OK, so it's not news since basically everyone knows, but I quit my job at UCSD last Friday. It was time to go , and a new opportunity presented itself.

They cancelled all of my current and future software projects when the guy who hired me left last May, got rid of flex-time and work-from-home for the whole department, started moving me into system administration, and generally became unbearable. Since we've had our new supervisor, I'm the second one of seven people in my group to leave. And I've had two other people ask me if they can give me their resume. It's not a very happy place right now. Besides, I haven't had a raise in over 4 years (indeed, I took a small cut to come to UCSD). It also doesn't help that the new boss sounds exactly like Lumbergh from Office Space -- and is generally uninformed about a great many things. Although he's a really nice guy and has his heart in the right place, it would have been difficult to work with him in the long term. He has the depth but not the breadth, and it's started to show lately.

But really, there's no hard feelings or animosity or anything. It's just time to move on. And I let them know that in my resignation email. Although I haven't had the courtesy of a reply from the head of the department, my understanding is that they recognize that this new job is a better fit for me.

The new position is more development type stuff. More thinking about ways to get things done, doing special projects, working with fairly high-profile companies in the process. It will make good use of my past experience, and will also be a huge challenge as well. I'll really have to stretch on this one -- and I'm very much looking forward to it. It's been a long tme since I actually had to think while at work. Then there's the nice new chunk of change I'll be earning. And the benefits are free, so I will no longer have to pay nearly $200 a month in various fees. It doesn't quite make up for the last 4-5 years, but it's a good start. In the end, however, all I really care about is doing cool work.

I feel like I'm back in the game. Like with the contracting work I did last winter -- there's a need, an urgency, you don't get at a government institution. That I've been sorely missing.