I love it when a plan comes together...
I just wanted to point out this post from a year ago today:
The plan now is to go back into independant consulting, focusing on Mobile technologies, especially Symbian, J2ME and server-side mobile stuff like WAP/MMS/etc. The project I'm working on now is going to be a "live resume" which should show off my technical abilities (and may generate some cash-flow but I'm not planning on that for now) and this blog as well as Mobitopia will hopefully help get contacts and leads. (This has actually already happened).
Another plan is that we want to move back to the U.S. this year - back to California. We're going to start Ana's paperwork after our 2 year anniversary in May (Alex has his passport already) and I'm going to start looking for contract opportunities back home and places to live. I'm not really too picky about where in Cali just yet, but I'd like to get back to the Bay Area eventually.
A year later we're living in San Francisco, I'm working at a mobile-based startup basing much of my work on the stuff I wrote last Summer. It would've been a bit cooler had I gotten my shit together and been in charge of my own startup, rather than working for someone else. But I discovered I've got a bit more to learn before that happens, so I'm *very* happy with how things turned out. I'm learning a ton here.
The past few days have been so beautiful - the Bay Area is so gorgeous this time of year and this weekend my neighborhood had a beach-town feel with Jazz players on the corner and people hanging out on sidewalk-cafes and a million boats out on the Bay. It was perfect. And now I'm back at work in front of my window seat (in shorts and sandles) continuing work on some great tech, just really enjoying life.
The key, I think, is having that plan. Even if it doesn't work out exactly like you want, at least you have that forward momentum which is key. It's great having a blog so you can guage your progress, actually. I should probably sit back and come up with a new plan now that last year's is pretty much accomplished.
Stay tuned...
-Russ