Cory Collier

I just got back from FOWA Miami 2009. The event was awesome and I met tons of amazing folks (including the amazing Gary Vaynerchuk). There were plenty of amazing tech revelations at the event, and more talk about business and marketing. The latter was more relevant for me.

While there was definitely a lot of good talks during FOWA, a few really stood out for me: Jason Fried, Joel Spolsky, and Gary Vaynerchuck. Since I was recently laid off, I’ve been looking for some guidance in how I’m going to approach working independently. The take away from those three speakers was: Don’t learn from failure, but success, eliminate distractions when working on code, and ‘Care’. Continue reading »

I’m independent again.

I was laid off at Hydra Studio today. I kinda knew it was coming. This crazy economy definitely has a lot of people in some difficult positions lately. The process went pretty smoothly, and the separation is amicable.

I’ve been there for a little over 6 months. I’ve been a primary developer for 2 large projects. One was a social network for Christian organization, the other was a custom CMS for a Jewish organization. I’ve learned more about design patterns on top of design patterns then I care to talk about. I also learned more about Unix system administration in the last 6 months than any other time in my life. I live on command line now, which is very liberating.

I’ve worked with some awesome folks at Hydra. While I’m not dead, and neither is anyone else there, I’m still gonna miss the guys there. Team Zane is a character couple that definitely deserves mention. I’ll have to write about them soon, they’re pretty awesome. Of course Rob and Parler have been a huge part of my time at Hydra, and they won’t be forgotten.

It’s funny to be back as a freelancer after 6 months of working a normal job in downtown Orlando. Immediately after being laid off, I walked over to CoLab (which happens to be next door to my old employer, NFi Studios). Being back around a lot of folks I thought were in my past, has definitely reminded me how important it is to not shit where you sleep. It’s cool to be around friends that I’ve had for such a long time, that I haven’t seen in a while.

I’m picking up side work again. It’s funny how quickly I was able to land some temporary work. The feeling of freedom definitely helps ease the sense of grief. I put myself into my job. Melissa would be quick to confirm this. I only know how to work in one way, to complete emurse myself in it.

So, with great regret, I wave farewell to Hydra Studios. I wish them the best. It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but like I’ve said before; these things have a way of working themselves out.

Today will be remembered for a long time to come. How it will be remembered, is likely going to be up to the rest of us. On this seventeenth day of February, two-thousand and nine years after the birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, Socialism was snuck upon the people of the greatest country in modern times.

The method for this, was a bait-and-switch bill disguised as a financial stimulus bill to help an ailing economy. The bill, the largest ever,  is the single largest takeover of government in American history. Unlike the military coups that were required to nationalize Venezuela, Cuba, or the former Soviet Union, the transfer of government type here has been completely accompished via stealth. Ask the average person on the street about what’s in the bill. You’re likely to get limited response.

There’s reason for that. Nobody actually knows the entirety of the bill. The particulars will take months to decipher. So, either this bill will not have the immediate impact that was championed as a reason for it’s immediate passage, or the bill will be employed with reckless abandon. Either way, it appears the American people got a raw deal.

During all of this, what news do the American people get? Likely, there will be news about the amazing fashion appeal the First Lady has, or how Republicans are hellbent on destroying the economy by opposing efforts to help people with federal aid. What irritates me most about current affairs, is how the story is consistently spun to provide positive light to those who wish to fundamentally alter the way our country works (or doesn’t).

There’s a reason government handouts don’t help anyone (including banks) : The government has zero ability to require responsibility to the folks that receive, well, welfare. The federal (or any other for that matter) government does not, nor should it ever have, the ability to monitor the responsibility of the people it’s employed by. To trust the government with your security, with your freedom, is to give up both.

Of course the irony about the sudden appeal of a strong executive branch, is how the same folks were appalled by the same scenario 6 months ago. Do not confuse the current president with the much more long term presence of government. Giving away freedoms to a ’seemingly’ benevolent leader today ensures that some other leader, with much more sinister motives, will exploit that power later. By handing over this level of control to government, we have ensured at least some difficulty in re-establishing our right to be a free people.

The lesson from all of this : The American people are just as susceptable to manipulation by the lure of compelling leaders, as any other country in the world. There will be a day when people look back on our country and realize how we the people threw away the greatest of strengths we’d ever had. We will look back and remember what we lost. Then again, maybe we’ll be so fixed on a marionette, that we’ll never look back …

President Barack Obama is really pissing me off.

President Barack Obama’s first prime time Presidential news conference was tonight, and it went off with many a hitch. First, President Obama insisted upon the same fear-mongering that has dominated his first month in office. Second, sounding like a dictator from a third-world country he claims the conservatives who voice dissent represent ‘old habits’ that are ‘hard to break’. Then, when President Obama had clear chances to show a level of common ground with conservatives (or, just the American people) he failed.

The first, and most obvious part of President Obama’s speech was in reference to the ’stimulus’ bill being debated in congress now. The debate is a facade. House and Senate Democrats will have enough votes to force the bill through congress. What’s really going on, is a war for the hearts and minds of the American people.

We the people, are rightfully skeptical about the justification for putting the next few generations of Americans under serious national debt and hyper-inflation for the sake of propping up socialist columns in government. President Obama mentioned being upset that “the same folks who presided over 8 years of doubling the national deficit” would question a bill that would likely quadrupale that amount. His repeated claims that there is no serious doubt about the validity about passing this stimulus bill is equally offensive. There are plenty of very smart economists who do not believe that this bill will help jumpstart the economy.

First of all, two wrongs dont make a right. Secondly, the doubling of national deficit was largely done to support a war on Islamic fundamentalists who, on top of murdering thousands of Americans, spurned a mild recession into a serious one in 2001. Certainly some of the money could have been spent better than it was. That does not mean however, that the people most responsible for that spending are now beholden to give your administration and it’s congressional allies a blank check for the ‘PORK SPENDING’ that you now feel entitled to.

The sense of panic being pushed on the American people is akin to a sales pitch to push an impulse buy in any store you can think of. By asking the people to not question the largest spending bill in history of the world, you are asking them to blindly follow what they cannot understand. If the people of this country are willing to follow without question now, to President Obama, then they certainly are capable of doing the same for someone whose intentions might be far more sinister. The people of this country are rightfully being skeptical, and asking tough questions. They deserve the best answers that their money can buy. Continue reading »

My second family at Hydra Studio and I have moved our office. We’ve got our own floor in the Fidelity Federal Bldg off of Court Ave in Downtown Orlando. This ends the roommate style relationship we’ve had with Push for a while. The new place is awesome, even though we’ve got a few things to button up.

We’ve shared space with Push for 18 months now. We love those folks. They’re an amazing bunch of people, who I’m pretty stoked to call friends now. Friendship aside however, it was time we had our own space, to *push* our own identity. Hopefully we’ll all still see each other at Lizzy’s. Our new office _is_ right there anyways …

All of the team spent a hell of a lot of time preparing the new office into something we could call home. When we got the space, it was setup for a construction company. I guess that’s a bit ironic for me, but it plain sucks for everyone else. So, we all worked our asses off to remove carpet, paint, clean, and do a million other things to make the office into something that begins to represent Hydra, the raddest digital agency in the world.

The whole process was a little cliche of the things you’d expect from working your balls off after a full day’s worth of regular work with co-workers. I have a bit more respect for everyone, and I definitely care a smidgeon more about everyone there. I know it sounds like a load of crap, but everyone really gave it their all, and I couldn’t be more proud of what all of us have been able to pull off. 

The move definitely had it’s perils though. I had to dodge insane traffic to pick up equipment I dropped in the middle of 50 during rush hour. We destroyed some walls we had to put back. More than a few nerves were a little frayed from the tremendous amount of work we had to do. 

I know I’m gonna get some shit for this: Regardless, of everyone who stands out in this whole process, Bobby Jones is definitely the man. Bobby is undoubtedly the best employer I’ve ever known. During the entire transition between offices, Bobby probably worked 80 to 100 hours on the new office. He poured himself into making the transition relatively smooth, and keeping the rest of us motivated while we helped realize his vision. The sort of stress he must have been under is impressive. What’s more impressive, is how calm and collected he remained throughout the affair. Ask Rob and Parker how many times Bobby took the late workers out to IHOP at 5:00am to feed the most dedicated of folks. I’ll probably follow up my ‘Folks that mean shit to me’ lineup with Bobby next (even if it does give me a brown nose).

Anyways, a mega-huge thanks to everyone at Hydra for working your asses off doing shit you didn’t know how to do, but did it anyways. I’m honored to call all of you my coworkers, and more honored to call all of you, my friends. I’ve worked with some of the toughest people in the world. I’d trade every one of them for you guys, you’re all the best.