Life As Nick Starr

Well as you may of read on my twitter feed or on here yesterday, my day job ended. Around 11am I was pulled into my boss’ office, and the IT manager was there too. My boss told me that they had decided to outsource my position (Director of Marketing) to an outside ad agency. The agency had “new ideas” for the company and provided them at “a lower cost.” I guess a company has to cut corners where they can, but when I did nothing wrong I felt I deserved a bit more then just the boot. I got no severance, no vacation pay only my last week’s paycheck.

They gave me a box to pack up my stuff (not having a house, I kept a number of things in my office). I was surprised they didn’t escort me out or watch me pack up. They ironically where nice till the end. I also was a secondary IT person for the company, and an employee there came up to me (not knowing I had been canned) and asked a computer question, which my boss saw me answer. I wanted to ask my boss if anyone there even know I was living out of my car, maybe to rub it in a little, maybe just to acknowledge that they were as observant as a blind person in a dark hallway, but my boss was so nice, I didn’t want to ruin his impression of me. He even offered me a good recommendation, as well as one of the VP’s of the company.

Well now what to do? Well I still blog professionally for Boy Genius Report, and will continue to do that.  I wrote recently about wanting to move to California, and now that I truly have nothing tying me here, it was one of the first ideas to pop into my head. The crazy part is my parents read my blog, and they even mentioned California for me. I was shocked that they would even suggest it, but they mentioned that they were in support of what would make me happy. It made me more confident about the possibility.

I’ve got a storage unit here that I’ve been cleaning out. I will finish doing that very soon and start selling a bunch of the items that are expendable for me. Currently my list includes:

• 51″ Sony HDTV
• 30Gb Black Zune
• Bose Quiet Comfort 3 Headphones
• MacBook Pro (so I can get downgrade to a MacBook and make a little bit while keeping a computer)
• Nintendo Wii

No clue on prices yet, and the MBP sale is only a possibility. I think I could get around $16oo-ish for it on eBay, but a new MB with tax is $1300, so is $300 really worth the downgrade? The Wii has 3 games (Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Madden 07) with 2 controllers I am thinking $225-ish for that (all prices based on eBay estimates). Bose headphones I will prob sell on eBay since their resale value is pretty high ($250+). The Zune I could sell for like $180-ish. The TV will be more of a Craislist item, for around $750.

If I sold all of those items for around those prices I wold make around $1700. Would help in terms of a financial buffer. I have a bunch of other items I could have a yard sale at my parents place.

Well now all that remains is getting a job. With all that I have to sell and items I would have to wrap up, I am considering a job temporarily for a month or so, maybe something 2nd shift, so I could still blog during the morning. I’m sure things will work out one way or another, it’s just a huge step moving across the country. As for this “3-day” weekend, I will be hitting up all of the job hunting sites both here in Tampa and in Cali. I could accept a job anywhere in the nation honestly, I just thing I would prefer to move to Cali or stay here in Tampa.

Well that’s the story….from here I’m sure there will be plenty of updates (especially with all the extra time I have). Here’s hoping everything works out for the best.