And so it goes: leaving the west coast
News, Work ·Tuesday August 23, 2011 @ 01:37 EDT (link)
We have been planning to leave here, to go back east to be closer to our parents, to find a place (hopefully in Tennessee or another friendly Southern state) with some space to settle in (and for a range, perhaps, even), and have a family, and reconnect a little perhaps. It has been isolating out here, especially for Honey since she doesn't work and have the connections I get from that (although some CLAMS folk wrought great evil; although I have forgiven, it remains, but I think the positives outweighed). We have been planning to leave here for over a year, but I wanted to finish my Master's degree; and it was finished in July, so now things are beginning.
Speaking of mailing lists ("DLs" or Discussion Lists, in MS-speak), I have been unsubscribing (and deleting folders) of ones I don't really read (e.g., Canucks, Investment, Litebulb); CLAMS has been archived, and others will be closer to the date so I don't miss much (especially msgun and prepare). This is the beginning.
There's a lot to do before actually packing and moving. Of course, first is finding a job, likely via Dice (since I don't want to let contacts on, e.g., LinkedIn know, so I can't leverage them, which may have been helpful); so I'm dusting off my resume (luckily I have a fairly recent one since my Master's program required it, so I'm just cutting and trimming and doing a little reformatting).
We need to get rid of whatever we don't need, either selling if we can get some money (like the DVD cabinet, since they've all been ripped to an external HD), any books we don't need, files and papers and (ancient) journals that aren't needed or can be recorded electronically (with backups), and so forth. There will be more to move than when we arrived in the state (treadmill, set of living room couches, maybe a bookcase, a bed after a tree fell on the first one, although it's still usable; we just got rid of the side cabinets, piano, and smaller items), and this time I expect we'll be loading a truck again rather than having commercial movers do everything (help appreciated!)
It's been an interesting time; worked with and interacted socially with a lot of good people; came into libertarianism, fully—anarcho-capitalism, principled respect for self-ownership, reading the great authors like Rothbard and Bastiat and newer ones like Molyneux and Kinsella. I learned about shipping (shrink-wrap) software: shipping is a feature, and we deliver. I learned that "Micro$oft" isn't the big bad, nor incompetent; it's a great group of smart people that accomplish diverse goals (which may not make everyone happy), although I remain a Linux and open source software user, contributor, and fan. I got to do a lot of fun, interesting, and globally useful development in Word, from the object model to OfficeArt to co-authoring, the drawing abstraction layer, D2D printing, and immersive commenting.
I learned some of the things I want in life and how I want to obtain them and what I will and will not do; I gained confidence and skills, and perhaps learned a little about people, too. Facebook arrived, and we finally hopped on board, and I got to know some people that I'd never met. We want a quiet place to live and grow in a quiet part of the country with friendly but not nosy neighbors, not too close, with fast Internet and not too far from both sets of parents—or from work, if I can't telecommute (which is down). I want to continue to develop the 7 habits.
This stage is done; the next beckons.
Books finished: Liberty Defined.
