Choices, decisions and fear: Part 2.

I’m a fan of transparency.  I like to know what people are up to, and I think there are people that like to know what I’m up to as well.  This includes the background and emotions behind major life decisions.  So here’s my story.

If you’re reading this you already know it’s been a rough couple months as far as my career path goes.  I knew I needed to move elsewhere, but I didn’t know in what capacity.

I didn’t know if I was unhappy with the company, unhappy with my role, unhappy with my direction, unhappy with those I worked with… I just didn’t know.  What I did know was that I was unhappy and I saw no chance of that changing without a major overhaul in my “professional” life.

So I took a step back and looked at the world around me, specifically those who inhabit it.

I looked at what others do, not particularly career wise.  But what their life consists of.  I looked at the tweets people made and took note when I said “I wish my life could have what they’re doing right now.”

This consisted of things like “I wish I could go to South By Southwest next year” or “I wish when AIM has breakfasts I could attend” or “I want more time to spend on projects that I care about, personally and professionally.”

Having a list of what’s important to me right now and in the short term made me realize that in order to pull off a big change, it requires big changes.  None of what I want out of life can happen as long as I’m working for a large corporation where I’m nothing more than a number.  Where taking a day off in order to take part in something much larger than a 8-5 is frowned upon.

So a lot of thought and discussion went into what I did today.  I put in my notice to leave West Corporation.

In the words of Gary Vaynerchuk “Don’t come up and say ‘I quit my job!!!’ and expect me to be happy for you.  Don’t you have bills or anything?”  And yeah, I kind of have to not be homeless and keep my car and stuff.  So it turns out working is a requirement.  Details.

In comes multiple discussions with Rahul Gupta’s Dispatch This.  He came to me personally saying he wanted to bring me on as a developer for his product.  We met a few times and now I’m hired to work there in a part-time capacity.

It’s a huge win to know I have guaranteed income coming in, if only part-time.  But I do have to make up for the rest.  Luckily it turns out there’s some really neat people in Omaha who need stuff done and would like me to work on them on it.

This includes joining up with the Contemporary Analysis team to grow their budding IT branch to include web hosting, development, and further expanding their options to clients as a one stop shop for products provided by CA.

All of this is really exciting for me.  It gives me the opportunity to work on a handful of products both on the Dispatch This side, where they have a steady client base, and on the “i have this great idea, work with me on it” type stuff elsewhere in the community.

But to be honest I’m scared shitless.

Do I know what the steps are to make this bohemian technology lifestyle work?  Absolutely not.  Is it possible that I fail?  Absolutely.  Is it worth the risk?  To me, yes.  Others (parents) think i’m an idiot to give up everything I’ve worked so hard for in cube-land.  But I don’t see it as that at all.  I’m happy to give up my cube, my required office hours, my high stress/low productivity environment.  Giving up my lack of pride in return for some real excitement with what I do with my time is a pretty ok tradeoff for me.

In all seriousness I’m giving up a good salary, benefits, and a “you know what you’re doing today, how much money you’ll get every couple weeks, and the fact you don’t have to worry about that.”

But I’m in a place where I think the risk is worth it.  I may fall on my face in complete failure.  But a failure story is still a story.  I’m certainly not making any stories where I’m at now.

Thanks for the support everyone.  I never would have done anything like this without all the ass kicking from people like Rahul Gupta, Brian Smith, Dusty Davidson, Steph Monge, Tim Kephart and so many others.

I’m cautiously optimistic that things will work out.  But please wish me the best.

Weekly Song Recommendation: Har Mar Superstar – Girls Only

Dark Touches

Dark Touches, released this past week, is the newest album from Har Mar Superstar.  It’s an album I was really looking forward to for a few reasons.

But the first step before talking about Har Mar is to have you watch a video of him.

He’s an artist that you can really watch grow with each album.  But with that, you never know what’s going to happen.  His last album, The Handler, while substancially more mature than his past releases, I thought was far too serious.  The persona of Har Mar is that where seriousness is the last thing you think of.  It’s about fun, parties, sex and enjoying everything around you.  So I was a bit worried that this new album would continue the trend of deep thoughts and seriousness.

Then I saw him perform his new material in concert here in Omaha.  And I found what I was in for.

Not only was he no longer following the trend of seriousness, but he took the ridiculous factor to the next level.  I saw him perform new songs such as “Almond Joy” (he explained as the male version of the Camel Toe),  Tall Boy (Who he originally wrote for Britney Spears), Creative Juices (with references to his ever growing IMDB profile), and this week’s recommendation “Girls Only”.

In typical Har Mar Superstar fashion it’s a party tune about women.  Along with the other songs from this album when he performed them live at The Slowdown a few months ago it lit up the place.  This guy with songs like this turns every venue into a an awesome party.  Girls are throwing themselves at him.  Guys are throwing themselves at him.

He’ll be back in Omaha next month and I can’t wait for the party that is Har Mar Superstar in concert.  I’m trying to convince friends to go, but people only give me weird looks.  But whatever.  They’re missing out on a hell of a show.

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My thoughts on the Mophie Juicepack

A few weeks ago I purchased the Mophie Juicepack Air in preperation for my trip to Chicago for my class reunion.  When I announced on Twitter I was picking one up I had a few requests for my thoughts on it after some use.

Admittedly, the new iPhone 3GS has substantially better battery live than the 3G.  Very noticeable.  However, there are times and situations where that’s still not good enough.  I thought forward about what my situation would probably be.  I’d be flying on a plane listening to music/watching videos (no way to charge), then getting off the plane and going downtown (no way to charge), then hanging out at the CenterPost office (not charging), then heading out to wherever I was going to end up for the remainder of the day (maybe not charging).  And not knowing where I’d be staying one night to the next I knew when I had an opportunity to charge I had to make it worth my while.

So the Mophie Juice Pack allows you to double your battery life by building a battery into a hard case for your iPhone.  You can turn it on and off at will, and I think that’s really key.  When you turn it on it starts to charge your internal iPhone battery.

Knowing gadgets and charging like I do there are times and places to be charging a device.  Inside your warm, confined pocket is not one of those times.  Not only does the device head up when charging (like almost all electronics do), but it can’t be good for that to happen while against your body with no way for it to exchange heat to the outside world.  So I made sure only to turn on the Juicepack when it was on a table, or sitting next to me, or I was watching a video or something.  I never just turned it on and then shoved it in my pocket.  I don’t recommend you do either.

The only drawback I see is the cable that’s used to charge the Juicepack (and therefore your iPhone as well).  It allows you to still sync your iPhone to your computer while the Juicepack is on, so that’s cool.  It charges both the external and internal battery at the same time.  That’s cool.  But it’s some lame proprietary cable.  That’s not cool.  It looks exactly like a micro usb, but it’s just a little different.  So if you lose it you have to go buy a new one from mophie for $10.

Was it worth the $80 or whatever?  Yeah, it really was.  Now I keep it with me in my bag, fully charged and I can take it out any time an emergency arises.  I haven’t had to, but you never know.  It’ll happen.

It’s a great device, and it’s built well.  Adds very little extra size to your iPhone.  So if you’re willing to spend the money on it, and you know you could use it, I wouldn’t think twice about recommending it to you.

Weekly Song Recommendation: The Go! Team – Bottle Rocket

The Go! Team is one of those bands that I should have discovered long before I did.  In fact, there were even opportunities to see them previous to checking them out that I missed out on.  But oh well, you can’t know all cool tunes all the time.  You can just get close.

They’re a band that mixes what I’d explain as cheerleaders with an indie synth pop band who are influenced by the 1970s.  It doesn’t make any sense, but the most interesting bands rarely do, right?

This song, “Bottle Rocket” is a horn sample-heavy rockin’ good time fronted by a female rapper and drum fills o’plenty.  It’s just such a good time listening to this tune.  You can’t help but notice the sun is just a little bit brighter and your coffee is a little bit stronger while it’s playing.

The album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, where you can find this song generally has a pretty similar feel throughout.  So if you like this song, you’d like the rest of the album.  Not too technical, not too deep, not too anything.  Just a really fun time.

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Gabe Sings T-Pain

I’ve thought of some bad ideas before, but I’m proud to say this may be my worst.

As a person who doesn’t like rap music, I thought it’d be a fun time to try to “sing” a rap song that i’ve never heard before, by an artist who’s material I’m not familiar with.  So here’s my attempt at T-Pain’s “Kiss Kiss”.  Happy #MusicMonday.

To be honest, I kind of think my version is better.  What do you think?

Gabe Sings T-Pain from Gabe Kangas on Vimeo.