I’m sitting at my computer on a very rainy Sunday. The summer seems to have come to a close and fall is encroaching quickly. August was a relatively quiet month as far as big announcements in the technology sector. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t an interesting month though.
I finally got access to App.net, and have enjoyed my time on there thus far. The app ecosystem is still incredibly young, yet there is a large swath of third-party clients already available. The level of polish ranges greatly from extremely rough around the edges, all the way to quite feature rich and well designed. This is definitely reminiscent of 2007-2008 when there was a burgeoning period of third-party Twitter clients.
Other than App.net meeting its funding goals, there has been lots of rumours about the next iPhone and supposedly smaller iPad. None of these rumours interest me anymore. I’m simply tired of poor reporting and speculation abound. Even if some of the mockups or purportedly real photos turn out to be true, so what? I’d rather wait until an Apple event to be surprised and delighted by what they have managed to make over the last year. Maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy, but I just can’t keep up with this stuff anymore — frankly it’s exhausting.
The Biggest Milestone this Summer
I turned thirty years old on August 1st. The months leading up to it have been a little stressful. It seems silly to be concerned about a number — after all, I experienced no such trepidation when I turned ten, or twenty — yet thirty feels like an important milestone. The last couple of years have had there ups and downs. I left a very comfortable job at a failing company and went freelance for about eight months. After that didn’t work out, I searched for another full-time job and found it, but I knew after two weeks of working there that it was a mistake. Not because the position was so far from what I wanted to do, but it just wasn’t the right kind of culture for me. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to accept a great position in January of this year at a small software development company. Working in small teams has always been far more appealing to me than working at large organizations. By small, I mean 10 people or less. Not only is there far less bureaucracy, but people execute on ideas and are able to have more responsibility and freedom to run with new projects. This is the kind of freedom I crave — the ability to run with ideas and implement them, without someone dictating the minutia of every excruciating detail.
Onwards to The Next Thing
The last bit of exciting news from last month was my forging of a new friendship. It turned out that we have a lot in common. One commonality we share is a passion for cars. I discovered that he was starting his apprenticeship in September, and that he needed a car to work on. As I have been wanting to begin a very lengthy restoration project on my 1982 Trans Am, it was quite serendipitous for me to meet this person. I ended up donating my car to his class, and it’s actually on the way to the shop on Monday. This past weekend we successfully managed to turn the engine over after only three attempts. Going in, we expected much more effort — the last time it was driven was seven years ago — but it turns out all we needed to do was put in a new battery, fresh gas, oil, and coolant. The car will probably be at the school for at least twelve months, and I of course will make sure lots of progress photos are taken to chronicle the adventure its been through.