ready for public consumption. The main features that I've been able to get in place over the past week includes the Gallery functonality, and the install script. There's been an array of bug fixes, template tweaks, and clean up along the way though.

In regards to the Gallery features, I've put my first gallery up in place just a bit ago. It has some pictures from the trip to the Atlassian Summit in San Francsisco. You can check it out here, and I'll be adding more pictures to it later on as well. For now I just wanted to make sure it actually works. You can also get a gallery listing via this link, which I've conveniently placed a button for on the top navigation bar for easy access. Anyways, a LOT more details on YaBa can be found at it's project page, along with the download link for the application as well. If you're looking for a blogging application, and don't want to use WordPress, give it a shot. You just might like it :) Feel free to contact me with any bugs, feature requests, or just random comments. In fact, you can just leave your comments... in the comments section below. It's crafty like that.