I remember the interview vividly, and remember the faces and names of everyone who was there. Some are still here with SAIC at SAMHSA, some have left, and one or two have even retired. One of them, Alla, was very pregnant at the time and left six months later – only to come back again at a full-time capacity.

For eight years I have worked side by side with the amazing federal employees and other contractors at the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration as a contractor on the Web & Application team. In those eight years, I’ve learned a lot about both my chosen profession (web/application UX/IA/design), about friendship, about hard work, about teamwork, and about life in general.

This Friday will be my last day here, and it’s a bittersweet thing to me. I’ve made amazing friends, I’ve had a great time. There have been bad patches mixed in here and there, but they are outweighed by the great things that I’ve seen and experienced.

To anyone who says that federal employees don’t do anything or are wasteful, I implore you to look at SAMHSA as an example of the polar opposite. The people I’ve worked with here – hundreds, literally – are the most motivated, caring individuals. They truly believe in the organizations’ mission to bring substance abuse & mental health issues to the forefront, and to bring relief to those who have and are suffering from addictions and afflictions. It makes me feel good every day that the work I do here helps to reach millions of people in need.

That’s why it’s so bittersweet. Good people. Good work. Good times. Good memories.

So, on July 1st, I begin working for Monster.com as their new Sr. User Experience Designer. It’s going to be quite an undertaking that will put all of my current skills to use and will teach me new ones, but it’s going to play to my biggest passion: creating wonderful things, and making good things even better.

I don’t know what exactly the future holds, but I’m looking forward to experiencing it and working with new people and new challenges while holding the memories of SAMHSA & SAIC close to my heart.

Technorati Tags: monster.com, new job, saic, samhsa

It’s been an interesting last couple of days, actually. Friday night I went to a fantastic live music show at Jammin Java in Vienna, VA. My friend Rich’s band, the Chris Collat Band, was competing in the finals of JJ’s “Battle of the Bands”. There were three other bands competing with them, and while CCB didn’t win (an NC band called “Delta Rae” won – who were pretty good as well) they had a fantastic sound and great energy. I’ll be posting some videos of them playing a little later today or tomorrow on my Youtube account.

Saturday evening was my now-regular World of Warcraft raid with some of my great old friends from <Order of the Raven> (Aggramar-US). This week we hit the Bastion of Twilight again and downed the first two bosses with relative ease. We got a couple of pulls in on the Twilight Council but got locked out because of a bug after four pulls or so. Next weekend we’ll get them down, I’m sure.

Yesterday, President’s Day, was a work from home day and I actually got a lot accomplished. I had an idea back in August or September of 2010 to create an iPhone app for the federal agency that I contract with, and after a few months of planning we got approved to purchase the necessary equipment to begin active development in late January. I’m enjoying the process of designing my first iPhone app (although I’ve helped my friend Brian with a lot of the UI work for his soon-to-be-announced app, which I’ll post about here when it’s live in the App Store), and I’ll post some screen captures in a few weeks to preview what’s coming.

At the moment, my only real concern is about the congressional budget which, if not passed by March 4th (or another continuing resolution is passed…) will leave me without a paycheck for days/weeks/months. I’m hoping that congress does the right thing and approves a budget or CR quickly, but given how politics have played out in recent months, well, let’s just say my expectations are pretty low.

Technorati Tags: App, Bastion of Twilight, Chris Collat Band, Delta Rae, Order of the Raven

This reminds me of the two “arguments” (lies) of the Republicans/Tea Baggers that I truly enjoy hearing:

The rich save their money.  They save and invest it.  They buy things, yes, but not at the same percentage as the middle and lower class do.  The middle and lower class, by far, put a higher percentage of their incomes into the economy just trying to keep their heads above water.  The economic impact of the middle class having more money to spend far outweighs the economic impact of the rich saving their money and investing it overseas.

My friend Brian quoted a very relevant response from Heather McGhee (of Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2000) to the question of “can tax cuts hurt job creation?” during her appearance on Countdown the other day which perfectly makes this point:

“In this instance they absolutely can.  It particularly because we’re talking about the Bush tax cuts, which, as we know, the vast majority went to the wealthiest 3% of the Americans.  Now if I’m a working and middle class person who is living paycheck to paycheck, I spend every dollar that I can hold on to.  I spend it on groceries.  I spend it on my kids’ books.  I spend it on gas for the car.  I immediately through-put that out into the conomy.  If I’m a millionaire or billionaire I, as you said, Keith, sock it away.  And so the problem using tax cuts as stimulus is that it’s far too expensive and it ties the government’s hands to do the more effective form of stimulus, such as infrastructure spending.”

Nice job, conservatives.  You’re ruining the United States, one failed bill at a time.

Technorati Tags: "The Party of No", Keith Olbermann, Lies, Tax Cuts, Tea Party

To check out that collection, head on over to my flickr account now.  Also, there’s a great preview of the wedding video from Brian & Erika’s wedding over at our friend Cheryls website – http://caslproductions.com/blog/.  Go have a look at that – it’s a great preview of what was a truly beautiful wedding.

So, what have I been doing this summer to keep myself busy?  Weddings and dealing with my house, actually.  Since June I’ve attended three weddings, with a fourth coming up this Saturday – which should be the last wedding of the summer.  Whew!  Everyone seems to be getting married this year.

Additionally, last weekend I was fortunate enough to meet up with some of my old friends from SFOL/FSF at the 31st Annual Shore Leave Star Trek convention.  While I didn’t actually attend the convention, I did browse through the dealer room and had a great lunch with my old friends.  I think next year I’ll actually stay overnight and join in the drunken debauchery (which was broadcast live and in color this year, thanks to a handy webcam someone brought!).

The house.  Mmm.  The damn house.  I won’t go through all of the pain and mental anguish that the house has put me through, but I will say that the last two weeks have been – thus far – problem free.  Hopefully it’ll go like that for a few more months.

For those actually keeping track of things, I am now fully unpacked, with the exception of the kitchen which is going to be remodeled by Sears sometime in the next few weeks.  After that I’ll be having a house warming party finally.  The office/guest room is done, complete with sleep sofa, desk, chair, computer, bookcase, and lighting fixture (which I totally forgot to buy until AFTER I’d finished putting the room together).  I’ve also hung all of the artwork I own (big thanks to my father for donating  some of his nicer pieces).

So, that’s my summer so far.  Hopefully I’ll find some way to fit a beach trip or something in.  All work and no play makes Scott a dull boy.

Technorati Tags: Frederick, FSF, New Jersey, Philadelphia, SFOL, Shore Leave, Star Trek, Summer, Travel, Wedding