I just updated my “About” page to reflect that I’m a full-time programmer. \u00a0Let me elaborate a little bit.<\/p>\n
I currently work for a small electrical metering company<\/a>. \u00a0I create windows applications and services, and web applications. \u00a0I help with other tasks as well, and I bring in doughnuts every Monday. \u00a0It’s a really nice environment, and I feel very comfortable and welcome in my workplace.<\/p>\n I want to emphasize that I’m in a really great job, because it was part of my plan in pursuing my writing career.<\/p>\n In 2011, I worked some place that wasn’t nearly so comfortable. \u00a0I was underpaid and unappreciated. \u00a0I was very unhappy. \u00a0I wasn’t writing much at all. \u00a0I’d pretty much given up on several dreams, and I was fairly depressed.<\/p>\n I was in this low state of mind when my friend Michael<\/a>\u00a0posted to Facebook that he had an extra ticket for WorldCon in Reno<\/a>. \u00a0I’d heard of the Hugo awards, but I didn’t really know much about WorldCon. \u00a0I got the ticket, gave Michael a ride to Reno, and attended with very little in the way of expectations.<\/p>\n It was like I’d gone home. \u00a0I’d found my people.<\/p>\n I attended panels and took fastidious notes. \u00a0I rubbed shoulders with fans and authors, usually unable to distinguish one from the other. \u00a0I got to sit with and converse with\u00a0Sheila Williams<\/a>\u00a0and Glen Cook<\/a>. \u00a0I found people that shared a love of the same stories that I loved. \u00a0It was like waking up from a bad dream.<\/p>\n During this fantastic experience, I received a call from work, giving me some news I didn’t care for. \u00a0All they said was that they were moving my desk, and that the move wasn’t going to wait until I was back from Reno. \u00a0In the grand scheme of things, that’s not the worst thing in the world. \u00a0However, it struck a sour chord in me. \u00a0It was a reminder of the world I was temporarily separated from, that I would return to at the end of the convention.<\/p>\n I growled, grit my teeth, and then pushed the call to the back of my mind. \u00a0I enjoyed the rest of the con.<\/p>\n Eventually, the con ended, and I went home. \u00a0Then I went back to work and saw just how crummy my new work environment was. \u00a0And that was it. \u00a0I vowed to get away from that place and work somewhere that I’d be happier. \u00a0I was sure that if I was happier, I’d write more.<\/p>\n I’m definitely happier. \u00a0I have written more, but the words aren’t exactly flowing just yet. \u00a0I’ll talk more about that in another post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I just updated my “About” page to reflect that I’m a full-time programmer. \u00a0Let me elaborate a little bit. I currently work for a small electrical metering company. \u00a0I create windows applications and services, and web applications. \u00a0I help with other tasks as well, and I bring in doughnuts every Monday. \u00a0It’s a really nice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,6,5,7],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-about","tag-programming","tag-work","tag-worldcon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}