California – dan-menard.com

I was hoping to write a real post this week â€” ideally a follow-up to part one of the why I switched to Windows Phone saga â€” but my duties related to last week’s news have left me little time for writing.

Instead, here is a short list of things I have learned since deciding to move from Ottawa to California:

The Bay Area is arguably the most expensive housing market in North America.
About 1 in every 8 unprovoked and fatal shark attacks occurs off the coast of California*.
You can convert Celsius to Fahrenheit using the following formula: F = C / 5 * 9 + 32.
California is home to 33 species of snakes, 6 of which are lethally poisonous**.
With a bit of practice, you can draw a maple leaf rather easily using a series of straight lines and Vs.

Jokes and life endangerment aside, I’m still really excited to go. I’ve submitted my visa application information to Netflix’s team of lawyers, who will submit it on my behalf. I’ve also been in touch with Netflix’s relocation team, who will help me move a bunch of my stuff to California, and set me up with a car and a place to live for a few weeks while I make more permanent arrangements.

This whole process is completely new and exciting to me; I can’t wait to see how the next few weeks play out!

* Several people have tried (and utterly failed) to convince me that “there’s nothing to worry about”, as sharks only inhabit the southern regions of the California coast. (If you want a source for my 1-in-8 math, I counted 14 references to California out of 113 entries in (this list.)

** Fun fact: Snakes are my third biggest irrational fear. As you may have guessed, sharks take the top spot. (Heights are second.) Interestingly, I’m not afraid of spiders, despite the long list of infamously frightening varieties that are found in California.

You may have noticed that this blog has been a little… quiet, lately. In fact, at 28 days, this is the longest gap I’ve ever left between posts. And if you follow me on Twitter or Google+, you’ll notice I’ve been silent there, too.

What gives?

Well, I’ve been very busy with something I had to keep very secret. And now after a month of emails, phone calls, flights, worrying, and jumping up and down, I have an announcement to make:

I’m moving to San Jose and taking a job at Netflix.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

…

Ok, now let’s answer all the common questions:

You’re leaving Macadamian!?

Yes.

Macadamian has been a huge, positive influence on my life. It was my first software job, and I have about a million memories of my time there that I will cherish forever:

My first project for a real client.
My first blog post.
My first 80-hour week.
My first time surviving layoffs.
My first time seeing someone that I really cared about leave.

Those last two stung a lot. But the show went on, and Macadamian continued to do bigger and better things. I have no doubt that this trend will continue in my absence, and I’m so glad to have shared in its success for the past five years.

You’re really moving to California? (Didn’t you just buy a house?)

Yes. (And yes.)

I’ll be flying out sometime at the end of March; my darling wife will probably join me a few weeks later. The plan, for now, is to rent out the house â€” so if you’re looking to rent a townhouse in Gloucester, give me a shout. I’m also selling my car.

I’ve lived in Ottawa for my entire life. I will miss it immensely, and I will visit often. I’m starting out with a temporary visa, so I have a few years to figure out what the next few will look like. It’s both unbelievably exciting, and unimaginably scary.

In short: I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Netflix, eh?

Yeah!

I’ll be joining the Discovery Engineering team as a Senior User Interface Engineer. I’ll be responsible for any Netflix app that runs on a TV: game consoles, bluray players, Boxee, you name it. It’s going to be a blast.

My day-to-day will be mostly JavaScript, as the interfaces for those platforms are written in HTML5. I’m absolutely stoked to help craft an experience that will be seen by millions of users. I can’t wait to see what my team comes up with in the coming months and years!

This is a very exciting time in my life, and it’s been killing me to keep it under wraps. Going forward, I’ll be a lot more noisy about the daily joys and struggles of preparing to move across the continent, and to another country.

And hey, if you ever miss me, just sign into Netflix and fire up your favourite flick. I won’t be able to watch it with you, but I’ll do my best to make sure you enjoy it :)