Chris Boyd
There’s still so much to say about NOLAbound, and I think there will be many more posts to come on the subject. But for now, here are 150 photos that hopefully capture some of the moments that are not easily described in words.
Today I was delighted to learn that my blog is far more popular in Houston than I had previously thought. How cool to learn that people find my posts about iOS apps, lovelorn Spotify playlists, and what I do during vacations in New Orleans so fascinating.
Dear New Orleans, First of all, I wanted to say thanks. I just spent a week touring your city from the perspective of an entrepreneur, with an unbelievable level of access to some of your best and brightest citizens, and had an amazing number of adventures in the process.
Now that we’re all settled in and fully immersed in the NOLAbound project, our group has begun to dive into the reasons why we’re here. There seems to be a different question for every member of the cohort. Some are here out of curiosity, others out of nostalgia, and others with a hard set question to answer. I’m a little of all three, but mostly the latter.
“In America, there is New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” – Mark Twain
You get off the plane in New York or San Francisco, and there’s an immediate vibe. You can sense it amongst your fellow travelers. It’s the friendliness in the eyes of the clerks in your terminal. “Welcome friend,” they say. “This is our city. Don’t fuck with it.”
I never intended to spend my twenties in the same place. The plan, always, was to bounce around: Houston for three years, then New Orleans, then Portland, maybe NYC or San Francisco, and then settle down again in New Orleans and start a family. Life had other plans.
I’ve worked on software of all shapes and sizes. One of the world’s largest open source projects. Small, back-office projects that never saw the light of day. All points in between. There really has never been a dull moment, because I love challenges, and as a developer I’m always faced with challenges new and old every day.
Yesterday I gave my small contribution to the SOPA STRIKE movement by blacking out my site using a design I created to reflect the eventual outcome of SOPA. It was a notice from the FTC that the site had been disabled for violations of the SOPA Act, and suggested that if the user desired more information they could file a Freedom of Information Act request, BY MAIL ONLY, at a snail mail address.
Right now as I’m writing this I’m about to board JetBlue Flight 620 to JFK. Like several other people, I’m using the airport’s free WIFI access point to get onto the internet. Free, public WIFI is something that’s become somewhat of an expected luxury in the 10′s. I’m rarely in a place that isn’t near some sort of open WIFI network.
2011 was certainly an interesting year for me: personally, professionally, politically, emotionally, the whole spectrum. In almost all areas, it began with peril, and ended with triumph. But I guess that’s kindof the way I like it.
