On second thought, perhaps the week before Christmas — which this year is two weeks before the New Year’s holiday week, and three weeks before CES — wasn’t the best time to uproot things when it comes to the daily workflow, but what the hell. What’s done is done. After four years of working from home — in my bedroom, no less, losing my office once we had our second daughter — I’ve found a new office to call home.
It’s funny how it can take a while to get moved in, though. This is a job that can be done anywhere. I’ve done it from too many airplanes. From a train from Los Angeles to San Diego. A racetrack in the Detroit suburbs. Outside the U.S., from such faraway lands as Spain and England. Canada. Germany. France. The Netherlands. South Korea. Minnesota.
So what is it about these bare white walls that makes it all feel so different? I dunno. But I do know that I’m in an interesting place — the top floor will be dominated by the University of West Florida Innovation Institute — and am among the first third of private tenants to be working in the DeVilliers Square building, which is still undergoing its $1.25 million rehab. And it’s located in the historic Belmont-DeVilliers area of Pensacola, which is seeing a pretty major revival. Plus there’s an awesome burger joint across the street, as well as the Five Sisters Blues Cafe. So there’s that. Maybe will have to set up a local meet-up at some point.
It’s going to be a fun 2014.
Other thoughts on the week that was:
- This Christmas week weather is ridiculous. High of 75 (and 100 percent humidity) on Sunday. Low of 35 (or lower) mid-week.
- It’s funny how many folks think smartphones are a zero-sum game. There’s something for everyone, and this year has seen more excellent high-end devices than ever before. Just because we believe the Moto X is the best Android smartphone you can buy doesn’t mean the likes of the Nexus 5 or LG G2 or HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4 are bad phones that you shouldn’t shell out for. Quite the contrary.
- And the more I think about it, the more I think the LG G2 didn’t get anywhere near enough love this year.
- Glad to see ROM Manager quickly restored to Google Play, with all its stats intact. But it was disappointing to see such a public hanging of Google with only one side of the story told. (Though I certainly can understand the initial freak-out. I probably would have done the same thing.)
- Bad Religion’s “Christmas Songs” album is what Google Play Music All Access was made for.
- Should have more info on our CES coverage coming up this week — but this is shaping out to be really interesting. It’ll be nice to do something different, an not just run around like madmen trying to cover everything.
- I’m thoroughly enjoying our “Through Glass” series. Makes me feel like a “normal” reader when editing folks from outside our normal circle. If you haven’t checked out Jen McEwen’s piece from this weekend, do so. And next Saturday’s should equally great.
- I don’t know how long it will continue — but we’ll keep it going until it’s no longer interesting, I reckon.
Hope everybody has a good holiday break. But for now, let’s get back to work.