And now a posting about Debra Messing's breasts.

I saw that on a headline yesterday and I don't know why, but I thought it was genious journalism. It made me click on it though so I put it as the headline on my first update in a year. I am going against all blog conventions and making this post more than a 2 minute-15 second read so sit back, grab your beverage of choice, put it in a coffee mug (it's nicer that way) and let's chill for a few.

So let's see, when last we left off, I promised pictures of my finished place. Well if you click that little Flickr slidey thing over there you'll see em. Enjoy them in all their LED glory, because it looks like I'll have an offer on the pad soon and I'll be moving on to bigger and hopefully better.

You can catch video on HGTV's Look What I did on 6/15 at 6pm. I hope I don't look like a tool.

I tell ya making my place light up like Vegas garnered a lot more attention that I ever imagined. The Boston Globe, ApartmentTherapy.com, Channel 7, The Economist Magazine, and even HGTV are all/have already feature me and my obsession-making things light up. As I sit here at my desk I am envisioning what this office would look like bathed in the blue of the harbor water I am looking at, and knowing how quickly I could make that happen.

Speaking of desks let's talk shop shall we?

Those that know me know I am a career Angel of Death. What that means to you stable-job types is I am typically hired into a company that's on a blazing-fast growth path to eventual acquisition. I show up, build a bunch of stuff, it works perfectly, the company gets bought, people become bazillionaires (not me--yet) and I move on. I now have 8 under my belt (since I finished school in 1999) and if you know where I work and follow the industry it's quite possible that soon it will be 9. At times it's nerve-racking because you never know what the next day will bring, and at times it's glorious because you never know what the next day will bring.

Being in startups means in a typical 55 hour work week (if it's slow) you do 80 hours of work before you go home and check to make sure there hasn't been an important email during your commute home. It means never going anywhere without Internet Access, and sleeping not with a stuffed animal but with a pager/cellphone/laptop by your side just in case something breaks. After all, you are the only person who knows how to fix it and you wouldn't have it any other way.

Why choose a life like that? Three reasons:

1. Money. While typically salaries aren't as high as established companies', the well-heralded 'stock options' can be a nice present right before you get laid off, and you are working so much you don't have the opportunity to blow any cash on things your 9-5 friends are spending their money on.

2. People. I have many friends who don't know their co-workers. They know names, they know who has how many kids, but at the end of the day and at the end of the job, that's it. In a smaller company there is a lot more time and usually a lot less space, so the work-life balance becomes the 'worklife', that other extistence you have before you go home and are too tired to talk to anyone outside the office. You also meet people like yourself, and often end up working with them again and again, at different places. I currently work with 4 people that I have worked with at 3 separate companies in the past. Even more interesting is that my current manager is the person who got me the the last job I had, and subsequently my manager from my last job referred me back to the one I have now. Greater still is that at both my last job and my current one, my respective managers reported to the same person. How great is that!? Still with me?

3. The roller-coaster ride
Not many people know what's it's like to hear that their company can't afford pens this week. 'Free Diet Dr. Pepper and Pizza on Thursday will still be provided, but please refrain from excessive Post-it use until further notice'. I actually heard that once. Also, not many people know what it's like to watch a TV show having some contest or other, and know EXACTLY what's going on behind the scenes, exactly who is doing it, and standing next to them when it's done. For you addicts out there, I've seen the Magic Suitcase number picked on Deal-or-no-Deal, and listened to the winner being told they just won $25,000. The ride makes you want to work harder, it makes you want to be a part of something bigger, it makes you--are you sitting down?--PROUD of your job and your company. How many of you can say THAT?! I'm waiting....anyone?.....anyone?

I live for that. I am someone who is not happy unless he is challenged, and I get bored very very VERY easily. I am already bored typing this, and that is the biggest problem with working at a soon-to-be-acquired startup:

THE FREEZE
The freeze is the point in the negotations between companies when checkbooks get frozen, projects get halted, and things slow to a crawl. I won't bore you with the reasons why this happens but it's mind-numbing. Combine that with the fact that as a manager if I do the things I want to do (fixing a laptop or patching a server, etc), I risk offending those who report to me, because that's their job, not mine. Mine is to manage. The good thing at a start up is that managers often get to 'do' as well. Sadly, most things in IT can't be done without buying things, and when ya can't buy things, you can't do things. *Sigh*

So stay tuned kids, my extra cycles will lead to talks of things ranging from my electroluminescent persuasions to (of course) the music industry and entertainment in general, bowling and home renovations. Happy Thursday.