I just drove my 12 year old Jetta for the last time. I drove it 2 blocks to where it would be towed then donated to KQED. I never thought I would have been so emotionally attached to a car, but looking back over the years it’s no wonder this process has been tough. I got the Jetta handed down to me by my mom around January 2000. I don’t remember the day specifically but I do remember being so excited to drive it. That excitement stayed with me all 10 years I owned it. I was always proud to be the captain of that car even when two of its windows stopped rolling down, the CD player stopped working, the tape deck stopped turning, then the new stereo was stolen. None of that was the Jettas fault (and we put Sharky our pet shark who watches over the car in too late). The Jetta just wanted to get us from one place to another.
176,500 miles is a lot of distance to have memories of. They aren’t all mine but I’ll share the memories I have that coincide with photos I’ve recently come across. If you have any memories of the Jetta that you would like to share, I’d love to see them in the comments.
Traffic somewhere between LA and New Mexico. We get out of the car and make friends with a truck driver. The CD player worked at this point, thus Steve is choosing good “standing on the freeway” music. Note my ridiculously long hair. That night I slept with the back seat down, feet stretched into the trunk which we had cleared out.
The time I fell asleep behind the wheel with a big rig heading straight toward us. The guys thought it would be a good idea to grab a quick photo before waking me up. I’m glad they did. Date?
Surfs Up! Pink giant surfboard coming out of the sun roof, blue giant surfboard had to be held. Trunk open for good measure. Date?
The Jetta parked in front of our first apartment in San Francisco. Circa 2005.
The Jetta freezing it’s hubcaps off in the greater Tahoe area. This photo comes with a video.
The video that comes with the last photo.
I drove to and from the Bay Area a lot with the Jetta. This time was with Thom Smith on our way to “Beware O the Sombrero”, an ultimate tournament in the South Bay. I believe we were listening to AC/DC?
In college Steve and Drew would have been two of the more frequent riders of the Jetta. Both putting in their time in the back seat. Steve driving a bit and Drew doing his best to stay awake while I drove through the dark of the night.
It’s fitting that this next video be put in this post. It’s probably the video with the most Jetta exposure even though it’s a video I made to win a Ford Fiesta for 7 months. The car that ended up replacing the Jetta.
It’s no surprise that Claire would be sad to see the Jetta go. Claire easily put the second most amount of time spent in this car. Together we drove up and down the West Coast. The Jetta kept us warm, safe, and took us everywhere we asked it to. We’ll remember all the ultimate tournaments we went to in it, the times we went camping, or took it a bit more off road then it would have wanted. It drove us up and down the hills of San Francisco, through the Grapevine connecting Northern California to Southern, and through both Shasta and Tahoe. This car was ours through and through and we love it.
Working from home is definitely new to me. I’m still struggling with it a bit. I’ve been in an office nearly every working day for the past 3 years so I’m finding that I’m having to learn how to adapt to my “new” environment. You would think that it would be an easy transition, but it’s not. For example, I’m having trouble figure out where to work. I don’t work from bed because that just doesn’t seem right – bed is for sleeping, not working. The living room has lots of places to sit but really nothing very desk like. I spend a lot of time on the phone, and when I’m on the phone I wander; so I end up doing laps around my house. I almost feel like I should pick up knitting again since it would give me something to do while talking. Who wants a scarf? (I’m not going to make you a scarf)
At least I have a nice view.
Coffee shops have been nice – I keep my focus in coffee shops. The people around me seem like they’re working hard – and like an office you feel like you can’t get away with goofing off. The problem is I feel as though I always have to be refilling my coffee, or eating a sandwich or something. This means two things. One, I’m spending more money then I’d like. After all I could be making my own coffee. (Which I do – and i’m sipping on right now. *sip*… Yum) and I’m consuming more then I’d like. The next problem is I feel like I overstay my welcome after an hour or so. If I get something to eat I feel like I can stay longer but after that it just doesn’t feel right to me. So I either have to move to another shop, or come home. Also, I don’t like taking calls at coffee shops, and I don’t like when other people take calls at coffee shops.
So what to do? I’m quickly learning that I like being around people a lot. The phone calls help in that i’m talking to someone during the day, but it’s not the same as having someone working near you. I’m not sure if I need to arrange more lunch meetings, or take people up on working in their offices? All I know is that I’m going to need to figure something out.
So I open this up to you. There are so many of you that aren’t working in the traditional office, @carlosdavis, @brookr, @starmike, @thomasknoll (for a while), @dotben, @danmartell, @tapps, @faboomama, @banannie, Mom. To name a few. If you have any tricks or tips that you could share with a novice, it would be a huge help; and please pass this along to anyone else you think might have some incite.
After months of consideration, weeks of work, and nearly three years of blogging, I have decided it is time to change the image of my blog. I saved some cash and paid a professional to give my site a new look and feel – I would love everyone’s feedback.
What you see is my name in Helvetica, Bold, slightly over a blue gradient square. I personally think it’s genius, but please don’t let my opinion get in the way of your opinion.
UPDATE
A WhitScott.com reader has just informed me that Gap has the exact same logo. We must have used the same designer. Blast!
I recently went through some of my boxes at my dad’s house and came across some old posters. Worth highlighting are four “We Are Scientists” posters. If you’re not familiar with “We Are Scientists,” then you probably didn’t go to Harvey Mudd. Neither did I, but my best friend Drew did, and that was enough. When I found the posters I said on Twitter “just came across 3 @scientistbros posters from Claremont – They’re about 8 years old and hilarious.“. They responded asking me to post photos. It turns out I found four – see below.
Above poster: Bottom left corner reads “X: Graphic, beautiful nudity & strong, Highly Literate Language.” Also, “sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. And sometimes you do not.”
Above poster: The band member on the far right had hit his knuckle on something that night, and was bleeding. When signing this poster he pressed his bloody knuckle onto the poster over his mouth then wrote; “My dentist fucked up my braces removal – does this make me a badass? No. -Chris”. The “doesn’t get jokes” reference is to a joke that my buddy Brooke told during their concert. Sure Does… Former band member Michael Tapper wrote “Reach for the stars Whit” – which is exactly what my aunt would write. Michael bought Deluxe Boggle for me after the band lost my Boggle set the night before that concert.
Nothing to explain here.
Above poster: “Speechwriters LLC” was two guys, I think Misha Chellam and Dave Lowensohn, out of Pomona College. I somehow got my hands on their music around 2003, and have always hoped that they would go big too.
With all of that now out of the way – “We Are Scientists” and “Speechwriters LLC,” get in touch with me so we can do an interview over at Late Night Republic. Leave a comment or contact @whitscott on Twitter.
On the eve of my wife’s first day of work, I have decided to write about some of the changes that have occurred in the past six months of our lives. This is more a story of my changes than hers, but they’re so intertwined that it would be silly to not include some of hers. In April of this year Claire decided it was time to leave her job. That is the incredibly short, simplified version of her story. Moving on….
Luckily for us, we were able to save before Claire left work, and I am fortunate enough to work for a company that allows me to work remotely from time to time. This summer has easily been the most work intensive time of my life. About two months ago, I shot a video series with my boss on how to build your own brand online. The series then took me the next two months to produce, and is now being published daily online. Because these videos were my focus for two months straight I was able to take them with me on the road. I worked in coffee shops, I worked at friend’s houses, and I worked at all times of the day and sometimes late into the night. This was a time-intensive project, and has felt incredibly rewarding to know it’s all done.
When I finished this project a few weeks ago, I asked to go part time at Seesmic. Not because the project burned me out, or because I need time away from Seesmic – but because I decided, like my wife, that I needed to add something new to my life. I can’t leave Seesmic right now, I’m dedicated to seeing the company succeed. I’ve been there since day one, and I want to be there for the next chapter. But at the same time – I need something knew.
A few weeks ago I was hired by a television show based out of New York called “Late Night Republic” with Jake Sasseville. I’ve been put on the digital team to do a number of jobs – ranging from cutting and editing clips to post online, to helping create the new web page, running the Facebook and Twitter accounts, finding online personalities to feature on the show both online and on TV, and helping with ad campaigns created for our sponsors. Suffice to say, I have my work cut out for me, but I’m lucky enough to have a great support team at both companies.
So Claire goes back to work tomorrow, and I am partially relieved of my bringing-home-the-bacon duties. My work load has grown over the last few months, but so have I. This chapter of our life began with Claire deciding she was going to leave her job in April, and it’s clear that it’s not quite over.
I’ve been excited recently to do some more creative projects of my own. Every now and then I come across some music or a video that really lights that fire again. What I like about this video is the combination of Theatre with video – so well executed. Here is a video by Tim Halperin – She Runs
The YouTube pages reads “Official music video for She Runs, song available on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/bsBYaE Taken from Tim’s album Make Or Break. Video directed by Jonathan Combs and Joe Childress. Set designed by Sarah Rogers and Brent Richardson. “She Runs” produced and mixed by Brian Kieta. This is a Continuous Shot, One Single Take Music Video”
In college Steve and Drew would have been two of the more frequent riders of the Jetta. Both putting in their time in the back seat. Steve driving a bit and Drew doing his best to stay awake while I drove through the dark of the night. 
It’s no surprise that Claire would be sad to see the Jetta go. Claire easily put the second most amount of time spent in this car. Together we drove up and down the West Coast. The Jetta kept us warm, safe, and took us everywhere we asked it to. We’ll remember all the ultimate tournaments we went to in it, the times we went camping, or took it a bit more off road then it would have wanted. It drove us up and down the hills of San Francisco, through the Grapevine connecting Northern California to Southern, and through both Shasta and Tahoe. This car was ours through and through and we love it. 
