Spending Summer in Portugal

I booked a trip to spend a couple weeks on the island of Terceira (Azores) and five days in Lisbon, Portugal this summer! My brother and I are going to meet up in Terceira. After that I'll be solo in Lisbon.

All of my family are from the Azores. They've been encouraging me to go. So it will be exciting to finally make it out there to see what they've been describing.

Friends

Hanging out March 17

High's and Lows

Today's Hi: I got my first paycheck from Modal Software Corporation
Today's Low: Apple is overnight'ing me a box so I can send in my MacBookPro

So Modal Software has been off to a great start. Our office has that glow of people working and being productive. It's a great feeling to see all these pieces come together so well. I'm most happy about our clients. They are a pleasure to work with.

On a bad note the logic board in my MacBookPro finally had its last breath. I've been experience strange behavior from my MBP and couldn't pin point it. At first we thought it was hard drive related but after replacing it with a new one with similar problems we leaned on ruling it out. Apple tech support has been very nice to work with. I've talked to four different reps and they were all personable.

I think until I get my MBP back I'll take in my MacMini and use it at the office. It's hard to break away from OS/X.... *sigh*

Hello World!

I made a big change last week folks! I resigned from Pelco as a senior software engineer, packed my bags, and am on a 6 month backpacking trip across Europe!

Well, half true! Even though I wish I could do the backpack trip the truth is I did resign from Pelco.

I co-founded a small software shop and we're quietly working away on a product to sell. To supplement my income I'm working as a software consultant and contractor.

The name of the company is Modal Software Corporation. Modal in reference to both musical modes and modal software design (everybody in the company is a musician =). Our office is on Main street in beautiful downtown Visalia.

I love working downtown. It's a quick 10 or 12 minute drive from where I live in Tulare. Main street also has a thousand and one paths to walk for coffee, food, or just to get out. Reminds me of when Fahrni and I used to chat up a storm on software! He used to telecommute for Visio from here.

It was a hard decision leaving Pelco. The company is by far the BEST place I have ever worked. On top of that I was working for the best managers I have every meet. Barry, Arjen, and Greg are all high class folks who take care of their people.

On top of everything else I'm excited about the lifestyle changes that I've been making. My goals have been shaped around building a sustainable lifestyle for my family, career, and personal life. This is something that I want to expand into with another blog post.