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New Job – Quick Thoughts

As many of you know, I started a new job with the new year. Yesterday was my first day as a Senior Attorney in the litigation group of the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. It was a great day, and I’m very excited about the work ahead. I will be doing two types of work: both representing clients in their litigation matters and developing software platforms to augment and streamline the practice of law. It’s a truly unique opportunity to combine two of my skill sets and passions, and I can’t wait to get started in earnest.

I will, of course, miss the outstanding justices and wonderful former colleagues at the First Court of Appeals. But all good things in this life must come to an end, and this next chapter promises to be a great one!

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What I’m Up to Now

If you read this blog regularly, you know I have a lot on my plate. Here’s a quick snapshot of what I’m up to.

It’s safe to say 2016 is off to a busy start.

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Cereblitz has LAUNCHED!

Cereblitz makes the first fully-customizable cart for customizable products

As you know if you have been reading this site, I have been working on Cereblitz, a first-of-its-kind e-commerce platform for selling custom and customizable products. I’m proud to announce that IT’S ALIVE! We have officially launched our platform!

Cereblitz makes the first fully-customizable cart for customizable products

As of right now, you can sign up to run your site on the Cereblitz platform. Plans start at $50/month. If you sign up for our email list today, I’ll give you a special discount that you can use to save 20% on a monthly plan or 40% on a yearly plan.

If you want to see the system in action, please check out SportAndSafety.com, a small business that Sarah and I have launched to sell sporting goods and safety products. You can also look at safeathand.com, a business that I helped found many years ago (and have since sold) and that now runs on the Cereblitz platform.

Don’t forget to bookmark the Cereblitz blog and follow us on your favorite social network:

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Getting Started and Moving On

This is my first week running my new company, Cereblitz. So far, it has gone wonderfully. I’ve already had a couple of meetings with clients, and my ecommerce platform is close to launching.

If you haven’t already done so, please remember to sign up for our email list, follow @Cereblitz on Twitter, and like the Cereblitz page on Facebook.

Decorative Scales Of Justice In The Courtroom

One of the side-effects of this, of course, is that I have left legal practice behind. I started law school ten years ago, and started my first legal job exactly seven years ago today. And now, I am not practicing law at all. It’s a little surreal. On the other hand, I have been programming almost my entire life (since I was learning to read), and I was running a software development company before law school, so this is not really a second career. It’s more like a return to my first career.

Anyway, thanks for joining me on this thrilling, crazy ride. Please remember to sign up for my newsletter so I can keep you up to date on everything!

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Fatherhood

In case you haven’t heard, I am now a proud daddy! Our adorable little girl, Catherine Jane Cottrell, arrived last month. Mom and baby are both doing well.

   
     
Needless to say, I’ve been busy ever since. It’s so worth it.

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Stack Overflow Moderator Elections, Part II

In case you missed my first post on this topic, I am a candidate in the 2015 Stack Overflow moderator elections. I made it through the nomination phase (32 candidates) and primary (30 candidates), and now I’m in the general election with only 10 candidates for 3 spots remaining! I am extremely honored and humbled to have received so many votes in the primary phase, especially with so many amazing candidates. Thank you to all who supported me!

I would really appreciate your vote in the general election! I would also urge you to vote for Martijn Pieters and meager, though I don’t think you can go wrong with anyone in this amazing group.

Larry Niven Programming Quote

Please remember to read all of the remaining candidates’ nomination comments and candidate questionnaire answers.

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4 Lessons from Moving

Well, it has been about a month since we moved, so it’s time for me to share a few thoughts about it.

You Need Professionals. Moving is a huge pain. So are the processes of selling and buying houses. You know that. I know that. But there are people out there who refuse to let it get them down. We worked with some amazing people. Our real estate agent and mortgage broker made an awesome team and headed off a potential disaster when one of the other parties involved ran into problems. Our movers were similarly, awesomely efficient and professional. If you are looking to move in the Houston, Texas area, give me a shout; I would love to recommend them to you.

Keys Were Everywhere. One of the biggest surprises for me was just how many unidentified keys we had floating around. When I was a little kid, I thought old keys were awesome. Now, they are just unrecognized but potentially important clutter, the worst kind of tchotchke. My solution: henceforth, every key we own gets cataloged in Evernote, with a photo, a description of what it does, and, if we have multiple copies, both the number of copies and where they are stored.

Paper Was Everywhere. We also have a veritable sea of paper floating around. The solution to this is easy: go paperless. The best way to do this, hands down, is the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Deluxe Bundle Scanner for PC. It includes the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 scanner, which is incredibly fast, accurate, flexible, and user-friendly, as well as a full copy of Adobe Acrobat (Standard). It has already helped us digitize a tremendous amount of paper, with more to follow. Of course, Evernote is indispensable for this task, too.

You Need a Budget. Finally, of course, You Need a Budget (affectionately known as YNAB), about which I’ve written before, was also indispensable for the budgeting and money-management side of things.

Disclaimer: the Evernote, YNAB, and Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. I may receive site credits or a portion of the sale for purchases and registrations made through those links.

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Ch-Ch-Changes

As many of my readers know, I have a lot going on right now. We’re expecting our first child, Catherine, in May!

Face 2 Color - fixed

Profile - fixed

Meanwhile, my wife and I are selling our current house in Houston later this week and moving to a Houston suburb (more house, less money, good times). Things are a little busy.

That said, I am going to try to post here a lot more frequently. After all, I started this blog almost 14 years ago, back when “blog” was barely a word, and not one I’d ever heard before. Feel free to hold my feet to the fire! I really want to make more use of this space.

Want to follow what’s going on here? Subscribe by filling in the box on the left, and I’ll keep you posted!

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Site Move

This site has found a new home, on a VPS (Virtual Private Server). My prior host had let me down far too often by failing to install current technology and by repeatedly installing spam filters that silently blocked (and in some cases, permanently deleted) only about half of my spam, along with hundreds of good emails over the last few months. This, even though I asked them repeatedly to disable all spam filters on my site permanently, which they swore they had done. Very disappointing.

Fortunately, the move went smoothly. The result: the site is about 2000% faster than it was 24 hours ago. If you run into any problems, let me know!

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I Sold My Truck

I sold my truck today. I had it barely a year, but have barely used it in the last couple of months. Now that Sarah and I work at the same place, we commute together. So I had only driven the truck maybe three times in the last two months, and then only because I felt like it.

In short, I had a truck that I couldn’t part in the garage (or even the driveway) at home, couldn’t park in the garage at work, and basically never drove. I’ll miss having a truck, but it just didn’t make sense to keep it.