I realize that I’m not the best known doper, by any stretch of the imagination… but I have been posting semi-regularly for over 3 years, and in this thread I discussed my lack of employment, and dumpage, as of approximately June 1.
Since then, here’s what’s been going on:
I started looking for a new job after a couple of weeks of enjoying being unemployed. (It’s like summer vacation for grownups!). After diddling around a bit, I got a job I really liked. It was at a small startup in San Francisco. They were close to completing a PS2 game that they’d been working on for years, and I was hired to start developing technology for their second, as-yet undefined, game. So I got to work on a project from day 1, and I had a ton of input into what its design might be. And it’s a really fabulous company as far as the philosophy of the people who run it, the quality of the employees, etc. The only drawback was that San Francisco is a brutal commute from Palo Alto, but as long as I was the only person working on Project X, I was commuting only two days a week and telecommuting the other days. Life was good.
Then, halfway through September, their publisher withdrew from their contract for their first game, and they could not pay anyone any more. Ack! So a dedicated core of people, who were willing to work without pay, are still trying to finish game #1, but no one is even thinking about game #2. I’m helping out a bit on game #1, but I basically don’t have a job, and I’m back on unemployment. Sigh. I’ve sent resumes to a few other companies, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a job market for video game programmers in the bay area right now.
As for my romantic life, there was no action for a while, then I went on three dates with a woman who I really liked. She was totally my type, I thought we had a lot in common, I thought she was really attractive, I thought she really enjoyed my company…
and I just got email from her saying she’s not interested in me. She didn’t feel a connection. Sigh.
Three weeks from now I’m turning 30. I’m unemployed and single.
Oh, and I live in a country which (kind of) elected George W. Bush as its president. Which is deeply disturbing.
On the plus side:
-I’m still in fine shape, financially. My lifestyle is hardly lavish and I have plenty of money saved up.
-I have a wonderful group of friends
-I’m deep in planning mode for my birthday party, which every year consists of an elaborate game-show-like event in which all of my friends compete to raise money for charity. It’s awesome, and always a highlight of the social calendar
-There are plenty of things that I take for granted, such as (for instance) the fact that my parents are alive, healthy, still happily married to each other, and get along great with me. And for that matter, the fact that I am healthy.
So it could be a lot worse. But still, I’m turning 30 in 3 weeks, and I’m unemployed and single.
)