Sooo...
last you guys probably heard of me was months ago when I might have said to some people "I'm busy dealing with life issues, need to sort them out, I'll be back when I can be." I don't think I posted this anywhere, it was just a message I sent to some people but I forget who, because honestly teh $@!* haz been cray yo. Anyway, I felt like I owed everyone an explanation of what happened and why I dropped off the face of the earth:
I was working for a company who didn't know what it was doing. Think of a bunch of frat boys with business / english degrees that didn't learn anything and scraped by in life by constantly screwing other people over as fast as possible and you'll have a good impression of the 7 VPs + CEO that ran the place. They had everyone not in a management position (10 people) working 60-70 hour weeks on ideas that were never validated or thought through. Engineers were never consulted about technical possibilities, designers were never included on design decisions. It was a bad startup, the kind that absolutely need to crash and burn as fast as possible so that its employees can do something useful with their lives instead. All this bad stuff was happening over the summer.
In August I had an awesome opportunity to run the race of my life: 100 miles at 10k+ altitude in Leadville, CO. I flew to Denver and backpacked across the mountains for days to get to the race (~120 miles) met some really amazing people along the way. Everyone I met was absolutely nice and helpful. The journey getting there was an adventure itself, but the race was even better. 800 people started and only 358 finished. I was not one of the finishers, but I'll be back next year to try again. My ankle did something weird coming down Powerline "Road" (they use that term reaaaallly loosely out there) and I got cut out at mile 30. I made lots of friends out there and managed to get a ride back to Denver.
The night before I flew back home I felt weird, almost like I was sick. I never get sick, except once every 4ish years (it had been about 3.5), so I took some vitamins and went to bed in the hotel. I woke up with a grossly swollen face and I freaked out. It wasn't painful, but I felt like death. I got on the plane and back to my apartment, saw a doctor the next day. Turns out I had a crazy infection that if I hadn't gotten to a doctor in time I would have died. Yay modern medicine. I had a feeling that my job wasn't going to last long so I stepped up on interviews and moved out of my apartment. On Sept 1st I entered homelessness / couch surfing with friends.
2 weeks later everyone was laid off. The board decided the startup was spending money recklessly (who woulda thunk?) and told them to make cuts. So they decided in their wisdom to let the engineering, sales, and design teams go and pivot into a marketing company. They're still around and just updated their website with marketing bullshit. I feel bad for my old boss there and hope he gets into something better. Glad I didn't continue the lease. Not glad to be out a job and apartment.
2 weeks later I got a job, this time at a really amazing awesome startup. We're working on education stuff and are launching the product in Jan or Feb. We've been working hard on it, but I really love it, and there is no bs.
... still don't have an apartment though. I've been hunting for one off and on when I get spare time, but there are a LOT of crappy apartments. I started using Airbnb and I actually really love the service, I've met a lot of interesting good people. A week ago one of my old coworkers from the previous place asked if I wanted to move in with him and I said SURE YES WHEN!? I move in on the 15th of Jan... so I've got another month of bouncing to go, but at least the end is in sight.
So that's where I'm at now. I would love to take some time (maybe of over the holidays) to jump on JKA or Tor or Minecraft and catch up / saber with you guys. I'll try to check in more often but until things really stabilize I can't make that promise.
Finally... Elod, I'm really truly sorry I couldn't be your master and vanished without notice. I wish things had worked out differently, but its awesome you're a JK now, congrats!
