So, here’s the general picture of what’s going on. TL;DR: more content going on feedle.net, G+ and Twitter, less Facebook. Moving to Denver regardless of outcome. Computer access may be sporadic.

First off, note that this is posted on feedle.net and shared (usually via IFTTT scripts, YAY IFTTT!) out to Facebook. This will likely be the method that I’ll post big stuff moving forward. A few people I know don’t use Facebook at all (for various reasons), a lot of people use Facebook begrudgingly, and we won’t even go into the problems of Facebook “disappearing” content that for whatever reason they (or one of their algorithms) don’t like. Point is stuff of major magnitude will be here on feedle.net.

Less important stuff (random musings and “check this crap out” will likely be on G+ from now on. Brain farts and emotional belches will continue to be on Twitter. Ok, that’s out of the way.

I’m moving to Denver, maybe on a permanent basis. I’ve come to the conclusion that Oregon is a wonderful place, and I still love it here, but there’s no opportunity for me. I get lots of pings on jobs in Denver, and there seems to be lots of opportunity regardless of where this job goes. And Denver puts me a 4-hour airline flight from a LOT of places. So I’m moving forward with Denver regardless of what happens from now on.

I don’t know exactly how I’m doing this if the job doesn’t come through, but.. well, I honestly don’t care. I’m going to make this happen, it seems I’ll have some level of success there no matter what road I take. Go East Young Man!

So as a result of this move, I may have sporadic use of a real computer until I start some kind of job. Over the weekend I got rid of a LOT of old machines when I cleaned out the storage unit, and I’m pretty much from this point on depending on my iMac desktop machine as my main computer. My entire life is sitting on hard drives connected to my desktop Mac, and I’ve deliberately been warehousing old data on that machine. At some point I’d like to make a copy of this but for now this will do.

As everything is on the iMac (it’s named “astarte” for reference) and I’m preparing it for transport, I’ll be using my Windows gaming machine (named “Atlas”) as the daily driver for a bit. As such, I don’t have access to a lot of archival material, and even more so many projects are on hold until further notice. On a plus side, “atlas” is beefy enough to run virtual machines just perfectly, and I’ve been playing with Debian VMs on a portable file system and enjoying how that works.

I’ll probably post something a little bit later on feedle.net about travel plans in a separate post…

So I can officially announce this now that I’ve gotten an offer letter.

I will be moving to Denver, Colorado.  I got a Systems Engineer job with Charter.

There’s lots of mixed emotions about all of this.  Oregon has been my adopted home now for well over a decade, and I’ve made lots of friends here.. in Portland, in Bend, and even down here in Eugene.  A lot of people have helped me along the way get to the point where taking a job like this was even possible.

Over a year ago I struggled to even perform basic functions of life.  I was very sick, so sick that I didn’t realize at the time how close I was to having a life-ending heart attack.  As it is I had an “inferior myocardial infarction”, which is about as close as you want to get to a chest-grabbing-fall-to-the-ground-call-911-as-seen-on-Emergency! heart attack.  I’ve struggled through the last year with a lot of help from friends, and even some begrudging help from enemies.

Denver wouldn’t have been my first choice.  Staying here in the Cascadian Republic with my trees, rivers, rain, and gas station attendants would have been my ideal choice.  But believe me, the offer to move to Denver is substantial: enough money for me to be financially independent again, and maybe even pay back some of the debts I owe in time.  And while not my beloved Portland (or even my “Portland substitute” in Eugene) there are trees, and mountains, and rivers.  There isn’t nearly as much rain, and no friendly (?) gas station attendants..

There are new friends and old ones waiting for me in Denver.  There are opportunities, boundless ones at first glance.  For the first time in years I’m excited for my future.  A bit scared, a but overwhelmed about the logistics of moving four cats, two RVs, and a storage unit of crapola across the Rockies.

But the darkness is giving way to light.  I see what I’m capable of, and I’m reaching for it.  This is a big step, but one that I think will pay rewards long term.