Four months into the year of giving up on Microsoft and here's where things stand...

  • I'm actively working on my first Rails application for a paying client. It's not gone live yet, but we're on track to deploy June 1. I've cut my rate substantially in recognition that this is a learning experience for all concerned; fortunately, it's a client who I've got a good history of mutual respect with.

  • So far freelance work is keeping food on the table, between the one Rails app and various bits of writing. I'd like to get to where I'm doing more coding and less writing.

  • Second Life is the major distraction in my first life. I'm sniffing around some business opportunities there but nothing has gelled.

  • Traffic here at A Fresh Cup continues to rise roughly linearly every month. Thanks to all readers & commenters.

  • Traffic over at Larkware hasn't started dropping off yet, but ad sales are declining and I'm clearly starting to lose touch with what Microsoft is up to. My self-imposed moratorium on covering anything after .NET 2.0 has made most of the news out of MIX this week irrelevant, for example. I just don't have time to keep up with their latest and reinvent my own career.

  • Looking forward to being at RailsConf in a couple of weeks. I'll be aggressively looking for more consulting opportunities there.

  • I did buy a Mac Book Pro to take to RailsConf with me, so the financial picture for the year as a whole is looking even less great. But then, that's not unexpected. As I've said all along, I'm willing to take a hit this year to get myself back on the right track.