So now is the point in the movie where the main character has to make
the final decision to persue his dreams. This morning another
consulting company in the building offered me a job. Before they could
give me the official offer I told them - I am going fulltime with
RideSearch, sorry. And now I am saying farewell to my coworkers and
will rise like a phoenix in the air. I will soar on wings of eagles,
as long as I am not surrounded by turkeys. I need a horse and some six
shooters..Yah Yah

As the days go by I can see the finish. Thursday will be my last day
working for the man, ever. It feels really good. Like my head is
finally going to be on straight. I think maybe I was working so hard I
did not have any time to be a real person and do things I like to do.
Instead I would work 8 at the office then another 8 when I got home
fueling my carpool obsession. Case in point, I didn't get to bed until
3 last night. Now I know as I go from two to one job it is possible
that I would work 16 hour days, but as the boss I don't have to run
myself ragged all the time. I can now - set aside an hour for working
out, set aside an hour for prayer and reading, eat cheap meals at
home, go to business meet and greets, go to bible study, and get back
into guitar and still be able to work 10 hours on RideSearch. I can
even travel to friends and family as my office is wherever my laptop
is. Life is going to be much better, even without financial security.
Sometimes our "security" can become our chains. Lesson learned.

This weekend Holly and I went to friends birthday parties and saw how
people our age all have kids. Last year and up to this year it was
weddings galore. Next year it will be kids, kids, kids. I think we are
in that point in life. Naturally we get the question: do you want
kids. Our answer is yes, but not now. Maybe when things have settled
down workwise for me and Holly we will make a go of it. For now we are
just having fun with each other. Who knows what is next ?? My last day
is Thursday and I am thrilled. Finally I will be able to work fulltime
on something I believe in. woot.

PS. I just had an interview with the associated press about my site. I
bet an article comes out this week. Companies would kill to get this
much press....

Next Friday will be my last day at Lockheed Martin. I am glad. This
gig has gotten stale. As to my future, I know I will work on RideSearh
next month. Then I am getting an offer from another consulting company
and I am deciding if I should take it. I haven't even submitted my
resume anywhere though. I go back and forth on staying fulltime on
RideSearch, continue consulting and work on RideSearch in my spare
time, or find another job that may be better. But a better job may
make me work 60 hours a week which would kill RideSearch. I wish I
knew what was going to happen. This is like one of those "Choose your
own adventure" books. Problem is, when I was a kid I always got
satisfaction from reading it backwards. I wonder if there is a way to
do that here... more tests...

Labels: gas price

So this weekend Holly and I went to a wedding in San Antonio. It took
place along the riverwalk at an art school that was a convent in 1864.
The groom is a semi-pro golfer I know from my old Sunday School. The
wedding was good. The food was ok, cause I don't eat seafood, and the
cake was very good. It had been about 15 years since I had been to San
Antone. Back then I was a senior in high school choir and we sang
along the riverwalk and in front of the Alamo. I guess I do remember
the Alamo. The problem in the summer is the heat. Here in Dallas it is
102 and slightly humid which is bearable. In San Antone it is 102 and
50% humid. Houston is the worst at 80-100% humidity. It was a good
road trip nevertheless.
In other news I am getting some press on the Net from Good Morning
America and their carpool challenge. So last night I created a page at
RideSearch to capitalize on the press. I am now in the process of
studying about funding and my options. We shall see... What will
happen? My last post had some bite to it because of business taking
precedence over what is the right thing to do. Sometimes the two are
different. I am in favor of doing the right thing, even if it hurts.

Well it is official. July 31st will be my
last day at the IRS. You know, I am glad. Sometimes I feel like I have
a big torch and the bridge is made of straw. All I have to do is lower
that torch and burn a bridge. I won't say anymore but I have learned a
big lesson: Avoid working for the government at all cost. Seriously.
No one is ever happy. Ever. Even contractors. Even subcontractors like
me. I am called a "sub". I am a hired gun. I am supposed to be a man
who works only for profit and not for being part of anything. Now I
could talk about how everyone is incompetent but I won't. I could talk
about excessive spending and employees who get paid to do nothing but
I won't. I won't talk about million dollar hard drives that you can
get at Best Buy for $500. I won't talk about it taking a team of
people just plug a machine in. I won't talk about employees that
"work from home" when they have no work to do. I definitely won't talk
about taking an entire year to document a system that could have been
built in that time. I won't talk about how admins can't even change
directories on their machines. I can't talk about having to rewrite
software that is already made because it is not approved, turning a
$300 piece of software into $20,000 for development. I can't talk
about contractor's not getting the IRS involved in the work, thus
ensuring the budget will be cut. I can't talk about the prejudice
subcontractors get from Lockheed Martin like when they say they frown
on subcontractors, or about the prejudice subs get from the IRS when
they think you could quit at any time. I can't talk about how the
contractors all make the same amount of money even though some bother
to show up and top performers are lied to about money. The fact is,
the only reason I have stayed is the money. Making $87 an hour is
pretty sweet. As I am now going to 0 an hour I bet I will be much
happier. There is always talk about things getting started again in
October and what could happen would be like the last time but I am
done. No more. I am through with this all. I am going to get funding
for RideSearch. I am going to run things the right way and we will
dominate.

And that is all I don't got to say about that.

Well, things are ok. I am venturing into scary terroritory, but I do
have faith that things will work out. I am still planning on getting
funding for RideSearch in August and getting it setup to take the net
by storm, which I believe is highly likely. Being jobless for probably
2 months is going to hurt, but I will get more work done in 1 month
than I did all year at the IRS. I will probably interview for only top
jobs during that time as a fallback if I can't get funding. I have to
try to make it work. No regrets. Anyways, I am going to wedding number
5 for the year this weekend, that should be fun. I am amazed at the
food and cake at weddings. You get to be quite the wedding expert.
Holly likes to dance so we usually cut a rug at weddings. Problem is,
it is usually tile.

It is always good to have options. Right now there is a push by the
client to keep me around. I think next week I will be given another
option to stay. I don't know. I have to weigh them all when I get
them. There is so much to take into account. Anyways, stay tuned for
RideSearch 2.1 - the next generation. I am always working on it. That
is my obsession. It is a healthy one with the side effects being more
Americans saving money on gas. All is in media res. We shall see.

The buzz is now where is everyone going to end up. I am doing my best
not to interview. August will be the month of decisions. Until then I
have short timer's desease. I wrote about that 4 years ago. I just
don't want to work for anyone. I am tired of the Man and the 90% fluff
that goes into everything. I want to make the decisions because I
actually care about what I do. If it wasn't for me working on
RideSearch I would have diminished programming skills. Also, when you
are a leader the employees tend to talk behind your back and when I
hear about it I get frustrated. I am tired and am burnt out here. If
it wasn't for the money I would have left a year ago. I need a job
that makes me happy. We shall see.... buzz buzz

So the dog we are sitting likes the backyard. He likes it so much he
howls, like at 2AM. I came up with a solution - turn the noise machine
on to drown out the dog. I suppose the neighbors don't like it, but
there is nothing I can do. Our closest neighbor hates me anyways. Back
in the day he called the cops for my band playing too loud in the
house. We also suspect them of keying Mr.T's car when he had to park
in front of their house. So I say howl away. Even though the dog
escapes he just hangs out near the house and will come when called. He
digs holes underneath the fence and crawls out. When I was a kid
Ashley escaped from the backyard and ended up close to the mall. Talk
about an incredible journey. Luckily we got her back. Hooooowl. Arf.

So last night Holly and I took the dog and our kid out for a walk.
Wait. Dog?Kid? We are dogsitting for Mr. T, who is on a mission trip.
It is a beagle and I trained him how to walk using the dog whisperer
"tst" technique. The kid was Doug's as we babysat that night. He went
"tst" after I did. We didn't have any problems. We just played some
videogames and watched tv. I could handle it. It got me thinking. One
day it may be our dog and our kid. That is a lot of work. We are
definitely not ready. Especially with our job situations. But one day
I may need to pass on my guitars to the next generation. We won't be
going on our Jamacian trip next month. That kind of sucks. But you do
what you gotta do to survive. Maybe we should charge for our services
and turn it into a business. Brian and Holly's Sitting Experience.
Coming to your neighborhood walmart.

Well, this weekend was good. On Thursday Holly and I took our mothers
to the symphony to see "Blue Planet". The composer of the score to it
was the conductor. The film was good too. On Friday we took them to
see the fireworks. It was standard fireworks. On Saturday and Sunday
we were in Wichita to take mom home.
Now onto the other news, because our project lost its funding they are
letting the team go at the end of the month. This is great timing as I
was about to look for VC funding. Part of me says I don't need it
though. So in August I am going to get RideSearch making revenue and
will learn to sell it to major companies as well as seek funding. This
is going to be exciting. Then if nothing happens I will start the ole
job search up again. I was looking through my resume and realized the
job for me is executive. Over the past year I have done accounting,
advertising, public relations, sales, hr, taxes, software development,
search engine optimization, server management and maintenance. I am
about to start up an afiliate program for selling as well. Place your
bets. What will happen? Will I sell enough RS products and services to
maintain a profit? Will I get VC funding to hire professional
salesman? Or will August end with me getting an executive or software
engineer job??? Who knows?

I wonder where I will be in a month? Paths are opening and closing. I
will find out soon if I get to be on the skeleton crew at my current
job. A skeleton crew is basically the people who are left on a job
that is not going anywhere. They don't make anything new, they just
fix problems as they occur. Extremely boring, especially for what I am
capable of.. I know I won't be happy with the work. Part of me says to
quit at the end of July anyways and spend a month selling carpool
packages and advertising, then get a real job if that fails. If I sold
all of the ad spots I wouldn't even need a day job. I don't need
funding to make money, I just need to finalize and sell my products as
well as ads. Hmm, who knows? I can't really afford to not have money
coming in after one month though so I will probably stay if they let
me and try to sell enough stuff during that time to leave. Also I
would get prepared to pitch to VC firms. Getting VC funding would
expand my marketing reach and help the idea spread nationwide so much
quicker. We shall see. Anyone got any opinions?

This weekend I got some sleep only to lose it last night migrating
users over to my site. It sucks when you wake up from a nightmare
about programming SQL. Its like you never quit working. Anyways,
enough about my troubles. Holly and I saw Wall-E this weekend and I
have to say it was pretty good. I am always impressed with pixar
movies. There is a green theme throughout the movie - like this is
your future if you don't fix your ways. There were some funny moments
and many of the robots came straight out of the 80s. Like Wall-e was
Number 5 in short circuit and the bad robot looked like the one from
2010. Even the floating fat men reminded me of Barron from Dune. I can
tell the programmers who made it were nerds around my age. Anyways,
I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.