The Life and Times of the Watters Family

A little more background on my decision to leave Toolhouse

I first started to get the itch to leave sometime during Summer 2002.

Change of focus — no more LightXPress or sophisticated web sites.
New focus — all Macromedia Flash, all the time — LAME

download Wolf Creek movie
Frustrated with the change, I began to explore the possibility of returning to the University of Washington to complete my degree. At that time it was the
Historically, the company had been a print & mostly-static web design company. The transition to more programming (yes, real programming) intensive projects was difficult because the assumptions behind print — when it looks right, it is right (and done) — didn’t transfer well to the web-based software world. Needless to say, that discrepancy was the source of much friction.

At the time, there were actually two programmer types on staff — myself and my buddy Brian Rollo.
Internally, my patience was becoming strained. Externally, I just kept working. I spent a lot more time at the office that summer than with my family, that’s for sure.

and it eventually culminated in a sort of “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore” moment.