Basically, there’s 4 things that make a developer ready for the big leagues: design patterns, unit testing, versioning systems, and experience.

Design Patterns can’t be emphasized enough. Almost every situation a typical developer has encountered, someone else has already solved. While the solution was likely in a different language, the concepts are universal. If a candidate cannot answer questions about basic design patterns like Singleton and Factory, they’re ability to adequately handle the responsibilities of a large scale application is seriously in question.

Unit Testing is an equally critical skill for any developer to understand. 90% of developers I interview typically work alone on small projects. this scenario doesn’t reveal the necessity for unit testing. Imagine that you work with 50 other developers on a project that’s hundreds of thousands of lines (if not millions) of code that’s distributed across hundreds of servers over multiple continents. Your amazing class that handles some unique circumstance will be modified by someone else who didn’t know you’re awesome intentions. How will you ensure your code works as intended without automated testing? Unit testing ensures that the concepts that sparked the intent of some software are held for posterity

Versioning systems are another area of knowledge that are surprisingly deficient in PHP Developers. CVS, SVN, Perforce, Mercurial, and (preferably) Git are software packages that any software business relies on. Not knowing the concepts of distributed software versioning software is like not knowing how to push the brake pedal on your car. You might get pretty far without needing it, but eventually you’re going to get into a situation which will crush you.

Experience. Nothing substitutes this. The brilliant young developer can make an awesome idea for his own company. He cannot serve a large company with existing ideas any better than a mediocre developer that listens to what he’s told to do. Software development is still more of an art than a science. Actually, it might be better denoted as a trade. Experienced artisans are able to accomplish things that younger folks cannot.

To re-iterate the point. Know design patterns, know unit testing, know version control software, and keep doing it. If you’ve been developing for years and are short on some of these points, take the time to learn. These skills are paramount and no one skill makes up for another. They are all indispensable in separating junior developers from enterprise level developers.

There’s two ways to go about keeping the identity you require through multiple single-level-deep connections. That basically means, you can keep your SSH identity from one box to another. If you hop from one box to another and another, I can’t help you. There’s probably a way to do it. I don’t know it.

Anyways: TWO ways to do this. Both of these options assume you’ve got ssh-agent running on the machine you wish to transfer your identity from. To get this running, do the following:
eval `ssh-agent`
ssh-add

This ensures the ssh-agent daemon is running, to provide an identity when you request it to be forwarded. This also assumes you’ve created a public key to transfer your identity.

So, the ways to do this are:
1. Use the -A flag when you shell into a box.
This basically means whenever you shell into somewhere, you add -A to your ssh command. An example would be:
ssh -A username@awesome.server.com

2. Set the ForwardAgent flag to “yes” in your ~/.ssh/config file.
This is a synonym for the -A flag in an ssh command

Both of these options allow you to transfer the key you hold on one machine, to another. Don’t try to use ssh-agent on the machine you connect into though. If you do, you’ll lose your original identity.

So, all together now:

eval `ssh-agent`
ssh-add
ssh -A username@awesome.server.com

Questions are always welcome

What was weird though, was that when I went to the page and viewed source, there was nothing to indicate the issue. None of the links appeared at all. A coworker noted that it might only be occuring for bots, and not for regular users. After installing User-Agent Switcher for Firefox, I could confirm that this only happened when the user-agent was a known spider:

So I dumped the database to a flat file and started regex searching for script tags, base64_encode, or anything that seemed out of the ordinary for a Drupal 5 site. Nothing came up. Finally, I did an svn status on the site itself, and noted that one file was shown as modified, that should not have been:
includes/cache.inc

I did an svn diff on that file and noted the following:
+error_reporting(0);eval(base64_decode(

Basically, someone was able to modify the cache.inc file to run foreign code. I would have just done an svn revert on the file, but sometimes developers will make local modifications to core (bad, I know, but it’s uncommon). So, instead I merely deleted that line in the file with vim.

I would have left this up to google for folks to find an answer to, but apparently I’m the only one who’s posting the answer to this.

A disclaimer: I primarily use Mac OS X (Leopard). I love using Ubuntu, but it’s not where I get the bulk of my work done. So, here’s my Mac apps:

Coding:

Eclipse PDT. I write primarily in PHP, and there’s just no better app out there for big PHP development. Something to note about Eclipse though, don’t use more than what comes out of the box. Eclipse can be buggy as hell, so don’t add all the plugins you can find to it. Eclipse is for writing code, not for committing SVN updates. Remember that, and you’ll love Eclipse as much as me.
TextMate. After having said all of that, there’s some times when I want a text editor that’s light, and gets the code updated quickly. Eclipse is a memory beast, and if you’re strapped for RAM, you won’t be able to run Photoshop, Illustrator, AND Eclipse at the same time. For that reason, TextMate is awesome.
vim. Finally, the most lean of all editors is vi. I use vim, since it has a few extra things I really appreciate. The learning curve on vim is hell, but once you’re used to it you won’t look back.

Graphics:

Adobe CS 4. I’ve tried all of the substitutes out there. But none of them hold a candle to Adobe’s mismanaged, bloated, overpriced Creative Suite. Photoshop and Illustrator are indispensable tools if you’re doing web graphics (or any other graphics for that matter)

Communication:

Adium. I don’t know of an IM client that comes close to Adium. I can be logged into all of the social networks I use at one time, in one window, and it doesn’t cost me anything to do it. That beats the hell out of anything else out there. Hopefully, there will be some challenges to this in the future. But for now, this Mac-only app is the definitive way to do IM.
TweetDeck. Twitter is definitely mainstream these days. TweetDeck lets me create groups out of the people I follow, see replies to me (public and direct), search terms, and see whats trending on Twitter, all in the same window. That’s pretty awesome too. **NOTE** I’m starting to try out Seesmic, and it’s pretty good too. Both of these apps are built on Adobe’s AIR platform, so everyone can get a taste.
Apple Mail. This might seem a bit obvious, but I wanted to give Apple some credit here. Apple Mail is an awesome mail client that meets almost every need I have, out of the box. I use the WideMail app to give it just the right tweaking I need out of it.

Local Server Software:

MacPorts. I tend to need some esoteric stuff from my LAMP environment, so I use MacPorts as a package manager to customize the variables of my development environment to my liking. With MacPorts its usually a trivial issue to install Memcache, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, etc.. I’ll usually even change the version of rsync and vim using the MacPorts package manager. If you don’t know about MacPorts, you’re definitely missing out.

Miscelaneous:

Quicksilver. Whenever I setup my Mac, Quicksilver is always the very first thing I install. Once you’ve got a mind for using the shortcuts in Quicksilver, you will never ever ever go back to the old school hunt-and-peck way of lanching apps, and performing tasks.
Visor. Another gem from Blacktree: Visor allows the terminal to always be quickly available to me, but also not intrude on the desktop. A lot of times, I don’t even change the default terminal theme (just change the font to Monaco 12pt Anti-Aliased).
Transmission. Transmission is the greatest bit-torrent application around. It’s light and gets to the point. Other apps try to push content and channels. Transmission just downloads the torrents. Awesome.

Freelance in the New Economy

As cliche as it might sound, we live in new economic times. Because of this, being a freelance web developer / designer is a bit different than it was, even 6 months ago. Gone are the days when client’s pay exorbitant amounts of cash for trivial work. Clients will evaluate you, and your work, and make decisions that benefit themselves.

Prioritize Clients

Knowing this is powerful. By knowing this, you can make the conscious effort to prioritize your current clients. You do not receive the same benefits from all of your clients. They are inequal.

Evaluate Current Clients

So, evaluate them. After all, they’ll be evaluating you. As a freelance ‘web guy’, you’ll possibly be the most expendable asset of your client’s team. They’ll likely make a list of pros and cons about you. That’s very fair, and you should make the same list about each of your clients.

Figure Out Who Is Awesome

Typically awesome clients are stable, pay well, pay on time, and have potential for more work. A lot of those assets tie in to each other. By a client being stable, there is a bit of an implicit expectation that they will pay on time.

Figure Out Who Sucks

This is essentially the opposite of how a client can be obvious. Businesses who are leveraging their property as capital to make payroll are likely not going to pay you on time. However, add to that, the neediness of a client. A client who argues for hours over the hue of red in their logo, is likely going to drain your ability to satisfy other clients.

Keep One Main Client

This isn’t to say that you should put all of your eggs in one basket. However, the other side of that, is don’t spread yourself so thin, that you’re killing yourself to make a decent living. For every client you have, there is some level of non-billable overhead associated with working with them. There’s a bit of acceptability in this, since that’s exactly what allows you the freelance lifestyle that you want to begin with. Too much of this is a total drag though, and will wear you out. So, keep at least one client, who’s stable, to ensure some consistent cash flow.

Keep One Interesting Client

Nobody works all the time. Everyone has something outside of work they find interesting. Try to land a client that’s doing something you’d find interesting, even if you weren’t a freelancer.

Find New Clients

Even with all the work to keep your existing clients happy, and weed out the clients who are dragging you down, you’ll still want to get new work. No relationship lasts forever (well, work relationship). So make a conscious effort to try to predict the future.

Old Skool Networking

Facebook is cool, but the bar is better. Most people hire folks they trust. Trust can’t be built online. For someone to believe in your ability to get the job done, they need to know you. The only way to do that is to step away from the computer, and get to know people.

U Need Communication Skillz

This should be obvious, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen the rudest behavior from people in conversations. Don’t interrupt people. Be polite. Be friendly. Be genuine. If you’ve taken the time to meet people to build relationships with them, then take the time to listen to them. RT(f)M, in the real world, is “shutup and listen”.

Use CoLab

There is an awesome space available to the community to overcome some of the traditional problems associated with being a freelancer (meeting clients at Starbucks, working at home too much, getting kicked out of Panera). There’s tons of people who can provide work at CoLab. Don’t miss the amazing opportunity there.

When It’s Time To Work, Do It

Don’t even look at your Xbox. If you’ve got 50 hours a week of work lined up, get it done. Don’t put your work off until the last minute. If you’ve got distractions where you’re working, try to remove them. If you can’t remove those distractions, like crying babies, then work somewhere else.

Don’t Be Flaky

If a client is starting to suck, or the situation regarding the project your on isn’t cool, take note of it, and finish the project. There’s few instances where you’ll be able to back out of a project entirely. Keep that in mind. Plus, selling out your client is THE NUMBER ONE WAY TO GET A BAD REPUTATION. As a freelancer, you live and starve on your reputation. Once you’ve established that you’re willing to screw someone because they were a nuisance to you, 68.8234% of possible new clients will walk away.

Get Productive

There’s a few things that can make your working environment more productive. Silence the phone, turn off email (twitter), drink copious amounts of Monster Energy drinks and put girls in bikinis on your desktop. The world is definitely your canvas here. If you find yourself getting more code done, but doing a certain something, then do more of that.

“Hustle”

For those of you who went to FOWA last week, you know what I’m talking about. Actually, a lot of my talk here is a bit inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk in Miami. Figure out what you want to do, and do it. Don’t be passive about it. Find what works and do it.

Save Money

If you can, of course. If you’re making enough money now, where you could save money, or if you’ve got expenses you could cut (and not screw your business), do it. Find a way to save money while you can. Inevitably, there will be times where cash is no longer coming in. If you can’t weather the dry times with clients, you won’t last in freelancing.

Don’t Wait For Government

I know I’m showing some of my politics here, but there’s still a valid (bi-partisan) point to be made. Nobody is going to save you from bad clients, slow cash-flow, or your own lack of knowledge. Having a victim mindset will only ensure your failure. Being a freelancer is being an entrepreneur. You have zero job stability (so, remember to save)

Don’t Burn Out

Don’t book 70hrs of work / week.

Get Inspired

Inspiration is what makes you come back. If you’re running low on inspiration, then your work will reflect it. Even worse, your life will reflect it. Don’t hate your job.

Get More Info

Don’t listen to anything I just told you. I’ve got 7 weeks total of freelance experience ever. I know a couple of things, but mostly I pick up stuff from Google. Freelanceswitch is a great resource for new / experienced freelancers out there. They’ve got a great podcast as well, which has been awesome reference material for me. Ask people you know about how they’re staying afloat. At least you’ll be networking

I filed for unemployment last week. Being a conservative guy, I can’t tell you how humbling a process that was for me. Politics aside, I do have a family to provide for. So, if President Obama is handing out money, I’ll take it until I can get stable cash flow back in the house.

I have a few opportunities though. Pretty quickly after being laid off, I picked up some work from Eric. The initial project has been a bit of a learning curve about each other, but I’m pretty excited to be working with him. He’s a super smart guy who’s been around long enough to spot bullshit in advance. With my penchant for security, that’s a great trait in a partner.

So now I’m able to wake up and go to bed on my own terms. This week was a bit different than most though, since I managed to get my ass over to FOWA Miami. So, on Monday I was scrambling to get my shit together in advance, and drove to Miami that night. Tuesday and Wednesday were a total crap-shoot. I was out of town, working on an odd traveler’s schedule. Anyways, I guess it’s a little early to make assumptions on how the day to day things will change. 

One of the cooler things to happen since I’ve been an independent contractor, was being approached to speak at Ignite Orlando (Thanks Gregg!). The ignite concept has been floated in Orlando for a while now, and I’m glad that Dan’s finally making it a reality. If you don’t know about Ignite, it’s definitely something worth checking out.

As cool as everything is, the one thing that still looms heavy over me now is money. I guess it’s pretty obvious. Melissa and I have no savings and we hold a good amount of debt on credit cards. One slip up, and we’ll be in a whole lot of trouble. I think there’s a lot to be said about living within your means. Lately that’s come to have a lot more meaning than it did before.

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.

I was looking for a picture of Mike, and I think this one does him justice : 

To look at Mike, the word ‘professional’ doesn’t immediately come to mind. The cliche rings true however. Mike is easily the most professional person I have ever met. Mike’s attention to detail and ability to create interfaces that are completely seamless is incredible.

You wouldn’t know it to look at his website, but Mike is an awesome designer / developer.

I can’t speak publicly about the projects we’re working on at Hydra. However, I will say that when they’re done, they will realize some of the best UI I’ve ever seen. The credit for that lies heavily with Mike. 

Adding to why Mike is awesome: the most mundane of things don’t bore him. How many times have you worked on a project, and just glossed over some of the mundane details. Yeah, you probably don’t want to admit how many times.

Mike has some serious OCD, and leaves nothing to chance. I’ll admit, sometimes he’s a bit of a pain in the ass. However, for the company, and for the rest of us, his attention to detail is a lifesaver. 

I’ve been meaning to write about some awesome folks in my life lately, and Mike gets to be the first. He’s a really cool guy, and I appreciate what he does a lot.

:/

I’ve done some massive modifications of some of the older sites I’ve built in the past. Those sites, oconnorandtaylor.com, socons.com, and tradeproconstructionservices.com (go ahead and catch your breath), have taken up a substantial part of my life in the last couple weeks.

There’s not much coding going on in those sites. I built them on Drupal, so most of my work revolved around configuring the CMS, and getting everything setup in remote subversion. The task consuming all my time though, is the designing.

When I design a site, especially one that I’m getting paid a nominal fee for, I usually base the design off of some template, or theme to one of the more popular CMS packages. I know Drupal pretty well, so It’s not too much to hack a WordPress or Joomla theme and make it work for Drupal.

The interesting thing about all of this however, is my keen interest in Flash. It’s funny to me, since I’ve been pretty anti-flash for a while. Actionscript 3 really provides a framework that I can get comfy in. I’ve yet to actually put anything out there that uses some of the more OO type patterns (observer being a quite common implementation). I suspect I will in the coming months though.

Anyways, I’m not a designer, so I’d like any feedback on the sites mentioned above. Some of y’all are pretty good at that kind of thing, and I could use the advice.

Thanks in advance.

Dr. Doom.

That’s not to take away from the incredible significance of what July 4th is to everyone else. I suppose it’s easy to forget, or take for granted, the awesome opportunities we have in the United States. The bravery and commitment it must have taken, to violently break from from an oppressive government, is awe-inspiring.

But that’s exactly what is inspiring me to go ‘indie’ …

While I certainly don’t have to resort to war, or worry about death as a consequence of my own ‘liberation’, I do have a mortgage, and all the other associated bills that so many Americans struggle with every day. By leaving a steady job, I leave the security of steady income. The consequences of that, often feel like impending death. I’ve had a hard time sleeping lately. I wake up in the night, with pain in my chest, from the stress of it all.

But with consequence, comes the potential for great reward …

When the US declared it’s independence, and successfully fought to keep it, we opened the door of opportunity to become the most amazing country in modern times, possibly ever. Despite what you might hear on CNN tonight, or what the regulars on Digg like to say about this country, there truly is no better place to live in the world. The reason? Opportunity. There simply is no other government in the world that provides opportunity on a silver platter like this country. It may sound cliche, but if you can dream it, this country won’t stop you from doing it.

So, with my own departure from a stable job, at an up-and-coming startup, I’ve opened the door to a level of opportunities that I simply wouldn’t have otherwise. I don’t know what’s in store for me, but I do know I’ve met some amazing folks, who I hope to work with on projects that will change the world (hopefully).

I’ve no illusions about what this means for me. The rewards that may come my way, aren’t without stupendous amounts of work due to realize them. That’s fine with me. I’ve come from a family of working types, and I’ve done more than mine (and your) fair share of work. The difference between before, and now, is that I’ll be the one deciding how I’ll get it done.

I’ve leaned on a few folks for advice in making the decisions I’ve made lately. You know who you are, and I’ll never be able to repay all of you for all the help you’ve been to me.

MemberFuse, as stated before, is a Social Networking package built on open source software that helps existing Associations provide value for their members outside of the usual, and sometimes outdated methods they currently employ. The goal for any Association is to give it’s member base something tangible and usable. We at NFi have worked exceptionally hard to produce something that is both useful and valuable.

The process to develop MemberFuse has been an amazing learning curve for me. I’ve always stressed concepts of design patterns and convention when speaking with other developers. This is especially crucial in open source software development, where the developer is often left to his / her own devices when it comes to creating applications. However, some of the features necessary for MemberFuse really pushed the limits of what had previously thought possible before.

One of the coolest things I got into with MemberFuse was the integration with Trac and SVN and Eclipse. I’m going to write a tutorial on how to make the most of this pretty soon, so be on the lookout for that. I can say in advance though, that it has made my life in team software development far easier and more manageable than ever before.

All of us at NFi work very hard to produce product that is above and beyond client expectation. Just the other day I worked from 8 in the morning until midnight. While that’s not an everyday occurence, it happens quite a bit. Sometimes in this business, there’s just far too much to do. So when I hear some appreciation from the boss, I guess I get a little choked up.

I shoud count my blessings. I work in an environment where I can wear just about whatever I want, I can say pretty much whatever is on my mind, and I can listen to Death Metal all day (with headphones, of course).

Sterling is a dedicated entreprenuer who has the insight to know that while teamwork and dedication are critical to success, an uptight or stifling atmosphere is not. There’s a weird balance between fostering creativity, and discouraging a lack of productivity that Sterling does a pretty stand up job at acheiving here.

The guys (and gals) I work with are a really cool bunch of folks. I’ve mentioned Sterling, but Derek, Bender, Elizabeth, Rick, CJ, and now Chris are all friends to me. I routinely heckle Bender and Derek is always teaching me something.

Our office is awesome. It’s in the heart of Downtown Orlando. We have wood floors, and a great view (though the shades are frequently closed to keep the glare to a minimum). We get to meet a lot of really awesome folks because of our location alone.

So, I really like working with these guys at NFi. I can’t think of a better place to be.

I feel like I’m part of something. There’s a growing movement in Orlando, to get the outside world to notice that we’re more than Mickey Mouse . I spoke previously that Orlando has a growing artistic community as well. Donna has done much to help realize that.

Listening to Donna Dowless’s life story is like hearing a tall tale. The only difference is, it’s real. Donna took 90 minutes to tell us her life story, and every minute is filled with one unbelievable tale after another.

Donna grew up in a military family, and was taught to have humble aspirations. Her father had hoped she would join the military when she graduated high school. Her mother wanted her to become a secretary instead. Donna took her chances with a secretarial career.

Long story short: Donna wound up doing secretary work in the entertainment industry, where she climbed the ladder until she was a venue director. Not one to rest on her laurels, Donna jumped on board with Tickemaster during the beginning of that empire. Donna left Ticketmaster when she was senior Vice President of the company.

All I can say about it all is: wow.

Many thanks to Donna, for all the inspiration. My continued sense of opportunity has been heightened by her.

Clients don’t make your job any easier. Any profession where the client can’t comprehend what it takes to accomplish the job, is a career frought with distrust. How many clients always say things to geeks like:

“It always worked before”

“You want how much money?”

“I don’t know, the whole thing is broken”

The last statement is probably one of the more common things I hear, when I help people with their computer issues. It’s also one of the things that makes being a network adminstrator / computer consultant the hardest. Imagine how difficult it is to fix a problem when the information you have to work with is “the computer keeps crashing”. If the only thing you told your doctor was, “I don’t feel good”, do you think he could help you?

What’s especially difficult is having proof of a client’s own fault, but needing the cash they’re going to pay to fix an issue. I’ve worked on networks where the boss was responsible for bringing the whole thing down, due to inappropriate internet viewing. The boss want’s to know who is costing them all of this money, and it’s actually their own fault. Try to explain that one, and still expect to get paid what you deserve.

Hackers (read: black hat) don’t make life any easier. Life is already filled with enough work, then a kid using someone elses program finds a way to attack your site / network. That vacation you had planned with the family? Forget it. Now, try to explain that to your wife / husband. Much like a doctor, work is not 9 – 5, and when an issue arises, you’d better be ready to deal with it, immediately.

I’ve performed network upgrades that took 200 hours of work in 2 weeks to accomplish. The client pays for a network upgrade, and doesn’t like to hear about “change orders” to the agreement. If you missed an “obvious” detail of their network, then that’s your fault.

Another amazingly irritating thing clients do: think you can run their software for them. I have an engineering degree. I write software. I fix networks. I have no idea how to do your business. So when you want the computer guy to tell you how to use your accounting / billing / CRM software, don’t expect much. Most geeks know how to use the software, but it’s up to you to learn it and use it for yourself.

Finally, and perhaps the most frustrating thing about being a geek, is the lack of respect we get for the job we do. It’s irritating to see people with no skillset in life but the ability to talk, treat you as fodder for their enterprise. The jobs we geeks do are not expendable. The next time you dismiss the guy who writes your website, or fixes your e-mail problem, think about what you’d do without him / her.

There’s so much history here. I don’t even know where to begin. So, I’m really bummed.

I’m staying on here as a consultant, since I know more about the network here than anyone else would. But it won’t be the same. Tomorrow when I drive out of here, I leave my office behind. I don’t even have my own office where I’m going.

I guess one of the biggest bummers about all of this is I’m not going to see my dad every week. Dad was tough when I was growing up. But these days, I can’t really imagine not having him around.

So I’m leaving to go to dad’s place now. The last Tuesday night dinner.