About
Chance is a web drone for a interactive agency in lovely New Jersey. He’s been banging away at digital media for years. He has yet to come up with that genius idea to set him free. At least he doesn’t have to wear a name tag…yet.
My Timeline
It’s good to look back every so often to see where you’ve been.
2006 – 2008 – Broke my promise and started at another agency, but this time I didn’t work directly with clients so I took the chance.
Things have begun to calm down with the kids as my daughter gets older. They fight all the time. Both my wife and I were only children so it’s difficult to understand why they fight. Sold our first house in the nick of time (before the housing crash) and moved into my in-laws house. We will hopefully buy their house soon.
2005-2006 – Finally found a job in New Jersey at Audible.com. No more 3 hour commute to NYC. In the beginning, I liked working at Audible. A small company with an interesting product (audiobooks). Unrealistic expectation (we’re going to be a billion dollar company!) sucked the life out of the place.
Had my second kid, a girl. Now I have both favors. Lesson: It takes more than two people to raise two kids. It’s exponential after the first. Bought my first house.
2003-2004 – Jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Got a job at Tribal DDB (interactive agency). I had a terrible time there. Awful clients and co-workers. Promised myself that I would never work with another agency again. Lesson: Never say never.
2000-2002 – Wife got a job in New York at Mail.com. The job market was insane at the time so I was able to land a good job at Siegel & Gale (branding agency) as a project manager. Got some good experience there. Things went south at S&G after 9/11. Fortunately my wife and I moved out of NYC to New Jersey a week before. I got stuck in California visiting friends. I basically laid on my friend couch drinking Code Red and Vodka (aka “The 9/11″) and watching the TV all day until I could finally get a flight back. The flight back was very silent and eerie.
I had my first child, a boy! Transition into fatherhood. Challenge: learning to sacrifice.
1998-1999 – Move to Dallas for a job at Bank One. Dallas is a waste land of strip malls and chain restaurants, but I got to teach myself web programming (HTML/CSS/Cold Fusion/SQL) which help me tremendously.
Got married!
1995-1997 – Graduated from UCSD. I thought to myself “Now what?”. Economy sucked at the time so I decide to go straight to graduate school. A friend of my dad’s told me about a school called Thunderbird, a international business school, in Phoenix. Sounded interesting so I went. It turned out to be a great choice.
Met my future wife at the pub on campus. I remember exactly where I was standing when I met her. It was very crowded and my back was to the bar. She was standing in front of the pool table. I was drinking rum and coke. There were a bunch of shenanigans after we met, mainly me being an idiot, but I finally came my senses and realized she was the one.
After graduation I moved back to San Diego and worked as a temp at a Marketing Research company. I was basically waiting for my wife to graduate from Thunderbird (she was 1 semester behind me). When she graduated, we move to San Fransisco for a year where we temped.
1993-1994 – Through a program with at Palomar, I was able to transfer easily to University of California, San Diego. The weird thing is that my dad took me to some UCSD orientation when I was about 12 years old. I guess it stuck in my mind because that was the only college I saw myself going to. Good school, but it was a lonely time for me.
1990-1992 – I did not have the grades or maturity level to go to a 4 year college so I ended up at Palomar Community College. It was basically a high school with ash trays. It was actually good for me because it opened my eyes to the fact I needed to get my act together. Most of the students there were on a path to nowhere land.
1986-1989 – High School. Fairly uneventful. My parents did leave me alone 2 summers to go to Europe. I had a few parties and hung out. Luckily I did not cause any damage to the house, myself or anyone else. My girlfriend at the time did try to beer bong a bottle of champagne (what is it with me and champagne?). She did not feel well afterward.
1985 – My dad took my friend Justin McGough and I to Europe. He was conducting a tour of art students through the major museums and works of art in Italy, Germany, France and the UK. I got in a ton of trouble (drinking and girls). My dad threatened to put me on a plane back to the US after a shot a bottle of champange out my hotel window. The champagne spray down on the hotel manager below my window (my bad). Greatest trip ever!
1982 – I was supposed to go to Del Dios Middle School, but I got sent to San Pasqual Union. I was very sad because all my friend went to Del Dios. San Pasqual was a small school that had an Indian burial ground on it. The best teacher there was Mr. Bacher. He retired in 2008. My best friend was Shawn Snow.
1978 – Not sure, but I think this is when I started Elementary School at Juniper School in Escondido. My best friend there was Chris Armstrong and there was a girl named Tracy who I had a crush on. The best teacher there was Mr. Sheppard. He brought a van from my dad years later. My dad still loves vans.
1974 – My parent took me to Europe. All I can remember is feeding ducks in a pool in London and getting lost in Amsterdam.
1971 – Birth. Palomar Hospital (Escondido, CA).