Culmination

Thursday, May 10, 2007

As I noted in a previous post, I basically found this job through an email from monster.com, though I did not respond to it right away. I believe it was actually about 2 months before I sent them my resume and I was probably spurred on by a bit of frustration and homesickness. But it was also that it was simply a good opportunity that I didn't want to let pass.

For years I feel like I've watched what was going on in New Orleans, wondering when the city would catch up technologically. I've had this idea in my mind that what I was looking for was a chance to take whatever success I've managed to attain here and sorta transfer it there. Easier said than done. I've been waiting for years, sometimes feeling like it was all in vain, just waiting for things to line up correctly, and it's been very frustrating at times. I've gotten mad at God, even mad at simply being from New Orleans. Everyone wants to go home eventually. Even the German guy I met at Enterprise Car Rental this morning. Why is it that when I miss home, I have to miss a place that is dysfunctional and now in the aftermath of a "natural disaster," or, as they're calling it, the Federal Flood.

So now that everything is happening (and progressing along quite smoothly, I should add) it doesn't feel like a sudden move, it feels like the culmination of years of waiting and working toward a goal that was as specific as it was vague. I've always felt I would made my way back home, but sometimes I thought it wouldn't be till I was 50 and the kids were out of the house. Maybe that's just how long I have to wait till I can live uptown.

Labels: new orleans

posted by j. Permanent Link 1 comments

you missed your chance

Sunday, May 06, 2007

So, we sold our house today! Technically, the house was available for private showings as of Friday, but the first showings were Saturday. Three people had made appts, one of which had been checking the place out, walking around the yard and looking in windows... creeps. I was kind of surprised that we didn't get an offer from them, though technically it's still possible that we could. But then today we had our first open house from 11-12:30. There were 3 people "on the books" to see the house, but it turned out that we had 8 families come though. About 20 people in total. The realtor said it was a mad house with people all walking around each other, waiting for this group to come down the stairs so they could go up, etc. What it all adds up to is, we priced the house too low! One woman came at the tail end of the open house and freaked out because there were no info sheets left. She requested a private showing for later in the day, then went to her realtor's office afterward to write an offer.

We did purposely set the price low to sell quick, but this was phenomenal. Technically the house went on the market last weekend and showings started Friday, but I'm saying it only took 2 days. We had an accepted offer within 40 hours of the first potential buyer coming to see it. That sounds like 2 days to me.

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

on moving and motivation

I've been sitting on this post for a while. I couldn't really publish it till I gave notice @ work, but I'm doing that tomorrow, so now it's safe:

4/25/07

In the post that I wrote on the day after Mardi Gras, I said "I can accept that I am where I choose to be." What I meant by that is, if I want to be someplace else, if I am not satisfied with where I am, then I must choose to be somewhere else. I am in Milwaukee because this is what I have chosen. But I've decided that it is time for a change, and so I've chosen to move home.

Sometime in perhaps early december I saw a job posting pass through my Monster Job Alert emails. I get these things daily and rarely look at them, but for whatever reason on this day I scrolled down the email and saw an opening for Interface Development in New Orleans. I hadn't ever seen this company's name before, somehow, though it turns out they're a premiere agency in the state/region. But I had a baby due, it was the beginning of winter and I knew I was about to get very busy at work, so I didn't send in a resume. I did, however, keep them in the back of my mind.

I just searched back through my emails and found that it was 5 days after my post-Mardi Gras rant that I sent in a resume, Feb 26th. They were interested and requested my portfolio. I sent them a PDF and didn't hear back for a month. Finally, on one of my few bad days at work, I happened to see this email... "we'd like to fly you down as soon as possible." Woohoo!

I'll continue with the story about the interview... soon.

Labels: new orleans

posted by j. Permanent Link

buy my house!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

We're selling our house as part of a major life overhaul. Uprooting, in many ways, details of which will be forthcoming. But check it out, our house is on realtor.com!

I was checking out some of the other houses that turned up in my zipcode in the same price range and realize that the realtor was probably right in her initial estimate of what we could get for the house. We opted to go a relatively decent amount lower so that we can sell it quickly, what with relocation approaching.

It's also on ShoreWest's site with a ton of pictures, none of which I had seen until 10 minutes ago. I was a bit aggravated to see that I had forgotten to take down the painting of Kim before the realtor took pics. Something about seeing that painting in the context of the ShoreWest site... I think I'll email the realtor to ask her to take it off of the site.

Our realtor is pretty amusing... we met with two and the first one just didn't work out. After she explained to me how mold in the air can kill people by making their esophagus expand or fill with mucus (I honestly believe it was the latter, actually, as she told it), I realized that this woman just did not make me feel positive about my house. The realtor we did choose makes these semi off-colored jokes that take kim by surprise. The whole dynamic is funny. But she's smart and, though I sometimes wonder if i'm talking to her as a person or a salesperson (she's our agent so she only points out the positives... that kinda thing), we trust her ability to sell the house well. She made us feel good about the house.

I have to say that our house looks better now than at any other point in which we've lived in it. I've put so much time and effort into working on this house... It's interesting for me to see the pics on the shorewest site, like i get to take a step back and look at it for what it is. The bedroom I built looks awesome! I literally just finished building the bookshelves a week ago (I've meant to post pics of those, too) and I'm really glad that I decided to follow through on that idea.

Ironically, I have to admit that we're not particularly attached to the house. We'll miss it, I'm sure, but I think the fact that we bought it intending to stay for 3-5 years then move on makes it easier for us to separate with it. It's like with everything we've done to the house we've kept it in the back of our minds, "how is this going to affect the house when we want to sell it?" When I first met our realtor I told him we wanted something I could hopefully do a little work on to help increase the property value, a place we could stay for a few years while we waited for the opportunity to move to New Orleans. It's been 3 1/2 years now since we bought the house and now it's time.

It is time to move to New Orleans.

posted by j. Permanent Link 1 comments

PowerPoint to Flash Conversion Tools

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

PowerPoint to Flash Conversion Tools - The PPT2Flash Top20

I'm doing a bit of research for a potential client on PowerPoint to Flash conversion, trying to find the best tool. Looks to me that the best one is Articulate Presenter, especially in conjunction with some of the other tools Articulate makes that appear to integrate seamlessly (like Quizmaker). Articulate's products also appear to be the priciest, but you get what you pay for...

The top 20 (really 30+ with the updates at the bottom of the page) list is pretty comprehensive. The descriptions leave something to be desired -- they sound more like blurbs from the makers' websites -- but it's a good starting point for researching the gamut of products available.

Labels: flash, powerpoint