Changes in the key of D (or: the post in which I announce that I’m moving)

About this time twenty years ago, a musician who went by a single name released a quirky, stripped-down single built on a D major chord that got high rotation on my Mac (a Quadra 660AV on which I was teaching myself to build the hot new software of the time, multimedia applications), which was my primary music player at the time.

It was Beck’s breakout single, Loser, which had been released the prior year and got a lot of play during my DJ sessions at Crazy Go Nuts University’s engineering student-run Clark Hall Pub. For those of you who remember it or who’ve never seen it, here’s the video for the song, directed by Beck’s friend Steve Hanft on a $300 budget:

For me, 1994 was my final year of university, a time of some interesting music, serious final-year computer science projects, dealing with more than my fair share of girl trouble and twenty-something drama, and those tentative first steps away from the familiar bubble of university and into the real world. It was a year of big moves, big changes, and some steps out of my well-established collegiate comfort zone.

Six years later, I’d make a similar move into a larger world.

My residency in San Francisco from the fall of 2000 to the summer of 2001 could hardly be considered a success. A mere handful of weeks after talking the then-girlfriend into following me from “Lawn Guyland” to the west coast, she went back home, unable to make the adjustment. Shortly after that, the startup I worked for closed down the San Francisco office while I was visiting the head office in Toronto. I didn’t even get to go back; they simply went to my apartment, threw everything that wasn’t nailed down into a moving truck and sent it to me here.

Ten years after came my separation, and with it came a lot of crazy things. There was the week at the hospital with killer flu, the non-date gone terribly wrong, a couple of weeks at South by Southwest, leaving Microsoft to join Shopify, so much travel that home had become a nice place to visit, and most importantly, meeting someone very special.

I took this shot from my flight Wednesday night. Click to see at full size.

Twenty years after Loser, there’s another single that gets a fairly high rotation on my Mac (a 2011-era 15″ MacBook Pro on which I ‘m teaching myself to build the hot new software of the time, mobile applications), which is my primary music player. Coincidentally, it’s also a stripped down single from the previous year, riding the D major chord, put out by a quirky musician with a single name.

It’s this song:

Like twenty years ago, it’s a time of some interesting music, and serious computer-related projects. This time around, there’s no drama (in fact, the girlfriend just this week referred to me as “refreshingly drama-free”. But it is time to make another set of steps away from a familiar bubble of where I am right now and into a different world. It’s a time for big moves, big changes, and some steps out of my well-established middle-age comfort zone.

And I’m doing it next week.

I’ll go into more detail in a day or two, but in the meantime, let’s just say that the job offer letter has been countersigned. The necessary paperwork is getting put together. The stuff is being packed. The car is getting tuned up. A copilot has bravely volunteered to accompany me on a road trip. Next Thursday, I’m moving.

This should be interesting.