Today I went to my co-working space in downtown Seattle and closed my old desk space. I had been renting a desk there for about 5 years, spending $400 a month. It made no sense to continue paying money for something I wasn't using anymore, so it was time to close down that operation. I am delighted to actually close it down though. Not only does it save me money every month, but it also means I can have my computer office at home now and I don't need to commute to a far away place to get work done. After I finish work at my day job, I can come home and do a little bit of work on my own projects  And now that I've got steady income, I don't need to worry about scraping together enough money every month to just barely get by, only to worry about it again the following month. So the barrier for entry for doing work is extremely low and there are no distractions. I'm excited. This is going to be fantastic. The hardest decision is going to be deciding on what to work on next (I have a lot of passions and interesting things to work on and I need to pick just one to focus on).

I have also recently taken up painting. I have never painted before but it turns out I'm not too shabby at it. I went to a local paint studio where you can drink and paint for two hours in a group and it was actually quite fun! Check these out.

First painting ever:


Second painting ever:

There's some obvious novice mistakes with each of these and I don't have any practiced techniques down well, but I can't be too hard on myself given my lack of experience. Despite that, I'm happy with the results and only further practice will refine my skills and abilities. The lesson here is that just because you might be a technical person like me, it doesn't mean that you have forsaken other talents you may have. Programmers can be artists, and artists can be programmers! There is no rule saying you have to be one or the other but not both! In fact, I personally believe that being both creatively gifted and technically gifted is mutually beneficial to each respective gift. I can use my graphics programming experience to look at a scene and say where the lighting and shadows are wrong and apply that to painting to be a better painter, but at the same time, I can use the free wheeling, unconstrained creative side to come up with creative solutions to hard programming problems.

In terms of work at my day job, I've been doing fantastic. I learned a few weeks ago that I had an excellent review and facebook wanted to extend my contract by another six months. That's a good sign! Yay, less things to worry about for at least a few more months! I feel I have been very productive at work as well and facebook has been very supportive of what I want to do. In July, I requested $70k in computer equipment to build myself a render farm, and about a month later, it's up and fully operational! I have my own little lab! My wings are spreading and I'm flying I wish I could talk more openly in public, but I must err on the side of caution -- those details will have to wait for another day.

I suppose I am now officially an indie with a day job. No shame in that  it's actually an excellent way to balance things, because the experience you get working professionally carries over to your own projects.