Now Begins A Fantastic Journey!

At least, I think that's what it says when you start up Bubble Bobble. Search me, though, I haven't played the game in well over a decade. Anyhow, I suppose the traditional thing is to start out by talking about myself a bit. Graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2004 with a Master of Science in Engineering degree in Computer Science, I signed up with John Lynch for New Hampshire as Chief Technology Officer. After a long and hard-fought campaign, we squeaked out a win... or, if you want to put it another way, we picked up almost exactly the same 'mandate' that the White House proclaimed.

After staying around for the transition, I left to join the working world when I was informed that there wouldn't be a staff position available for me. I love New Hampshire and I'd love to stay, but let's be quite frank - we're a bunch of tightwads up here. If I was going to be on the core staff, that's one thing - my value doesn't go down from being on a governor's staff. But if I'm going to be 'on call' to the staff over in the tech offices? Well, looking at the openings over there, I'm either badly overqualified or underexperienced for just about everything - and the private sector is paying me a good deal more anyhow.

Am I disappointed? Of course. But I recognize the realities of the situation; even if it's my opinion that any modern-day governor badly needs an on-staff technologist to translate between geekism and politics, I'm not the one who makes that choice, and the people who do make it might not want to take the political and financial pressure that would come with creating a new position. I'm glad I was able to help regardless; I think I contributed some useful things during the transition and the (still not publicly released, so no details) tech audit. And getting rid of the previous governor, a Libertarian in Republican clothing whose goal seemed at times to be the dismantling of state functions, was certainly an important accomplishment for the well-being of the state.

So now I'm off to join the real world. Again. That's what they say when you leave college, too, but I managed to put it off for almost an extra year. But this time it's for real; I've got to find a place to rent, get moved, and get started. My plan at the moment is to rent for a year or so, and then if I decide I'm going to stick around for the long haul, buy a house and start building some equity in it. It seems like a good job and a wonderful work environment - the famed Microsoft employee-relations ethos translated to the world of tech-intensive finance. Get the right people, treat them right, and they'll do right by you in return.

Oooh, cool. I'm one of the 'right people.' Spiff.