It’s been three weeks now since I left both studio-life and advertising behind me, preferably forever. Listeners to the show might be able to pick apart that for years now I have been a designer among advertisers; an unenviable position and one I was loathe to find myself in, despite the myriad of professional opportunities that were flowing my way. Well, flowing at a rate of approximately 2 or 3 per year.

You share enough meal with Jow Duffy (re: two) and you’ll be convinced that advertising is dead. Not dying, dead. And thank god for it. For my money, you could tear down every billboard on the planet and the world would be much better and more beautiful for it. Try to name the last five billboards you saw, right now, and you should see my point. Or the last time you watched a recorded program without skipping the commercials. Or how many people you know (yourself, perhaps) who would gladly pay XM Radio a monthly fee in order to not subject themselves to advertisers. Before I brought my DVR home I was popping $4 a week into The Office and 30 Rock on iTunes just so I would get them commercial free. Being a believer in the death of an industry makes it really hard to work in said industry. So I’m out.

If I could have chosen the time, which I could not, I would not have chosen this exact moment in time. To put it another way, Armin made his choice to leave. My choice was made for me, but to my surprisingly great relief. About halfway through the conversation I looked at my to-do list for that day (a Monday) and sighed to know I would not have to grind-out the 20-hours worth of work on it. I left satisfied that the company who had employed me and I were no-longer a match for each other’s career goals, and in the elation of possibility that followed, I became drunk off the potential of the moment.

So many ideas! So many possibilities! So many directions!

This lasted for about a day. Confident in the fact that I never again wanted to find myself working 18-hour days and weekends only to be unceremoniously let go after it all, I began the journey into self-employment. And that is where I find myself today. It’s been three weeks since that decision (nice of Thanksgiving to pop up in the middle, there), and a lot has happened, and not a lot has happened. But rest assured that you’re not going to see three BADCasts in a row with no additional content on this site ever again, because I’m going to be right here, chronicling my adventures as they happen. This may mean that in some time down the road, you all may bare witness to my spectacular failure, and if you do, I promise to make it as spectacular as possible. Hopefully not. I already have plenty of stories to tell, and I would start telling them now except I have a few things to get done…

Tomorrow! Can a free blog function as a working portfolio site? Check back to see!