Pittsburgh-Bound

• 01 June 2012

After four and a half years of living in New York City, my wife and I will soon be calling Pittsburgh, PA home. Thankfully, I have the opportunity to work remotely for R/GA, so that means I will continue working with super creative people on really exciting projects. That makes me very happy. They're also sending me away with a shitload of testing devices to help create and test great multi-device web experiences. That makes me very very happy. And on top of all that, a good deal of my role moving forward will be to help educate, write, speak and create tools for the agency and the community at large. That makes me very very very happy. Things I'll Miss about NYC

• All the fantastic friends I've made over the years
• The melting pot of humanity that somehow manages to coexist
• Riding my bike over the Brooklyn Bridge
• The inspiration that comes from being constantly surrounded by art, culture and diversity.
• The amazing food, including the massive selection literally right down the street from our apartment
• A whole lot more

Things I Won't Miss about NYC

• Rats
• Cockroaches
• Relentless jackhammering at 3AM thanks to Jay-Z's stadium being built right across the goddamn street from us
• Our asshole neighbors who have blasted their rage-inducing reggaeton music through our walls for 3 years
• The smell of hot garbage/decomposing matter/human piss/dog piss/dog shit/human shit on a summer's day
• An ever-present pressure to perform
• The rent

I've had an absolutely amazing time in New York and I wouldn't trade my experience here for the world. The great thing is that I'll still get to visit on a regular basis (including just a few weeks after moving), so I know that New York won't be too far away. So Why Pittsburgh? Naturally, people have asked "Why the hell would you want to move to Pittsburgh?" Well, there are a lot of reasons:

• I'm extremely excited to see my family a lot more
• Our twin nieces! I mean just look at them!
• Seeing many of my lifelong friends that are still in the Pittsburgh area
• A different pace of life. We've been going balls-to-the-wall ever since we've been in NYC. The crazy pace has gotten us into trouble many times and has negatively affected both our physical and mental health. We still want to kick ass, but realize we need to take a breather from time to time. I'm hoping the relatively slow pace of a smaller city will be good for us.
• Access to nature. I'm originally from a small town north of Pittsburgh that's right on the river. I love hiking, biking, camping, canoeing, etc and can't wait to take advantage of the gorgeous rivers and mountains.
• I want to see what it's like working from home.
• I'm super excited to contribute to the Pittsburgh web community. Between Jason, Val, Bearded, Full Stop (the Pixelworker guys), and many many more, there's so many talented people and great initiatives going on. I love Pittsburgh and want to do anything and everything to make the web community there great. There are great things happening in NYC, but I feel I can make a bigger impact in a relatively smaller city. I can't wait!

Ultimately, I've learned over the past few years that physical location matters less and less. Every day I talk to and learn from people from all over the world. That concept still blows my mind. So while my physical location will change, my source of creative inspiration will not. I'm extremely excited. Life is good. *[DETAILS]: Device, Environment, Time, Activity, Individual, Location, Social

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