29th Aug 2003
Big Apple Plans
I’m going to spend the month of October in New York City.
I had a bit of an epiphany recently. I know that I’ll be working on FlexiPhoto, either as a side project (while I do something else that pays), or as a full-time deal (because numerous photographers, stock agencies, HR departments, and so on will want to shower me with money to put all kinds of functionality into it).
But where?
The epiphany is: I envy those who make a go of NYC at 21. I don’t want to have doubts and regrets of “should I have?” at 63. I’m going to see what I can get going there while I’m 42 …
There will be lots of plans to make during the next month (and I would love to hear from anyone that has a suggestion to make). A few of the things I know at this point are:
- FlexiPhoto will get posted in September, giving me something solid to talk about when I am in NYC.
- I will start working on lining up interviews, people to meet, things I should attend (local Linux User Group, Photography SIGs, etc.)
- Photo Expo East is at the end of October, which is great. I’ll be pretty fresh on demoing and interviewing by then.
- I’ll rent something for the month, most likely in Brooklyn
- must have high speed internet
- not too far from the subway
- be close to a grocery (so I don’t run up a monster restaurant tab)
- have easy laundry access (laundromat == time-sink)
- I’ll be updating my resume at resume.daniel.org to reflect recent experience (writing for O’Reilly, a photo of mine is about to be published in a magazine, I’ve reviewed a couple of XML books, the ThereAndThen.org web site)
What happens after October? I don’t know yet. Either I’ll get a job there, and we’ll all move, or I’ll get a gig where I telecommute. Maybe nothing at all will come of it, save for some interviews and contacts. I figure a solid month is time to immerse myself there, as opposed to some “fly out for a day, do an interview, and come back home and fret about what decision to make, based on a few hours worth of impressions” situation.
I plan on making the effort though. I’m fortunate to have the time (and lots of frequent flyer miles) to pursue it. Sitting around years from now wondering “what if?” would be torture.
