If everything goes according to plan, and let’s face it… it often doesn’t around here, then Season 4 of 360Prophecy will be kicking off with the launch of Mass Effect 2 later this month. There are a few small roadblocks in the way of that happening, but I’m hoping to get those cleared up in the next few weeks. “What kind of roadblocks?”, you ask. Well, for one I’m no longer in possession of any type of hardware to make comics. Before we get into that, however, I’d like to take a moment to thank Microsoft for awarding me my third consecutive MVP award. It’s been a wonderful journey over the years supplying Canada with comics and I’m very much looking forward to continuing for a little while yet. Very excited, in fact, as I’ve got a lot of great ideas I’d like to implement.
With that said, I need to get something off my chest. I’ve been trying to write this post for two months now and I’ve never quite figured out how to word it. You see, my personal life has been quite traumatic as of late. There’s no easy way to say this so here we go: I was laid off at the beginning of November.
I was informed by my employer that they were shutting down my office and that as of December 31st my services would no longer be required. Another victim of a ruined economy. Yay! As many of my readers can imagine, this upset my happy little life quite a bit. I was quite fond of my job and had worked there for over seven years. The range of emotions that I went through was vast and scary but I won’t trouble you with all the wonderful details of the sleepless nights thinking about my children and how I was going to get dinner on the table in two months time. No, the pertinent problem for YOU was that 360Prophecy was created using hardware on loan from my ex-employer. No hardware, no comic.
This also explains my absence from pretty much every social network that I visit. As much as I tried to keep a smile on my face, inside I felt destroyed and embarrassed. How would I ever face the world? Well, I couldn’t. So I’ve only tweeted around five times in the last two months and my inbox has been completely neglected. If you’ve sent me a message over the last eight weeks, I’m sorry. I couldn’t focus on you, I needed to focus on my family. I needed to get a job.
I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to do just that. I’ve jumped industries (the old one was a little chaotic), and landed in a position with a lot of exciting opportunities and a boss who has been treating me great for the last two weeks. He’s mentioned that he’s a big Halo 3 fan, so I’ve got a feeling we’re going to get a long just fine. I’m writing this post on my new company laptop and will have already started my first day by the time you read this. Even better, a portion of my severance pay is going towards purchasing a Wacom Cintiq 12WX. In my opinion, this is the second best tablet in the world and it’s a big step up from the Intuos 2 I was using before.
I think I’ve spilt my heart out enough for one day, don”t you think? Let’s just wrap this up. Thanks to all the fans for supporting 360P, we’ve got some wonderful things planned for you this year. The start is going to be a little slow, but we’ll be rocking out soon enough. Happy New Year!
~ Jeff
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Way to turn everything around, Jeff!
I’ve known about the layoff for a while now, and noticed you had gone silent on all fronts (you owe me an email, pal!). As much as I wanted to check in and see how things were going, I thought it best to give you space as I knew the pressure you were feeling.
I’m super happy that everything has worked out for you and your family! All the best is 2010, which seems to already be off to a great start for you.
Sorry to hear about your hardships, but it sounds like things are looking up. Hope your 2010 goes better than the end of 2009. Thanks for all your work on 360 Prophecy and in the Xbox community on the whole. You rock.
Man, what a crappy time to have that happen. I know it’s not really the company’s choice, but November/December is the worst time to have these things happen. I’m really glad to hear you’re back on your feet though, consider the speed of re-employment a testament to your greatness and here’s hoping 2010 is more than a little kinder.
I look forward to seeing, and crushing, you and Maranda online plenty more this year.
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