Unfortunately, I’m in that position right now.  It wouldn’t be fair for me to pretend that I can still support people whose websites, and sometimes businesses, depend on me and my services.

I took a job just over two years ago that ended up being a really great thing for me.  I was given a lot of autonomy, and lots of opportunity to do things that really interested me.  All I had to do was sign on.  Full time.  8:30 am – 5 pm.

Since then I’ve learned a lot about my craft, a lot about project management, and a lot about how people I knew before the job depended on me.

Many of those people realized, without prodding, that I wasn’t as available to support them.  Many simply decided to go in a different direction.  I supported that every time – because hey, if I’m honest, I know that it’s better for my ex-client to find somebody who will focus their full attention on what ex-client needs.

Now it’s time to kick the rest out.  I’m drafting a nice – but stern – email that will effectively state that my services will go dark completely in a few months.  It goes out this Saturday.  Option A is to find another provider.  Option B is to say goodbye to your site.  (And in some cases, Option B has probably already been exercised anyway – none of these sites are so big that they’re daily movers.)

I really loved running my own business.  I miss being able to work from home, in my pajamas. On the other hand – I make a lot more money, a lot more reliably (direct deposit!) than I ever did running a business.  That’s enabled me to really start a family and provide them with a nice house and good meals – without going further into debt every day.

Someday, I do want to return to running my own business.  Someday, I want to go back to teaching classes at the University.  In both cases, I know there’s some things I’d do differently.  But today I want to work a 9-5, come home, and enjoy the family I’m working to care for.

So goodbye, former clients.  I will, really, miss you.  Thank you, and I hope you understand.

Doing a little tweaking to the ol’ blog here.  Picked up a nice responsive design theme for WordPress based on Skeleton.  It’s not perfect, but it’s nice to start with something solid and work from there.

So, have a little look around.  I’ve eliminated some of the busy stuff, and I’ll probably trim it further still.  I’m going to try to get better at consistently blogging.

Rock on, all.

Topics include P&T’s Realtor™ stumbles, Adult Swim, and Mentos.  The Freshmaker!

Starring @pauld, @teenydvl, @raislak, and @sikkdays.

Although the analogy is flawed in a number of ways, the most interesting to me is this:

Google does not give a crap about whether current hardware will be able – at all – to run the next version of the OS.

You could certainly say that Microsoft, in the early days of Windows, was pushing the performance envelope.  There were definitely computers being sold that wouldn’t be able to run the next version of Windows – my lowly 33MHz 486SX with 4MB of RAM needed a lot of coaxing to run Windows 95.

But at the time, that computer was a few years old already – at least three.  And it did indeed run Windows 95, albeit slowly.

On the other hand, the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab are just over a year old.  Yet, they will never receive the Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Maybe it’s unfair of me to say Google doesn’t care about this; I’m sure somebody there cares.  But apparently, as a team, they don’t care enough to make sure that Samsung can get it running on a phone that is, at worst, only one generation behind the current.

And maybe that’s part of why the Google/Microsoft analogy is so flawed.  Fundamentally, the market for phones and tablets is different than that of computers in the 90′s.  So, perhaps a more forward-device looking approach is better.

Perhaps not.  I like that my wife’s iPhone 4, clearly a generation behind, runs the latest iOS.

This is a throwback episode.  How far back you ask?  Well… climb into your TARDIS and go back to… about a year ago, as best I can tell.

Yep.

Topics include burgers, Doctor Who, life, death, and of course, Mr. T.  Starring @raislak, @pauld, @teenydvl, and @sikkdays.

Macrumors links to what they characterize as a dubious claim of an updated iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

I’d agree this is dubious for a single reason: at that point, I don’t think they’d call it an iPod Touch anymore. Here’s what I think we could see from Apple: no more wifi-only versions of the iPhone or iPad.

At some point, cell network communication chips just don’t cost enough to justify making a separately designed product without them. My theory is that if you want what today is an iPod Touch, you can buy a cheap iPhone. It’ll still be contract free, it’ll still be cheaper – a cheaper, thinner design, that looks like today’s Touch possibly using the last-gen chip instead of the latest-gen. Maybe it doesn’t have a retina display.

And it will have 3G. If you want, you could turn on cell data (voice as well if you want), if you don’t it will still be an iPod Touch.

Carriers could use this model as your cheaper, pre-paid iPhone. Instead of selling the 3Gs, this could be subsidized to cheap-or-free.

Right now, Apple maintains some level of production on three models: the iPod Touch, the 3Gs, and the 4. If you can eliminate one of these lines, still provide a cheap entry-level iPhone that can do double-duty as the Touch – and can become a phone at any time – it seems like it makes sense to do that.

I’ll grant that’s probably crazy. And maybe with LTE on the horizon, you wait until you can do this same thing with LTE instead of 3G. That then also gets rid of your separate Verizon model. On the other hand, maybe you simply use a dual-mode chip.

Just some crazy thoughts from a fanboi.

I guess that could be scary, and there are things that I’m scared about. But being scared, being afraid, is usually about knowing something could happen, that you have no control over, and fearing it out of sheer instinct.

That knowledge doesn’t make all the what-if’s less scary. But it does mean that I don’t need to be blindly afraid of them. Because I can control myself, and my reaction to that fear.

One thing that I’m not worried about is being a good dad. I am actually luckier than most in that I have two really great examples of strong, kind fathers. If I can follow in their footsteps, I’ll be a great father. If I can improve in any way, all the better.

I know the routine for Delivery Day. I know where to go, I have all the numbers in my phone to call, and I know what should happen, and generally what’s likely to go wrong.

So I remain patient and yet anxious. Time is going fast and slow simultaneously.

All this to say, I’m adjusting to a new perspective. I’m excited about the final Harry Potter. I’m awaiting the new iPhone with baited breath. But these kinds of things aren’t even on the same chart as my joy and wonder at becoming a father. This is the next challenge. This is the greatest thing I will ever do. And I can’t wait to get started.

Of course, all of you will simply have to hope that I’m wearing my PJ’s.

Anyway, I’ll get down to it. It’s been about a year since I’ve done any real blogging. If I ever did any real blogging, but I digress. And it’s been a pretty good year. Like a tire. A Goodyear tire. Check?

You’ll notice off to the right that there’s still a book you can buy from Amazon called, “The Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell. It’s still there because I still recommend it. It’s a good book if you want to understand some of the psychology and cultural impact of myth (which is code for “religion”).

On a less spiritual and more practical note, I’ve also recently read HTML5 for Web Designers, by Jeremy Keith. Short, well written, a great first entry to the A Book Apart series.

That’s it for now. I hope to do this more regularly in the future. Rock on.