Media Day

For the past few weeks, I've been taking care of a lot of errands and odds and ends that I've been putting off for a while. I prefer to think of this as "getting my affairs in order" and it'll actually take a little bit more time before I feel like I'm done. I've been an accountant, homemaker, webmaster, handyman, and IT technician. And I guess blogger now too.

As an IT technician, I'm currently tinkering with the four computers and three DSL modems strewn across my apartment as I migrate to a new laptop, try to fix my Internet connection, and clean out some old gear. The majority of this equipment I will be selling or recycling (at GreenCitizen for those of you in San Francisco). All of this "inventory management" (if I have to use an enterprise-level term to describe it) got me in the mood to clean out all my other unused things as well. It might be winter everywhere else in the country, but it's 64 degrees and sunny here in SF, so some "spring cleaning" seems appropriate.

My eyes then turned to my decent-sized collection of CDs and DVDs, which I've considered razing but never had the energy to do so. I finally succumbed to the realization that in an era of MP3s and streaming video, CDs and DVDs just aren't that relevant anymore. I always rip my CDs to MP3s immediately after purchasing them, so all those jewel cases have been unopened for many, many years. I don't rip my DVDs but I watch most of those movies so infrequently that they've also remained untouched for a long time now. In fact, I don't watch movies that much anymore and, if I do, it's usually something I've never seen. Holding onto a large number of movies I've already seen just doesn't make sense.

With a bit of nostalgia and a pleasant jaunt down memory lane, I packed all my CDs and most of my DVDs into a conveniently-sized cardboard box:


I headed to Amoeba and waited patiently while the desk clerk took an inventory of everything and then offered me a paltry sum for the whole lot. The entire experience was depressingly typical for such a transaction. I was hoping for a bit more, but in an era where you can buy used media online for literally a few dollars, a brick-and-mortar store can't spend that much on used items. I took the cash and left, a bit sad, but also kind of happy that I've trimmed the fat of my personal possessions a bit.

(Upon some further reflection, unloading all my CDs makes my vinyl collection more important and more satisfying, which was honestly the whole point of buying LPs to begin with.)

There were movies that I couldn't bear to part with though. Some are just too epic, some have spectacular replay value (who doesn't love a 90-minute comedy while pregaming?), and some I have an inexplicable attachment to. My old media collection of about 200 items has been whittled down to this:


If you disagree with any of those choices, then, yeah, well, ya know, that's just like... uh, your opinion, man.

SMBC LOL

One of my favorite web comics is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. It's a great combination of intellect, irreverence, philosophy, science, and superheroes. One day you'll get several pages of existential rumination and the next day you'll get a single panel comic with a line graph about penis sizes. The one about the librarian is probably my all-time favorite.

I bring up SMBC because in the past month, Zach (the creator) has put up a couple great comics that I found particularly timely for me, but are certainly applicable to everyone:



They're related, but slightly different. I really like the second one because it reminds me that money is a means to an end and not an end by itself, which is a very simple concept that's also very easy to forget.

Taking time off without a foreseeable source of income is scary. Really scary. And not having a job with daily tasks and goals does make me feel like I'm not doing enough with my life. I've found that throwing off the shackles of a 9-to-5 job, as temporary as it may be, is incredibly liberating, but has also generated a significant amount of self-imposed pressure. I've had to come to terms with the fact that every day I'm not working is lost potential income and that thought is a bit unsettling.

My current rationalization is that, being a student of life, I'm currently in school. Education is not free and so it follows this won't be free either.

Almost ten years ago (good god, has it been that long?), I told my father I was thinking of going to graduate school after college. I would be paying for it entirely myself and we were discussing the costs of that in terms of new debt, time spent, and lost income. It wasn't a clear decision and he was playing devil's advocate. He said to me: "Just be sure that the view is worth the climb." I think that nicely sums up the process of making any important decision.

Here's hoping to a sunny, cloudless day at the top.

They Call Him The Sagmeister

During my last week of work, I was talking to my manager about my plans for my time off and he suggested I read up on a graphic designer named Stefan Sagmeister. Besides having one of the best names, he's the only person I know who could be a source of advice or inspiration at the moment. Why? He has a philosophy of incorporating sabbaticals into his life and the idea is quite interesting.

Here's the abridged version. The normal life schedule of someone in the civilized world is to grow up and attend school for about 20 years, then work for about 45 years, then enjoy some free time until death. Sagmeister's idea is to organize life into eight-year cycles that include seven years of work followed by a year off. The most fascinating result is that all of the projects he worked on during his second seven-year work period can be traced back to an idea or inspiration he had in that one year off. You can read more about his sabbaticals here.

Sagmeister has written a couple design books, but the aptly titled Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far is a really fascinating read. I went to the San Francisco Public Library last Saturday and read through it for a couple hours; the book cannot be removed from the library, presumably because its unique design makes it prone to damage. As if sitting in the main branch of the SFPL isn't interesting enough, I was really captivated by the book's content. As you'd expect, there is indeed a list of things he's learned, but he also turned each item on the list into a physical design piece, some of which are very inventive.

A few lessons caught my eye:

• Having guts always works out for me.
• Thinking that life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
• Keeping a diary supports personal development.
• Everybody who is honest is interesting.

The bit about the diary was particularly satisfying since I had had the same thought on my own. Other than reaffirming my commitment to documenting everything I do, there wasn't much tangible advice. That's okay though, uncharted territory need not be frightening.

A New Hope

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

Truer words have never been spoken, Minnesota alternative band Semisonic. In my life, this particular lyric refers to my decision to quit my job and take an undetermined amount of time off. The professional term for this period of perceived laziness is a "sabbatical". While I'm sure some sabbaticals are indeed wondrous examples of sloth, I sincerely hope that mine is enlightening and busy (in a good way).

I feel the first order of business here is to give a bit of background on me and my current state of mind.

After getting my M.S. in Computer Science, I immediately started at Riverbed Technology (a computer networking company) and ended up staying there for seven years. Initially, I worked as a QA engineer in the Illinois satellite office, but by the end of my tenure, I was a lead UI developer in San Francisco. My time at Riverbed was immensely educational and extremely influential on my life, both professionally and personally.

In January of 2013, I decided to leave Riverbed to pursue my own interests, travel, volunteer, and take a respite from the corporate world. Without the daily details and pressures of a job looming over me, I hope to meet new people, broaden my horizons a bit, and perhaps gain some clarity while envisioning the next chapter of my life.

I hope for one of two possible outcomes moving forward. The primary outcome would be to work in a field or for an organization that serves a higher purpose than simply making money; for instance, sustainability, renewable energy, green initiatives, and education come to mind. The secondary outcome (which is not necessarily orthogonal) would be to work for a startup that I felt was unique and worthwhile.

While my current skillset and professional experience make me qualified as a software developer (and a UI developer at that), I'm currently evaluating whether I want to continue in that direction or perhaps branch out to something different. Technology has always been a large part of my life, so I anticipate it will play a significant part of whatever challenge I decide to tackle next.

The title of this blog - a combination of titles given to me by two different friends - incorporates my two new roles, which represent the two opposing forces that anyone on a sabbatical needs to delicately balance. On the one hand, you want to be productive and eager to learn new things, but on the other hand, you want to relax, slow down, and actually enjoy life. It's called "funemployment" for a reason.

This blog will serve three purposes:

1. To archive what I do with my time
2. To allow others to follow what I'm up to
3. To offer me a creative/literary outlet

Even if no one reads a single post I write, this blog will still be very useful to me as a digital diary. At some point, I will need to be able to enumerate my accomplishments. When I'm sitting in a job interview in the future and the recruiter asks me what I did with my time off, it'd be nice to have a coherent answer.

Well, there you have it. I'm not quite sure what direction this blog will go in, but I'll try to keep it updated regularly, hopefully with interesting stories, insightful musings, or valuable life lessons. The process thus far has been a bit terrifying but also very liberating.

Life's waiting to begin...