New Job

In May I was hired on by a very hot company called Unity Technologies as a web developer. I had been contracting with them for about a month prior to being hired. They also flew me down to San Francisco in April to be their official photographer and to document their time at the Game Developers Conference. Unity has long been a competitor in the middleware game engine space with a company I used to work for – GarageGames. While GG shifted their focus over the last few years to other things, Unity focused on improving their core products and have steadily gotten better, and more profitable over the years.

One of my requirements for working with them was that I have the freedom to continue living in Portland, rather than move to San Francisco where their North American office is based. We agreed that I would occasionally (about once a month) work at the office, but the rest of the time I would be free to work anywhere else. It has worked out for the most part except that their primary office (and where the rest of the developers work) are actually in Copenhagen, which is about a 9 hour time difference to Portland.

Going to Copenhagen

My project(s) are for the most part independent of what the rest of the developers at Unity are working on. I focus primarily on web related projects (store, site, etc), while the rest of the Unity is focusing on engine and tool development. Still our paths do occasionally cross so it makes perfect sense for me to become better acquainted with them. The solution then is to fly my girlfriend and I over for at least a month, set us up in a hotel, and force us to enjoy Copenhagen during the summer.

A co-worker has a vacation coming up at the end of July so they wanted to make getting me out there a top priority so that we would have plenty of time to work together. This gave me just the excuse I needed to get my passport, and also gets me half way through another goal of working abroad for 2 months.

On July 6th I will be taking my first international flight to Copenhagen where I will be working on-site for at least 3-4 weeks.

Passport Acquired

I had always entertained the idea of getting a passport whenever I went to the post office. When I finally did go that purpose though the place was packed with people had the same idea. Thankfully I was 2nd in the line, because it took the guy almost an hour to process me alone. We got the fastest processing time possible and my passport arrived in just under 2 weeks.

Beyond Copenhagen

I ended up getting us one way tickets to avoid having to commit to a departure city and to keep our travels open ended. There is just way to much of Europe that I would like to explore but I have neither the time or the money to do it right now. We would like to see some of the near by countries like Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I also wouldn’t mind being able to stay in a single awesome city for a week and just explore the heck out of it. Either way we have the month in Copenhagen to figure it out.

Plans for this Site

My plans are to be more active on this site in terms of documenting my experiences with traveling – beyond my photography, though I promise there will be plenty more of that. In preparation for my trip I finally graduated from my flimsy $35 aluminum tripod that I got years ago to a nice, light, travel-friendly carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod.

Expect lots of panoramas and HDR like shots in the future as we tour around Copenhagen and beyond.

1) Move to Portland.

I moved to Eugene in January of 2005 to work for GarageGames. Right about the time of what will be my 5 year anniversary of having moved here I will be moving to Portland where my girlfriend and I will be sharing a house with another couple until we can find and afford a place of our own. I don’t have a job or any real prospects lined up and Portland has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation, but compared to Eugene it has a heck of a lot more going for it in just about every way that is important to us.

Coincidentally my girlfriend moved to Eugene during the same month as I did. She completed her final term college this month and was able to finish her Sociology degree. Remarkably, she was able to get a 4.0 (or better) in her last 3 terms. By finishing up her degree we resolved the final reason for us staying in Eugene. We both really adore Portland and so making the move there is a huge step in the right direction for both of our futures.

2) Continue to build out my Freelancing business

One of my main reasons for moving to Portland is for the greater chance of full-time employment, but at the same time I am not going to be waiting around for companies to start hiring again.

The first half of the year really taught me what I value from myself and of my professional life. It also taught me that I am pretty darn good at web development and rekindled my love for it. My goal for the new year is to continue getting freelance work and to double my hourly rate. I know perfectly well that my current rate is actually well below what would be considered standard for the quality of work that I do. But right now I am concentrating on building up a portfolio of projects and work that I can use to command the higher rate I deserve.

I registered an LLC in September and have since completed several projects ranging from multiple WordPress sites (including this one), Django powered back-ends for iphone and heath care apps, and a Joomla site that required over 50 pages of content and a custom template and design. Every project has been delivered on time and no doubt under budget.

All the projects that I have tackled so far have demonstrated expertise and versatility in both front-and back-end web development, and my ability to learn and adapt to changes quickly.

3) Develop a passive income of at least $1000 a month

The goal is to be able to generate enough income passively to be able to cover my basic living expenses. The passive part is important. Passive income is income that is generated by doing no additional work beyond the initial investment. It happens regardless of whether you are sleeping or traveling.

The past year has shown me that I am capable of living fairly comfortably with very little, all the while supporting my girlfriend through school and my mom during this depression. Freelance work definitely has it highs and lows and establishing a passive income enables me to take risks that I probably wouldn’t be able to do otherwise because I’ll know that I have the freedom to cover the necessities whether I am working or not.

I plan to do this with a combination of affiliate marketing sites as well as ad revenue generated by some sides projects that I have in the works. This goal will also help to facilitate goal #6.

4) Lose 20 lbs.

This goal is probably the closest I have to the typical new years resolution. You would think that during a year where I have had the freedom to workout all day/everyday I would be in tremendous shape. For the first half I actually was because I basically worked-out and trained every day, but as I have focused more on building my freelance career I have unfocused on other areas. I haven’t touched a tennis racquet or seriously gone to the gym since October. Starting January that is going to change quite drastically and more importantly I will be holding myself accountable.

For me, 20 lbs should be easy. At the moment I weigh around 185 lbs. My lowest since college was in 2006 where I got down to 155 lbs. 165 will be a happy medium for me where I won’t be exceptionally lean but still be healthier looking than I am presently.

I plan on achieving this weight loss the old fashion way – hard work and dieting. I also plan to carefully document every workout that I do and every food that I eat. By the end it should be clear to just about everyone what it takes for me to lose weight.

5) Develop at least 2 personal web projects.

Blogs don’t count. These are serious sites that are not done for clients and that I will be doing both the design and development. They will serve my #3 goal. For the past year I have been developing a lot of quality ideas for projects and 2010 will be all about executing on (some) of them.

While client work does help to sharpen my existing skills it doesn’t really help to push them in new directions. Working on these projects will help me expand my expertise through working with new technologies.

6) Finally get my passport, travel to a foreign country, and develop a proficiency in a second language

Some how I managed to not travel at all during the past year outside of Oregon. Just about everyone else I know has used their time during this depression to travel to Europe or some other continent. I was stuck here focusing on sharpening my skills and helping my girlfriend get through her final year of school. So one of my goals in 2010 is to finally get a passport and to travel to another country. I am contemplating teaching English as a way to get to either Japan or Korea.

Japan and Japanese is an obvious choice because I studied Japanese during college and it is a place that I have always wanted to visit. To become conversationally proficient would be possible in 6 months especially since I am already familiar with the language and have numerous books and material on it. Korean though would be a much greater challenge but since my girlfriend is Korean I would have someone to personally converse with. Additionally my girlfriend’s parents live in Korea and she has been looking for a good time to go back there to take advantage of their awesome healthcare. It would be incredible to be able to go there and visit them.

Regardless of where I end up I plan to stay for at least 1-3 months and to continue doing freelance work during that time.

7) Sell my car

My ’94 honda civic has been through quite a lot since I got it. It has been stolen and then nearly totaled, all while parked outside of my duplex in a quite cul de sac. During that time it has treated me very well, but once I get to portland I plan to relieve myself of the burden of having a car and stick to public transportation and my bikes.

I also have a lot of other minor goals that I would like to achieve that include stuff like becoming a better programmer, cooking more and eating healthier, becoming a better tennis player and going on near weekly photo trips to better my photography. Those are all general things that aren’t very measurable and living in Portland is certainly going to help with those.

The 7 goals I have mentioned are things that I want to passionately tackle during the next year and reflect the direction that I want lead my life.