“shit sandwich”, or “too much fucking perspective”
i think i was supposed to do some kind of year-end wrap-up, was i not? everybody else does, and that’s cool…nice to have a little perspective on things.
how’s this for perspective: about 2/3rds of the facebook updates on new years eve / day from game dev friends of mine were some variation of “good riddance 2009, the worst year of my (professional) life”. all the more reason to be grateful that i ended up in the other 1/3rd. for me, 2009 was only half-shitty, with the other half turning out pretty durned swell.
the shitty: i made myself walk away from a job and group of people that i enjoyed immensely for many years, because it was the right thing to do. i watched a game that i absolutely killed myself for suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous (mis)fortune, and become the MMO whipping boy of aught-niner. i saw dozens of talented friends & acquaintances become unemployment statistics, and those who held on to their jobs left working under a black cloud of uncertainty.
the swell: i got a new job, and rejoined a group of people that i’ve enjoyed working with off-and-on for over a decade. i started fresh on a new game (no hyperlink there folks…NDA, you see) with new tools, new toys, and a new lease on my professional life. and at the end of the day (well, “year”) came the satisfaction of knowing that somehow i’d cheated The System for one more year – another 12 months of farting into microphones for a living and getting away with it.
so yeah, here’s to 2010. less of the shitty, more of the swell please.
