First week on the new job

I am now almost finished with my first week of orientation at my new job with Pittsburgh-based Grant Street Group. I’m going to be doing some software development on one of their product lines and have spent much of the week in training to use the product. I’ve also spent a lot of time reading policy, learning development practices, and digging through the code. I’m hoping that I can start digging in and actually working in the near future. I’ve gotten to meet several members of the staff as well and am very excited to be working here.

Now that I’m no longer looking for work, however, I’m hoping that I can start catching up on my back log of hobby projects that need to get done. This includes some items on the honey-do list (like cleaning the garage which never seems to happen), but I’d really like to get the second half of my latest O’Reilly article published sometime this century. I’ve had at least one person ask where the other half of it is and I really need to get the rest of the text fleshed out and off to the editor (all done, but finishing up the research).

I’m also trying to figure out what other hobby projects are going to be kept and which ones need to be canned now that I’ve switched jobs. I have some loose ends to tie up. One that is likely to be canned is my relationship with Drupal. I think I’m going to have to pass the modules off to other developers (possibly to my former employer) or drop maintenance altogether. I don’t have any need for Drupal at this time with my blog now on Movable Type, no longer working with a company using it, and I’m no longer maintaining the site for New Hope.

I’m still evaluating my relationship with the Jifty project. I really like it, but I’m not sure where it fits in my current work-life balance. I have a couple home toys I’ve written to use it, but nothing serious. I really did like the prospect of helping on the documentation side of things there more, but I’m having trouble really finding time for that. Having a son really sucks time away from being able to do much in the evenings just for kicks and giggles. (That’s not a complaint. I could very easily choose the projects over Gabriel, but who’d want to do that? Gabe is way too much fun to avoid spending time with!)

I guess I’ll see how things shake out over the next few months.

Cheers.