I looked at my site recently and saw that I hadn’t updated since December 2013. That’s not fun!
Truthfully, I’m starting to rethink even having a blog. Because it’s not a niche blog it gets no hits, and there’s better ways to do blogging out there anyway. Maybe I’ll put this on moth balls and start a UX/UI-related Tumblr account.
Until I make the decision to pull the plug on this blog, I should mention a few things that are going on with my life.
The happenings
The first is that we have a son! He was born on Pi Day and his name is Simon and he’s a very sweet little guy. Very easy going and he loves to smile and laugh. Once he has your attention, he likes to talk about such interesting topics as uhhhhh, agooo, and guhhhh.
Our daughter doesn’t look like she does on the front page of my site anymore. I say this a lot nowadays because students visit my site. She’s no longer a baby and in many ways, not a toddler either. She loves to yell at the bees in our back yard and smear Play-Doh on things.
Wait, students?
Portland Community College
Oh yeah… I’m proud to say that I am now a full time instructor at Portland Community College, teaching web development and design. With a heavy heart, I left Janrain in August of last year. If you recall, I went back to school and finished my undergraduate degree for one purpose, which was to return to education… and a position opened up at PCC. I wasn’t even job hunting at that point (but I DEFINITELY was about a month later). I saw the posting on New Year’s Eve… I don’t even remember what I was doing or how I found the posting but I applied immediately. After months of waiting and rounds of interviews, I was offered the position. To facilitate this life change, I had to turn down a more lucrative job offer at a large, very well-regarded and at least in this blog, unnamed startup based in downtown Portland just for the chance to get this PCC position. My wife is awesome; it was within her rights to veto this decision but she endorsed it wholeheartedly.
Portland Community College is a well-regarded institution in town. There are four main campuses; I’m at the Rock Creek campus. My commute takes me over a river, through a forest and over a mountain to a farm in the Tualatin Hills that happens to have a college campus next to it. It’s a long commute but it’s scenic.
So, what’s it like being back in front of a classroom after an eight year hiatus, working with adult learners? Feels good, man. You know the show Community? Well, it’s exactly like that, right down to the weekend long games of “the ground is lava” and alternate timelines.