John of All Trades

…actually quite easy, when you’ve got FedEx. I can overnight you, and include an envelope so you can overnight me back. It’ll be fun.

Seriously, though, Day 2 was another very full day. I heard from a couple more people from the Maven and CodeHaus OSS communities (thanks for the warm wishes), and spent some time chasing down promising initial job leads. It’s a little depressing just how little IT industry there is here in Gainesville, but what do I really expect from a town whose university seems to still run on Microsoft and mainframes, and where the remainder of industry focuses on healthcare (read: medical devices). As a result, I’m beginning to explore more of a – shall we say – national scope in the job hunt. After all the chucks on the shoulder in the last two days, I have to say I’m feeling cautiously hopeful that this won’t be as bad as it could be.

Another big thing that took place today was the Reading of the Severance Agreement. Legalese is so fun! I popped up some popcorn, and dug in. I understand people are just doing a lot of CYA and it’s probably a result of long experience, but the things in these agreements are a little chilling. We “reached an amicable agreement” as a result of the contract to that effect, but it was an interesting read. So, that’s the end from the OldCo side of things, and all that’s left by way of sweeping up is deciding what I think certain stock options are likely to be worth, and determining whether COBRA is worth handing over my firstborn child to get (with interest, since I don’t have one yet).

Tomorrow’s another very interesting, not-nearly-as-depressing-as-I-feared day, and all joking aside, I can’t wait.

Oh, and as an aside, I started looking in earnest at Ruby on Rails today. I know, I know, what’s next for me? Maybe that new-fangled Micro-Wave? Well, let’s not be hasty. Honestly, can this framework really be as dead easy and still be reasonably performant?? In intend to find out tomorrow, if there’s any time at the end of the day.

Until tomorrow, sleep well everyone.