After 277 days of flawless power, there was an interruption of service at my house. For 75.9% of a year, my little PowerMac G4 Cube dutifully served files and routed traffic. This post is in memory of its record uptime, cut short by a lack of electricity.
I’ve been busy. Life is complicated, overwhelming, and hopeful. Much has changed, and much remains the same.
I’m done with the first leg of my summer journey, and I’m mostly pleased with how things turned out. Seeking to avoid the pain that comes with idleness, I decided to move to Medford, Massachusetts for the month of June and work a few web design jobs.
My primary job (40 hours a week) was doing front-end development for a social entrepreneurial startup with a few students at Harvard University. They’ve got a long way to go until launch, but I’m very confident that the project will be successful. It was a pleasure to work with individuals who grasp both web technology and social responsibility. I learned a lot during my time with them, and was sad to leave.
My second job was polishing TuftsBlogs.com, Tufts University’s Undergraduate Admission’s blogging portal, which I built over the last year. I’m pleased with the functionality and aesthetics of the site, overall, and look forward to see how Tufts’ social media strategy continues to pan out.
Finally, I was working for myself. My (recently incorporated!) business, GetchaBooks.com, is less than a month away from launching its next big iteration. My cofounders and I have been working hard to build a killer platform that takes the frustration out of textbook purchasing. We’re currently seeking beta testers and motivated students at schools across the country to help us spread the platform. If you’re interested, check out www.getchabooks.com to sign up for more information.
As you could imagine, working three jobs can be pretty stressful. At times, I felt overwhelmed. Nonetheless, life was awesome. It was exhilarating living away from home, without the burden of classes, completely managing my own time between days jobs, entrepreneurship, and socializing. I was efficient and effective, waking up each and every day with a purpose. I learned things every day, and had complete control of my life.
In that respect, my summer gamble has been a complete success. There were difficult life moments, including a bicycle accident, an incredibly sketchy Craigslist exchange, and a painful breakup that’s tested my character and personal identity. With the support of my friends, I’m working to overcome the obstacles that linger. Despite these problems, after a month of economic self-sufficiency, I’m confident I can succeed in this world. Now that I’ve done it once, I can do it again, and it feels great.
I’m back in Dover Plains, ready to embark on the second leg of my journey. Throughout July, will be director of the Dutchess Community College’s Computer Academy, the computer camp-classroom hybrid that I’ve been working at for the last three years. In addition to managing the Academy, I’ll be teaching a new introductory programming course, taught in Ruby, and something I’m calling “Future of the Web”, a crash-course in web design with a focus on features of the HTML5 spec.
My July will be a radical adjustment from the freelance lifestyle I’ve been living in the last month, but I embrace it with open arms. Education and access to information have always been important to me, and I’m really excited to directly contribute to the lives of children once more.
When the month is over, I plan on returning to Medford, just in time for a Keane concert in Boston that I’m super excited about. After the elation of the concert fades, I’m unsure if I’ll take on any jobs. My August priority is ensuring that GetchaBooks successfully relaunches, but I haven’t yet gauged how much of my time that will take. Certainly, I’ll figure it out.
Regardless, I will bring to August what I brought to June and hope to bring to July — sincerity and focus. Having tasted the lifestyle of a free spirit, I’m content with my life.
Thanks for taking the time to keep up with it, and take care.
A lot of people come across my blog searching for information about tympanoplasty recovery. A reader recently wrote in with his perspective on a cholesteatoma that I feel needs highlighting. Although I don’t agree with Shea’s assessment of anesthesia, it’s a valuable piece of writing. It’s reposted after the jump.
I visited the surgeon who performed my Tympanoplasty (now, several years ago). He said my ear drum is still looking good, and my hearing is the same as it was a year ago. I am, of course, very thankful.
I’ll see him again in a year.
(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I encourage you to read this and this, and optionally, the posts in between.)
I spent last summer almost entirely in Dover. In having little to do, I nearly went insane. With hopes of changing that, I’ve lined up a summer full of activity, projects, and work.
For the next several days, I’ll be in Dover. I have plenty of people to see and errands to run! Starting June first, I’ll be living in Medford, MA, working two web programming and design jobs, as well as working on the next version of GetchaBooks. At the end of June, I’m moving back to Dover to teach at the Computer Academy, my normal summer routine for several years now. Finally, come August, I’ll be resting and playing back in Medford, MA, preparing for another semester at Tufts.
The plan is to keep busy, create things, and make money. What could possibly go wrong?
