Andy Chase

It's 2004, which means a number of things - in the United States it's a presidential election year. Time was when it would have meant the Winter Olympics would have just wrapped up, with the Summer Olympics on their way in a few months. (I still don't get the point of staggering the winter and summer games by two years - they're not really "olympics" anymore if they happen every two years.) It's also a leap-year, and today is February 29. Congratulations are in order to my friends Chris and Colleen, who are getting married today. (Insert predictable jokes about the infrequency of having to buy anniversary gifts here.)

Four years ago Chris and I were working at a quintessential Santa Monica Startup, having bailed in January on Edmunds. The decision to leave Edmunds was the right one - the (profitable) company of about 20 that I joined in 1998 had caught Dot Com fever, rounded up some venture capital, and hired about 80 more people to do the work of the original 20.

My impulsive decision to join that startup, though, was probably not the best one I could have made. This was early 2000, a couple of months before the Boo.com implosion that signaled the beginning of the end; web design monkeys like myself were still in ridiculous demand. Posting a resume on Monster.com in the morning was sure to result in at least half a dozen calls by the afternoon, and I responded to one of the first such calls I received once I decided to leave Edmunds. It was a headhunter, who pitched this startup that was practically right around the corner. ("Great!" I thought to myself for some reason, despite the fact that I lived in Sherman Oaks and the commute to the new Edmunds office in Santa Monica was already killing me)

I visited the site and, bought into the business model, which to a relatively inexperienced 25 year old web designer in early 2000 seemed perfectly sensible:

• Build a bunch of demographically-targeted ISP's consisting of portal web sites bundled with re-branded $9.95 per month dial-up service
• ???
• Profit!

I was so eager to get out that I jumped on it, without waiting to see what else might come along closer to home. It was startup all the way - converted industrial garage/shop space with a loft, dogs welcome at the office, long hours, trendy launch parties, the whole ball of wax.

It also wound up being hell - the reasons being too numerous and nuanced to get into here - and in early May Chris and I left - he was lucky enough to escape back to his native Illinois while I went on to Stan Lee Media, where I was introduced to PHP, starting the long chain of events that finds me writing this from the other side of the continent.

For posterity and in observation of this peculiar date, here are the major milestones of the last four years.

May 2000

Hired by Stan Lee Media

July 2000

Introduced to PHP

August 2000

Hired by Webmonkey to write a Palm-related article

November 2000

Hired by former Edmunds associate to work for Webcamnow.com- this was going to be the job that paid our way back to the east coast.

February 2001

Spent a week in Manhattan, getting oriented to the company office, and the area in general

February 2001

Laid off

March 2001

Wrote another Palm-related article for Webmonkey

April 2001

Hired by Valley Presbyterian Hospital, my first full-fledged programming job.

November 2001

Got married

April 2002

Hired by Wrox Press Ltd. to write two chapters for Professional PHP4 Multimedia Programming.

July 2002

Bought my first banjo, and took 5 lessons in the frailing style.

August 2002

Moved to Massachusetts

February 2003

Almost hired by the Boston Museum of Science.

April 2003

Not a moment too soon, hired by my current employer.

June 2003

Bought my second banjo

July 2003

Finally moved out of my parents' house, where we had been staying since leaving California

February 2004

Began taking banjo lessons again, this time in the three-finger style.

Assuming I'm still doing this in another four years, it will be fun to repeat this exercise. For now, though, I'm looking forward to March and the increasingly warmer temperatures it will bring.