I knew this was going to be a very slow week professionally no matter where I was sitting, and am glad I jumped the gun and bailed out of the cube earlier than previously planned. I’ve had plenty of time to get things organized around here, chat with some old and prospective new clients, and have a life. The law firm’s IT department weathered its first crisis of the new era quite well, replacing a printer that got gummed up with labels for someone’s holiday CDs. Those responsible will swim extra laps.

I’ll have more about the last days at the cube eventually, but don’t want to write it while I’m still feeling some personal animus toward certain individuals, especially when those individuals are still diddling about with my final check.

While the dishes remain unwashed and Pongo relaxes in the ever-expanding laundry pile, some long overdue maintenance to both the front- and back-ends of the links page are underway. Please pardon our progress and virtual dust.

If anyone wants to point me to a link I’ve neglected to include or keep current, this is the time.

Never got the Christmas tree up. Christmas cards went out only in the narrowest sense (they made it out to the coffee table). No christmas .gifs even made it up around here, though a pic of Pongo mauling one of his seasonal stuffed animals was featured for a couple of days. The box of decorations was only even opened because I needed a holiday plate to take food to a great party.

But no bah humbugs. It was an amazing Christmas. New friends, old friends, family, and whatever Pongo is. None of them are here right now, so none of them get written about now, but they all made me very happy. My present to myself was to jettison the cube and all the related stress and baggage. It fits well and no exchanges are planned. The last day was Friday.

So I am once again self-employed and the new work week started off watching the sunrise from a lap pool before a flurry of coding and writing with a Jack Johnson marathon providing the soundtrack.

Life is good. Here’s to 2006.

So much for animal loyality. Forget the rhetoric about the bonding between the four-legged beings. Those pesky reindeer were supposed to deliver the fat man last night. Hundreds of pounds of jolly old elf were supposed to be sent down the chimney so I could pounce him from behind as he mooched free cookies. Those reindeer sold me out – they deserve to be harnessed to that nasty old sleigh and… *snif snif* there’s bacon here!

We want to take the opportunity to wish everyone who visits here the merriest possible Christmas. In the spirit of the season, please take the a moment to visit some of the sites we link to and spread some holiday cheer around to our friends.

Mother Nature reached out today to taunt me for being professional enough to give notice at the cube. One week before the little law firm‘s return to a mandatory Wetsuit Wednesday™ dress code, San Diego was hit with record surf topping 20 feet in some areas. No wet gear in the cubemobile, despite the well-intentioned tempting of a new friend, but I did grab the camera in case the lunch hour found me near the coast.

Lunch hour stretched a bit as I stood in awe at the spectacle. There weren’t many surfers out, and most of those I saw try to paddle out failed. Many, like this gentleman, got suited up, stretched out, then realized the futility of the effort and simply watched. Many others just watched. There were definitely more photographers than surfers at the beach today. My only complaint was that I couldn’t really capture the sheer size of the waves on the camera. Without a reference point in the image, they mostly came out just looking like any other waves on any other day.

More advice for the return to self-employment.

By the way, notice was given to the cube dwellers on Monday and the new era starts immediately after Christmas.

Manipulation.

Having served and lived in Bolivia for two years, I’ve followed the politics coming out of there pretty closely. It’s been very interesting to watch the recent elections, and the apparant victory of Evo Morales’ presidential campaign in recent days.

I have no need for cocaine, or illegal drug importers in general, but can certainly understand the frustration from the standpoint of the Bolivian electorate. After decades of poverty and cultural stagnation, they found an agricultural crop that people want and can actually be profitable to export. They aren’t stupid enough to use the cocaine for the most part – they just grow coca, which has many legal uses.

For their success, their country has spent years under pressure from foreigners to abandon that crop and its jobs, and at times, outright intervention by law enforcement and military assistance teams to end coca production.

Imagine an alternate America 50 years in the future. The Hindu-based omnipower Indian Theocracy decides beef is morally wrong and contributes to the poor health of its users worldwide. They offer education programs and financial incentives around the world to reduce beef use. They “encourage” elected officials around the world to make beef illegal in those countries not receptive to the kinder, gentler approach. Eventually, paramilitary troops descend from orbit in raids to “neutralize” bootleg cattle ranches. Many people might believe that beef is wrong, or simply prefer pork or pollo as their carcass of choice, but at some point pride and self-respect kick in. They wonder why cattle ranching, traditionally an honorable means to earn a living, is suddenly a criminal act. They wonder why menial jobs at the McCarcass drive-through are disappearing. The small towns in the range areas see the trickle-down income dry up, and the towns blow away like tumbleweeds in a dry, hot wind.

There are a lot of points to this. First, I don’t want to live in an America where underground ranchers breed cows in suburban garages to avoid the omnipower’s satellite surveillance systems. Second, lots of small farmers in Bolivia have already lost everything as collateral damage in the War on Drugs. Sooner or later the pendulum had to swing to the point where a Bolivian president would be elected to represent those farmers. The pundits who categorize this as a pro-drug vote are just naive and shortsighted. This is a pro-Bolivia, pro-Independence movement, and it will be very interesting indeed to see how a nationalistic Bolivia moves forward.

As I put the final touches on the preparations for the return to a solo practice, found a great post here on managing self-employment. [via Sean Bonner]