Finally put the pedal to the metal today and pushed version 2.0 of the Commerce Starter Kit live. As anyone knows, the final hours of releasing software tend to suck, and suck bad. The one thing that made this situation better was knowing how much the CSK is helping people. I know that sounds hokey, but it's true :).
Why Do I Do This? Some History...
I gave up my career as a tech phreak 3 years ago when I moved to Kauai. I was pretty burned from the hours I invested in my career up to that point and the (for lack of better words) constant abuse I'd get as the "guy who built it". Usually my co-workers were nice to me, but when they needed something I was readily tossed under the bus. It got so bad at times that I refused to work - daring them to fire me since I knew they needed me. I left the office one day and nicely told the VP of Engineering that I would be working from home from now on and that I understood his decision if this caused him problems. On the way home I decided I was going to move out here to Kauai, and I called my boss one more time and told him from now on I'd like to be under contract, not an employee, and that I would be leaving the state. He said OK to it but was quite upset, telling me that it would last 30 days.
That was 3 years ago. Said VP is now gone, so is 90% of the Java/MySQL guys. I have been working with them steadily during this time, making their clients happy and letting them throw me under the bus whenever they've needed to. I've found that if you let your clients know that you actually like tire treads on your face that they will happily hire you.
I'm happy I decided to stay with this whole thing. In a Tyler Durden sort of way, it's come true that the more you don't want something, the more it happens.
Patrick Conery
6/10/1926 - 11/03/2006
... And A Dedication
Finally, I want to dedicate the Commerce Starter Kit to my dad. My dad was a pretty complex guy, with a temper that would make the veins on his forehead look like the cliffs of the Na Pali coast. He was a very proud, stoic kind of guy that never really let you know too much about him (which has been infuriating and endearing at the same time).
My dad was one of the most giving people I've ever known. Almost to the point of ridiculousness. He used to buy 5 christmas trees from the halfway house in his town, then donate 4 of those trees to the local orphanage. He did this every year for the last 20 or so years. I only found out because he threw his back out one year doing it, and finally told us what he was up to (my dad lived on his own for the past 25 years so we never knew what the heck he was up to).
As a teacher at Luther Burbank Jr High (in Burbank, where I grew up) he volunteered as a youth councelor, working endless extra hours to make kid's lives better. He also taught special-ed, and led student government. He was quite the radical, and when the city of Burbank decided to cut teacher's wages and benefit my dad organized all of the teachers in our town into a union, and then took them on strike. They won and got all the things they were asking for :).
My dad also was very political and a raving liberal. In the 2004 elections he walked the streets in Eugene OR (where he used to live), handing out flyers and knocking on doors in "Red" neighborhoods. He used to go to pep rallies and loved calling me on his phone (I couldn't ever hear a word) so I could hear the crowd yell. Before I was born he organized the town my family lived in (Lake View Terrace, CA where Rodney King was beat up), asked a local shopkeeper to set up a post office in a vacant room above their shop, and petitioned the city of Los Angeles for incorporation as a city.
He was a very interesting, rebellious, ornery, giving man and he was loved by many. To the right is a picture of him with my mom on one of their very first dates... one thing that got cropped was the number of beers on the table :). He'll be missed by his family and friends.
He was a very good man and I like to think he is the reason I do what I do because for the life of me I can't figure out why I do it :).
