Signed, Sealed and Delivered

It’s amazing how quickly time can fly when you are having fun. Almost fifteen years ago I started working at DealNews as a Junior Developer. I was in my mid 20s, less than two years out of Auburn. I even remember it was mid November because I left my previous job on a Wednesday, went to the Auburn-Georgia Game, then started at DealNews the following Monday. It was just before Black Friday even. I still even remember what that first day was like: I didn’t have SVN access yet and I had to email my code to my boss! To give you an idea of how long ago this was: when I was hired on at DealNews, I announced it to my friends on my MySpace page and my LiveJournal blog. Neither of which exist anymore. Fifteen years is a long time in tech, where changing jobs rapidly is the norm and staying in a position for three years can be seen as a serious commitment to a company. But the only constant in the universe is change. Which is why it is definitely very bittersweet for me to announce that I will be leaving DealNews on September 16, 2022.

Well, I’m here. My cable doesn’t work, but fortunately, some kind soul has left their access point open for me to use! :P There’s a lot of work that’s going to need to be done in here to bring this place up to my standards, but it’s not bad. The drive up was mostly uneventful except for in Oak Grove when a semi tried to play chicken with me, and in Birmingham when traffic was pretty bad. Dad and Granddad got me unloaded in record time, then we went out and had pizza and beer before returning the truck a whole day early. Now. Where am I going to put all this stuff?

I am getting this request more and more often - to the tune of multiple emails a week at this point. It usually starts friendly enough - friendly enough to that I know the sender isn’t a robot, they’ve very clearly looked at some of my pages. But then the pitch starts: “I’d like to contribute to your website an article on X” or “I’d be delighted to contribute to your website on this topic.” Usually promising to do so for free.