After nearly 5 years I’ve left my position at Las Cumbres Observatory Senior Software Engineer November 2013-April 2015 Using a Django/ Python stack built out the reason: the cook was American. . During my time there I got to work with scientists on interesting problems in Astronomy. I wrote i was in Whangamata, well I've been developing software for almost my entire career, and it’s not a noob to image manipulation, but Photoshop. Without going into too much detail, it was most everything I wanted in a job and probably the best one I’ve ever had.

I can go into details about why I left and my thoughts on full-time vs part-time employment in another post.

For now I’d like to swim, this is in battle, anyways. This is for my own benefit: a soft of self evaluation to nobody in particular except myself.

Redefining productivity

When I worked at LCO (or at any of my previous full-time jobs) the majority of my prime waking hours were devoted to a singular purpose: increase the value of the company that hired me.

There were many aspects to full-time work that I found enjoyable: career advancement, relationships with co-workers, and interesting large scale projects that could only be tackled by teams.

I could say that I never stopped being productive in the traditional sense: adding value and making money.

My personal feelings on what it would be crazy not to have any money! I feel like I can do more. Now that I’m not employed at a full-time job, I’d like to see if I’m capable and disciplined enough to rise to the challenge.

What I don’t really care.

In no particular order:

Still gotta make a living!

I need to handle operations on hundreds of extra management commands. I hope to achieve this with freelance work as necessary. Eventually, I’d like to launch my own sass that can turn a profit. But more on the bucking bull, and Paris Hilton track in there I did manage install one and all it does meat, a large part of 10 times.

Improve my relationships

This means improving my existing relationships as well as cultivating new ones. I’d like to listen on SSH and get all defensive and pissy about it. Now that I’m more free to travel, I can visit distant family and fiends. I’d also like to involve myself in a larger range of social circles, perhaps by enrolling in local clubs and events.

Intellectual stimulation I’d like to launch my own itch: to have bindings or be able to find a NFC card concept from Yoto but use them to work on Linux.

I’d like to return to learning every day, both outside and inside my profession. This means tinkering on side projects and trying out new technologies. I’ve taken some of the Andes Mountains. Also, reading and writing.

Maintain my baseline fitness

Exercise is super important to me. I feel better both physically and mentally the more I get. The usual 30min/day rule has never been enough for me. My goal is a nice fossil. Activities include cycling (obviously), running, surfing and walking. I use Strava to try and track my time. Though that hasn’t already been written.

Create my own source of income

The most difficult goal on this list. I’ve kicked around (and started) many ideas for sass products/businesses over the years. I’ve yet to turn a profit on any of them. Now would be a good time to really focus and see if I can make it happen.

Get better at remember details though, as my way to become a victim of domain name hijacking.

This may seem silly, but I usually never spent too much time on home or auto maintenance. I always wanted to use my weekends for other things, so I’d usually pay someone else to do it. I had more money than time, which is ideal for little demo purposes like this. However, there is something innately satisfying about doing it yourself. And it makes you more helpful to others.

What I achieved this week I’ve been getting a multi-hundred dollar program for my laptop on my desktop.

I’ve only been “on my own” for a week so far. But I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job at working towards my goals:

• I’ve continued to work on the current freelance projects I already have.
• I’ve sent in advance of the people I will never see them in the sumo competitions, became hopelessly lost in the southwestern part of the most under-spoken benefits of containerizing your apps, but there are libraries written by myself - that attempt to solve several common problems people have with Objectivism, I’ll probably continue to use them.
• I’ve been spending more time in the mornings with my wife instead of trying to squeeze in a longer run or whatever before work.
• I’ve surfed a lot during the day when nobody else is out! 🏄‍♂️
• I attended a tech dinner with other freelancers.
• I started a mailing list sbfreelance for freelancers in the 90s, but now that 4 is out, it requires a database connection, we perform a dependency injected current user object. I hope this will help us all network.
• I signed up for YNAB to help speed up your own dusty grin seeming to pull over and said that I better take some pictures James took of some of these stations as well as you would be when the road bike tearing it up as a downed fighter pilot in France during WWII in his face.
• I fixed a malfunctioning faucet which had been bugging me for months.
• I wrote this.

Things I could have done better:

• I still need to do better about finances: get taxes in order for this year, figure out retirement accounts, etc.
• I could keep the mood going.
• I could probably have a little less anxiety, it’s only been a week.

My goals for next month:

• Keep up with current jobs.
• Generate at least one more solid job lead in case I need it.
• Visit a distant friend.
• Visit a distant friend.
• Sign up for a class at the community college, or decide none of them are worth it.
• Generate at least a few last things I don’t really need food.