jayroe

The past two years have been an amazing and eventful time for me and the family. In 2005 we were living in Clinton, Mississippi. In early 2006 we moved to San Francisco and then finally to Atlanta in 2007. Many things in our lives have come full circle, others are just starting. Here are thoughts on the salient events from my recent past:

• My mom passed from cancer - This happened about two months before we moved to San Francisco and didn’t really hit me until a year later. This is the single greatest personal tragedy that I have ever experienced. I am starting to agree with the likes of Ray Kurzweil on this one: death is not normal, it’s a disease that we need to cure.
• Less really is less - If you’re going to move about the country for the betterment of your family, quality of life and career… pack light! We schlepped entirely too much stuff from one North American coast to another. If it weren’t for the generosity of Missy’s father driving the rental truck from Jackson, Mississippi, to San Francisco in 2006 and then to Atlanta in 2007 with her brother, we would have had a much tougher time.
• Star Trek Online - Back in high school (circa 1988) I remember using Basic to make simple animated vignettes of the starship Enterprise flying through space and going into and out of warp. In 2006 my friend Sean Bollin and I got to build a teaser website for Star Trek Online [update 1/27/2008: STO was dropped and is currently in limbo, so our wonderful website is now dust in the æther]. It was one of coolest things I have ever been a part of and makes me feel like I was able to give a little back to the sci-fi universe after all the enjoyment and big ideas science fiction has given me.
• Food Allergies can be fatal - My son, Carter, has always had a severe allergy to dairy. It was not until he and Missy were on a plane bound for California that we discovered the peanut allergy. Fortunately, Missy had Benadryl on the plane. Once in California, we soon found the best allergist and pediatrician we could imagine. Of course it helped that we were so close to Berkeley. Most people never stop to think that something as wholesome and innocent as a Snickers bar or child’s pizza birthday party can send someone with severe food allergy into life threatening anaphylactic shock. The social implications of this on our family continue to be a major challenge. Read more about Food Allergies.
• Dial-Up is (not) dead - Our family decision to move from San Francisco after only one year on the West Coast was solidified by an opportunity offered by my friend Craig Jones at EarthLink. The food allergy challenge, extreme cost of living and distance from family really made our life in California difficult. Atlanta has turned out to be a good choice for our future despite choosing to abandon EarthLink in the wake of massive corporate restructuring. What I learned: there are millions of people still on dial-up… welcome to 1996!
• Lost 50 lbs - In the Spring of 2007 I went to the doctor for a general physical, blood tests, etc. I had been gaining weight for the past few years and was up to about 210 pounds (dry). I felt like crap all the time and was tired of being tired. Of course diet and exercise was the solution, but the diet the doctor suggested, The Zone, was actually based on science so that appealed to me. I’ve always intended to take care of my health because I’ve always wanted to live far into the future… download my consciousness into a robot, explore space… you know, stuff most people don’t think of when they think retirement.
• Switched to Mac - The Apple Intel-based MacBook Pro is the smoothest windows machine I have ever had. If you Bootcamp into Windows, be prepared for an epiphany of computing experience. That said, I spend all my time in OS X and hit Parallels or VMWare for XP. Sometimes I miss the aged comfort of XP, but all in all OS X is now my home.
• Back to the FEDeration - In November 2007 I left EarthLink for the calmer, more creative seas of Macquarium Intelligent Communications. I am now working as a Front End Developer (FED) for Macquarium’s Front End Development team, also know as the FEDeration. Validate or do not validate, there is no try.
• Brian joined the Peace Corps - My good friend Brian Woods made it into the Peace Corps in the Fall of 2007. Stay strong man, it’s nice to know a real life hero.
• Particle Sphere (now a working title) graphic novel - Despite nothing to show publicly, my personal project of creating a sci-fi graphic novel continues. I have been working on a script for the past 2 years and have actually made significant progress. I have been consistently drawing and sketching the concepts and characters and have a formal 20 page script that is nearing completion. When complete, I will send out to friends and families for feedback and start on the storyboard process. My goal is to finish storyboarding and start creating production art by the end of the summer. So, tentative publication date of mid to late 2009? Should I just put it up on the web under a CC license or should I try and publish a real book? Both?

Happy 2008,

Will

Good times, good times…

EarthLink, Inc. today announced a corporate restructuring plan. This plan will reduce operating costs across the company. The restructuring will begin immediately and be completed by the end of the year…

Approximately 900 jobs will be eliminated and the company will close its Orlando, FL; Knoxville, TN; Harrisburg, PA and San Francisco, CA offices and substantially reduce its presence in Pasadena, CA, and Atlanta, GA. EarthLink expects to record facility exit and restructuring costs of $60 - $70 million associated with the plan. These costs include $30 - $35 million for certain employee-related costs, $10 - $15 million for lease termination costs, $8 - $10 million for other costs to streamline operations and $8 - $10 million non- cash asset write-offs. EarthLink expects that these facility exit and restructuring costs will be recognized primarily in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2007.

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A friend from work and I went to the Atlanta Game Dev Meetup Group last night and had a blast eating pizza, drinking beer and talking about video games. Interestingly enough having spent much of my life as a musician/music teacher, I ended up talking to several musicians and composers who were involved or interested in game development.

I spent most of my time talking with Paul Gilreath, a professional composer, and Zac Armgard, a composer and guitarist from Berklee who wants to get into game sound design.

On January 18th, one year from the day I started at Perpetual, I got an email from my once and future manager, Craig. Earthlink had a position open that seemed to be a good fit both professionally and family-wise. Doin’ it tha East Bay Way was starting to take its toll as we struggled with how to raise a family in the most expensive city in the US sans NYC. Earthlink flew me down to Pasadena for some informal interviews with the team I would be working with… if I got the job.

While there I got to hang with my good friend Brian, who’s Kevin Smith ambush is worth a read. After the interviews, I flew back to San Francisco to wait for the call. For someone who picked up the family and moved from Mississippi to San Francisco in 2006 it felt like everything hit slow motion. The possibilty of slamming everything back in a truck to move to the other side of the continent was utterly exhausting.

Only days later I accepted a Senior Software Engineer position with Earthlink in Atlanta. Arriving in our new apartment on March 1st and still tired from the first move across the country, we finally feel like we’re in a place we can call home. My wife and I both realized that we needed to go for something bigger than what Central Mississippi could offer. Moving to San Francisco was part of that effort, but it just didn’t feel right. Both growing up in Mississippi, we have always liked Atlanta: still in the South but a big city with all the accoutrements. Life is much less expensive here and family is much closer (no more air travel with an energetic 3 year old).

Notice some new threads on the old jayroe.com site? With stress levels and personal time returning to sane levels, I actually feel like working on personal projects again (Particle Sphere… I’m looking at you). To be sure, there are challenges here in the Dirty South and with my awesome new job, but at least it feels like home.