Firstly, Season’s Greeting to all.
I know I have been absent since the 1st of December of last year, I apologise but let me explain…
Firstly, I was retrenched by mutual consent with my company, I had not done much in a while and did not feel I was adding any value, so it was decided that since I did not fit anywhere else I would take a volunteery retrenchment and go on my marry way, all this before Christmas. For a while there, I got a little depressed but I have been trough worst and picked myself up and continued actively looking for a new job. That did not go well either, it felt more like I was being tested like a kid out of school then anything else and to be honest most of my prospective employers were looking for code monkeys, I am a Senior Developer / Architect, note the “developer” part. A developer is a solution provider not what I call a code monkey or a programmer whom just types away and hopes that the BRS is correct. So my job hunting efforts came to an abrupt end. I’d still like to thank Kirstin Garland and Jason Pretorius for all their effort, guys I know you did your best. I got depressed again…
So where from here?
Well, that was the hard choice, become a code monkey and be on antidepressants all my life or take a leap of faith?
I took a leap of faith, I have a fair severance package so why not open my own Web Development House? One that focuses on SOHO to small businesses I could bring a lot to the table, more than web sites I have learned so much about how to make use of the web to enhance businesses why not merge both skills into one and create a company that offers not websites but rather a way to improve businesses using the web as a medium, after all I have been doing it for more that 10 years for small businesses to large corporate. So, an old dream of mine was born, Panache Web and Business Development. We will start operating mid January and oddly enough my first client is my old company, which in many ways is great.
Unfortunately, my woes did not stop at being retrenched…
My camera, a Canon EOS 400D, attempted a dare devil swim in the dog bath along with my flying laptop. My dog, an Alaskan Malamute, decided that whilst I was outside with him it would be a great time to give me a big hug, the results were less 1 SLR and less 1 laptop. Thanks to Outsurance that was sorted rather fast and efficiently.
I replaced my Canon EOS 400D with, dare I say it, the mighty Canon EOS 7D, if you have been following me on Twitter you would know what I initially thought of the 7D, it’s like going from a bicycle with training wheels (the 400D) to a superbike (the 7D). My head is still trying to adjust, I’ll talk more about the mighty 7D in another post, hopefully with some image samples. to tell the truth, I have read the manual cover to cover twice and I am about to do it again but enough about the incredible 7D… I have also decided to take some photography courses starting at the end of the month trough to March, I would like to open a small studio and my skill set though not bad for a junior amateur is nothing compared to what I will need to have a studio, but there will be more about that in the coming month too.
Lastly, I have replaced my laptop, an HP Pavilion dv6000 series with, no not an Apple Notebook as I originally thought since the Apple did not have my requirement for my development work (in .NET) so I did some research and voila I am the proud owner of a Dell Studio XPS 16 and all I’ll say is, wow. It sorted out both my development and photographic requirements in one go (not to mention it’s gaming abilities). The only two issues with it are it’s weight, it’s really heavy, and the HD screen, yep you read right it has a 1920 by 1080 native resolution on a 16.1 inch screen, you need a magnifying glass to read the screen. OK it’s also an advantage most of the time, pair it with a 24 inch HD screen and problem solved, yes it can handle it and so much more…
So there is the story so far… More to come soon…
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