I loved arguing with my son about doing his homework

One usually doesn’t hear a parent gush about the near yelling matches with their nine year old son. I got into an argument with my son the other night. He wanted to play video games, and while Mario Maker is awesome he did have homework to do.

OK it wasn’t that bad of an argument at all. We worked it out pretty well, no real yelling. I used an illustration to help him understand how to solve a distance-between problem, he seemed to like that a lot. Art and math do coexist.

I loved the fight and the collaboration with him for a simple reason. It was the first time in several months that I was home at a decent enough hour to be able to help.

See my commute sucks. 132 miles a day, round trip by car. I have this little doohickey in my car that reports all kind of data. In my year end wrap up, it said I spent an average of 2.2 hours on weekdays driving. This was data from just September 19 to December 31. I’m sure the data that includes summer hours would have bumped up the daily average. Either way that’s way too much time to be away from my family.

I moved where I did without duress. No one forced me to have that commute. We did it to be closer to our extended family. Now, I’m moving jobs to be closer to my immediate family.

It’s also a chance to play more to my strengths, have some growth and gets me into a technology stack I’m excited about. It should also give me more time and freedom to grow Rigging Dojo, and experiment with VR/AR development.

I’m not sure what I can say about the new job at this point. I’ll be a Senior Technical Project Manager at a great Experience Design Agency in Portsmouth. It’s only a 25 mile round trip commute.

Leaving Turbine isn’t easy. I’ve been there for over eight years. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and learned from a few. I’ve made some good games, and sadly some didn’t see the light of day. I’ve help build a solid tools and infrastructure for artists to make their art; both more efficiently, and more effectively.

Thanks to the many great people who actually built the crazy ideas I came up with. I think I did a fair job of helping you grow, shielding you when needed, and giving direction and autonomy.

I’m leaving an interesting project with a huge IP and a lot of potential. But I’ll miss the great people I’m leaving most. That’s the hardest part.

However, I need to go fight with my kids about doing their homework, and maybe taking out the trash too.