{"id":195,"date":"2007-10-31T16:25:53","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T00:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dougmccune.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/31\/flex-changed-my-life\/"},"modified":"2007-10-31T16:25:53","modified_gmt":"2007-11-01T00:25:53","slug":"flex-changed-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dougmccune.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/31\/flex-changed-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Flex Changed My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dramatic title, I know, but I’m actually pretty serious here. This is my 100th blog post, and I wanted to take that momentous occasion to reflect on the past 10 months of blogging and try to explain how much positive change I’ve seen in my life as a result of Flex. My brief Flex history: started playing with Flex when 1.5 was out (so what was that, like ’04 or ’05?), started blogging<\/a> about Flex in Jan 2007, quit my full-time job<\/a> to become a Flex consultant end of March 2007, now loving life\/work and even writing a book.<\/p>\n

\"flex_smiley.png\"
\nQuality of life<\/strong>
\nThis is number one. I love working from home. Absolutely, without a doubt love it. My morning commute now consists of waking up and strolling to the best coffee shop on earth<\/a> (really), and then heading home so I can switch back into my bathrobe and begin the day’s work (I haven’t yet walked to the coffee shop in the bathrobe…). This is amazing. I used to commute from San Francisco to Palo Alto (via the train), which took a little over an hour each way. And I started work at 8 am, so that meant I left my house around 6:50. And at work I was in the basement of a building that had no windows. So during the winter months I would get up when it was dark, spend nearly all of my day inside with no sunlight (except for a brief period for lunch), and then by the time I got home it was dark again. I hated winter. Now needless to say, I have windows. And if I want to start work at 8 am I can wake up at 7:59 (but let’s be honest, 8’s pretty early…). If the time comes when I’m looking for a normal in-the-office type of job, I don’t know if I can handle the commute (I know never say never, but it’s going to be hard).
\n\"flex_heart.png\"
\nMy girlfriend lives in Berkeley, which is a 20 minute or hour drive (depending on traffic). But my old commuting schedule meant that I had to sleep every night in San Francisco in order to catch the train in the morning. Now I have the freedom to work from anywhere. My new favorite schedule is working from Berkeley in the morning, driving across the bay bridge at 10am when there’s no traffic, and working the rest of the day from home. This flexibility is probably what I value the most about my current work situation. I can’t even explain what a great effect this has had on my life. So yes, Flex has helped my love life.<\/p>\n

Projects<\/strong>
\nI’ve worked on some great projects with some great guys while I’ve been contracting. My first gig got me on a conference call with Jesse Warden (handing off a project) and Darron Schall (who I had the pleasure of working with). How sweet is that? Here’s a brief list of the projects I’ve been able to work on (minus some small non-public stuff):<\/p>\n