Hello, it's me

...though I can't say I've thought about us for any length of time

8/22/2025

What's going on everyone?

I realize it's been...a little bit since I last posted on this blog, but I figured now was the time to light the fire again.

For starters: I am job searching. I will admit that part of me returning to this blog is this job search, but also because I felt like I really wanted to give writing another go. In fact, I've actually been writing about the sporting events I've gone to (another hobby of mine), and I actually spun the code of THIS blog into another website entirely! You can read about my sporting adventures at my sports-focused blog.

Things have happened in my personal life, however, that have complicated a lot of things. I won't get into deep into it, but long story short: I had to move from Massachusetts back to New Jersey. However, I've realized something important within that:

What is more important: Location or Community?

I'll be honest: I feel like I prefer Boston as a locale. I've always felt that the ease of access to the city was a huge boon over New York, and was eagerly awaiting a chance to get back to some of the things and places I'd come to enjoy. In fact, I built an app based on Boston's local subway system (but work to expand it is on hold for...reasons).

However...there's one big thing I've only realized in retrospect: I was lonely. Part of the reason I moved to Boston in the first place was because my friends from my old community were getting married, having kids, and becoming busy with parenthood. I went back to visit my old community a few times recently, and sure enough, I felt VERY out of place seeing people I had watched grow up become the faces of that community.

In Boston, however, I had few friends my age or close to it (most of them were either at least five years older or five years younger), and the more I met new people, the worse that problem got. I was still attending a few things in Boston every so often after coming back to Jersey, but the truth of the matter was that I kept meeting new people - not a good sign. Heck, even the people I had met through those groups started disappearing, and that's when I realized that trying to build community there was becoming much more difficult. Making things more challenging: the few friends I had who were close to my age, by and large, (also) moved away to pursue other things.

One of the ways this truth revealed itself to me was through...pickleball. Back in October 2024, I met a new group of folks who I quickly became friends with. In a sense, some of the problems I mentioned about finding people my age still rang true, but for some reason it felt...different. I'm not sure why.

Anyway, fast foward to this past June, and I started playing pickleball with those friends. Not only has it been a very bonding experience, but it's a way to stay healthy as well. In light of this (plus other things), I made the decision to stay in Jersey for now.

With all that in mind, I should probably clarify a few things:

Again...I am looking for a job. I've been trying to work on a few skills things in the intervening time, so hopefully that will be useful for me (i.e. stuff like the aforementioned transit app plus my sports blog).
I am now, more or less, in the New York City area. In some respects, this is a better market for me as it's MUCH bigger than Boston, which means that there are more options (and network opportunities, which seem to be the way in nowadays). I will note, however, that I'm trying to focus on North Jersey and the City itself.
I cannot promise a regular posting schedule here. I mentioned my sports blog earlier in this post, and that will be updated as I attend events (though I'm currently working on posting a "backlog" of work I wrote earlier in the year). This blog, however, will largely be focused on more "general" stuff, and I will try to have more than one update a month (and also avoid another two year gap).

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. If I don't see you on my sports blog, I hope to be back here soon.