I was originally turned off to Atlanta after visiting the Georgia Aquarium on a Sunday (around Valentine’s Day, if you must know).  We drove around to check the area out, but it seemed, well, dead.  If you lived/played in Greenwich Village for a few years, like I did, you kind of have an expectation of what a “real” city is supposed to be like.   Walking through Washington Square Park, hearing who was jamming before I stepped into an over-crowded studio/classroom for some music tech lecture or whatnot… that was my life for two years.  It was also the best part of my commute into the city from Jersey City.  Anyway, we must’ve been cruising through Atlanta’s financial district or something, but we couldn’t find where the hip kids were at.  Maybe it’s more of a commuter city?  I was creeped out by the lack of people walking around on a fairly sunny day, but maybe it’s just not that kind of scene.  I don’t know.  I’m still bugging my Atlanta-prone friends about where I should’ve been exploring.

The real push to attend TGC, aside from networking in the game industry I call my “home”, was to check out Raleigh.  For better or worse, I know that I need to think about where I should relocate at the end of the year.  Not that Spartanburg has done me wrong, particularly, but I know that my options have been extremely limited, even as a technologist, and that telecommuting for most of my work has been an eye-opener into what I value about work.  Some of it doesn’t need an office (getting to know people), but some… well, maybe some does. (You know that chit-chat when you just get in, or those conversations over lunch where you discover that your cubicle mate has the same breed of cat that you do?  I don’t have those serendipitous face-to-face moments.  Ever.  It’s always a voice or an asynchronous exchange.)  This isn’t just a matter of telecommuting, but probably a facet of being a contractor – your time is always billed, and who wants to get billed for chit-chat?  You’re more of a cog in a machine than a member of the work family, which is something I miss about studio life.  However, I have seen consultants in I.T. become part of the teams that are also their clients.  Perhaps it’s a matter of culture, but I’m sure that seeing my bright, cheery, I-totally-love-working-in-games-even-doing-this-boring-task-How-are-you-today face would be a positive asset if face-to-face contact was more common.

Anyway, there’s no guarantee that I would gain any of this by relocating.  More and more studios rely on telecommuters to keep overhead/office expenses down, so it may just be a sign of the times that so much of my work has come through that venue.

The other half of it, aside from “career positioning” or what have you, is the area.  I lived in Sussex, NJ, where there were cows.  Some people (non-NJ natives) still don’t believe there were cows, or that I didn’t immediately know what “exit I was off of the Turnpike.”  That one is so old.  Please, give it a rest.  I lived in Pennsylvania for my undergrad (small school) and Jersey City with a commute into Manhattan for graduate studies (NYU… big school).  Despite living in so many different places, I’m just not sure where I belong.

I really enjoyed my time in Raleigh, though.  So clean, so friendly… I was just surprised.  Oh, and those parks throughout the city!  And trees!  There’s a lot I haven’t touched on yet, so I’m planning a return trip in a few months to see if it’s where I should settle, perhaps for more than a year or two!  I’ve been a nomad for the past bunch of years.  I hope to change that.  Maybe I’ll figure this out before my lease on this apartment ends!

Therefore, I’ve been looking up tips on networking and conferencing.  I don’t know many folks in North Carolina yet, but I hope to change that soon.  I’ve been listening to an interesting podcast on approaching groups at Manager Tools.  I’m still pretty awkward at conferences, but I hope this will better my odds of being less shy/more sure of myself.

I’ll be late for the first day, but I’ll be there both days!  If you plan on attending, feel free to send me an e-mail so we can meet up!

Recently, I’ve been posting (umm, maybe a little like petitioning) for a new feature through Trizle’s site: Mentoring.

Maybe part of me misses the professor/student relationship I had as an undergrad.  Maybe another part of me is, well, still a bit young to being a full-time freelance machine.  I can’t think of a better way to get advice that fits what I’m doing other than through another freelancer who knows the ropes.

I’ve been blessed in that my Dad is a freelance maverick of his own in the I.T. world, but the work he and I do are worlds apart.  He’s SQL server-ing people in the face while I’m designing audio for games.  He commutes to work while I telecommute… you get the idea.

That said, I’m really working to connect locally this year.  Although I’m still pretty fresh to the area, I hope to stretch my contacts out a bit further.  I know a lot of cool people in Polk County, too, so I feel like I’m off to a basic start.

I’m also thinking about ways in which I can teach and share game design.  Perhaps I’ll finally be able to develop a curriculum that I’m proud to teach.  For now, I’m gathering bits and pieces together in the hope that I can actually be a professor someday.