zombievirus

Life update:

I got a new job! Starting TOMORROW, I am working for Optaros.

At some point in December I decided I wanted to look around at what was out there in the world of Agencies and Consulting. I hadn’t interviewed since I got my job at Molecular (now Isobar) over three years ago and I was terrified. I was worried about rejection. I was worried that I wasn’t good enough. I was just worried about change in general. After sending my resume out on a sunday and getting called back Monday morning by every place I applied, I quickly got over all of my fears.

This is what I learned from the experience of interviewing: I am not a moron. Not only am I good at being a front end developer, I even made it through the tech interview for a software development company for a senior level position. Talking to people during interviews about what I do for a living is the easiest thing in the world, because I LOVE developing. Not once did I feel like I was BSing the interviewer. I genuinely knew all the answers to the tech questions. Closures, classical vs Prototypal Inheritance, performance testing, cross browser testing, posting/getting, synchronous/asynchronous, etc- I knew how to explain it. After each interview I would buzz around in circles wondering when the hell did I learn all this stuff. This is all stuff you just do, you don’t talk about it. No client cares about if you are using closures. It’s amazing that in a little over 3 years I have learned so much.

Ironically, the company I picked had one of the lighter tech interviews. This isn’t a bad thing because their overall process and company structure was my ideal place to work. I am really excited about my first day tomorrow. The only bummer I have about working for Optaros is that they don’t have cubicals, so I don’t have a place for all the posters I just took home. I don’t know how long I should wait before I bring in a ton of action figures… I’m thinking not until February.

Leaving Isobar was bittersweet. I love everyone I’d worked with there and there had been some amazing projects. There had been some evil, wake up in cold sweat, projects as well, but I’m sure those happen at all agencies. I had given 4 weeks notice and through the four weeks I was getting more and more anxious about leaving. I have no doubt that I am going to hang out with my isobar friends outside of work and that’s all I want. I would be distraught if I didn’t think I would see Dave or Rob or Emile or Bobby again. On Friday I thought I might start crying hysterically when I left, but I had to work late to finish up some stuff and I was completely dry eyed. It wasn’t very sad and it just didn’t feel as in the good parts were over. The best thing about Isobar is the people who work there and I can hang out with them outside of work.

Tech Stuff
So far I’ve had a pretty lazy new year. I learned about Qunit which I hope to start using on whatever personal or company project I work on next. I’ve had a couple breakthroughs with managing event bubbling in jQuery while trying to make the most ridiculous form ever designed. One might say it “over-designed.” And lastly, I have been using a lot of CSS to manage state, in the OOCSS inheritance sense.

Art Stuff
I’ve been drawing every day. I have started both a tumblr and a DA account.

I am reading Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Masters which is freaking amazing! It’s like taking an illustration class.

I was told I got a lot better after drawing this: