March has been a difficult month for me; details to follow with a later post. However, and I believe there’s a silver lining to /every/ dark cloud, something really cool happened: I was made a part of the Terralien crew.
At the beginning of the month, Nathaniel Talbott pinged me about doing some side-work for his company Terralien. I, of course, said, Yes! After suffering for far too long, mired in Java projects, I was given the chance to get paid to write Rails code. I was overjoyed, to say the least.
Now, I’m not saying I didn’t have my share of challenges (again a later post) (hint: some of my closest friends know about the personal struggles currently going on at the Riffe household) but I was determined to do a good job. This was one opportunity I didn’t want to squander away. I dove right in and was relieved to find out my hard work was greatly appreciated. Nathaniel called me and asked if I was interested in becoming a full-fledged member of the crew. Yup that was my jaw dropping. I was elated!
What makes this so cool, for me, is the timing. I’ve always wanted to go Independent. Since being introduced to Rails (and Ruby) I’ve wanted to push my career in that direction. Since leaving Smalltalk I’ve always wanted to get back, if not directly, then indirectly with a dynamically typed language - you really are more productive! However, as my friends know, I need to provide medical benefits for my family. That is and will be my challenge; until my wife completes Nursing school, that is. 
I now find myself in a strange position. Where just two weeks ago I was unemployed and scared shitless, I find myself with numerous opportunities in front of me as a member of the Terralien crew. I still have some loose ends to tie-up; should be fun though!
Thanks Nathaniel. I guess Twitter’s useful after all, eh?
Cheers!
