From a consumer perspective, most of us come from a very narrow software-driven experience, playing our first computer game, learning our first programming language or calculating our first spreadsheet. It has evolved to somewhat of a nebulous existence online using applications without reading manuals, reading books without paper, gazing at millions of pieces of art hung on a sheet of plastic, and more contemporarily without worrying about how much it all costs [I am specifically referring to Open Source software and Creative Commons attribution, not piracy]. This indicates to me how far software has come; in fact the word feels somewhat anachronistic. What we use or do with computers today seems so much more fluid and advanced which makes the possibly baggage-laden term seem archaic and weighty. When we use Facebook or Twitter do we think of it as a software application or as visiting or contributing to a community?

I’m not writing to address the nuances of software, but the nature of the products that the imagination and toil many people have offered up so that we might…socialize. That’s not a new concept but how we do it is novel. Social networks’ intrinsic online and boundary-less qualities go beyond what we might have envisioned for our own inter-personal communications some 47 years ago. I allude to the aspect of software and competitiveness because that is what we are used to seeing from companies used to selling their wares in a box for consumers to take home and pop into their computer. It’s a zealous competition of one purveyor seeking to do outdo another by having as large a consumer base as possible and trying to offer—whatever it might be—some magical snake oil to keep its customers coming back for more that doesn’t fit the mold of how I see social networks co-exist.

I don’t believe these networks should be seen as competitors but as neighbouring social cliques, albeit large ones. When I was young, I had a small circle of friends. These were typically kids with whom I went to school that, for the most part, also lived in my neighbourhood. The only far-ranging friends I had were the sons and daughters of my parents’ friends who lived elsewhere in town. My clique was small and it helped shape some of my childhood and formed a large portion of my memories associated with it. As I grew older, friends entered and left my life by way of school, work, university and social activities like my Tae Kwon Do classes. My life appeared to undergo cell division: every time a life decision was made, part of my life divided with the possibility of adding a group of new acquaintances. I’m certainly not a unique case and we often juggle these different groups of relationships effortlessly without a second thought. When we enter a certain routine like going to the movies, you go with certain people. When you go work out at a gym, there may be a different set of acquaintances. Granted, there can be an awkward moment when two groups of your friends collide yet somehow they find a way to determine their compatibility with one another. You’re simply the catalyst by which they meet. Relatives by marriage is a good example.

With that in mind, how can I not see these social networks as anything but different clusters of people you turn to and interact with depending on your needs and activities? I find that what I see, hear and contribute to these different networks differ as well. I’m not a different person on Facebook than I am on Twitter than I am on YouTube but I experience each community differently because what I get out of each is different. For me, I do not see a need for one social network to be better or bigger or brighter than another. Surely, each one has its own merits and its flaws they can improve on but in no way do I want one group to assimilate another. I certainly don’t want my friends and acquaintances to coalesce into a single Group either. That’s how I see the online social ecosystem. I think there are lessons to be learned about our effectiveness with something once you overload it with “features”. You can make numerous analogies about the retail software landscape and I still probably wouldn’t be able to apply it to social networks. And I would like the Mark Zuckerbergs and Rupert Murdochs of the Internet to see it that way, too.

Since my teens I’ve been employed by only three companies where the stints have been longer than a year, the most recent lasting 10 years. I’ve been fortunate that the gaps in between have been very small and generally taken up by school, family responsibilities and a bit of freelance work.

I’ve been working since the age of 8 (without operating a single lemonade stand) and I’ve always been occupied with achieving a lifestyle of working every day in order to be successful. I used to think that success didn’t mean I stopped working but rather that I earned a hefty annual salary and lived in a big home. Or something to that effect. My parents are immigrants and from traditional hard-working families so their perspectives contributed to the way I saw success.

Several months ago, my outlook changed. I became disillusioned with the corporate establishment and by virtue of the company’s evolving nature and my newly-enlightened perspective, we implicitly agreed to disagree. Now, I’ve left the big corporate world; I find myself cheerily without employment. In my mind, I had classified myself as semi-retired. That may not seem odd except for two important things: I’m under 40 and I’m not sitting atop a pile of cash (and no future windfalls that I am aware of), although I was prescient for some time about my departure and made plans accordingly so my cats would not go hungry.

My first step was not to update my resumé nor call my friends to check the hidden job market. No, my first step was to see what I would do with all my free time. You see, I wasn’t semi-retired; I had really entered into funemployment. Although I identify with some of what of L.A. Times reports, I am not enjoying my free time until all my money runs out, to “simply live for today” as they put it. Like some, I am taking the opportunity to learn more. Although there was a time when my job encouraged me to take courses and improve my education, it was difficult to balance with work and family. Now there’s more freedom without the pressures of formal schooling (involving exams and assignments). I’m able to spend more time with my family (I see this as an upside) and I am working on some personal projects, such as this blog. This hiatus also gives me a chance to really think about my future. There are a lot of indie developers these days that are sources of inspiration to me and I have built a network of friends and acquaintances through which I may yet find my niche. In the meantime, I’m mostly working on personal projects, learning some more programming, and helping the missus with her own blog.

Funemployment is not necessarily about slacking off until you’re broke. It’s the time you need to take for yourself to relax and eliminate any stresses you’ve built up from your most recent job. It’s the time you need to re-connect with your friends and family. It’s the time you need to plan for your future, immediate and otherwise. And it can still be the time for you to have fun and enjoy life.

Below are my tips to prepare for and enjoy your funemployment, and not get sucker-punched by reality at the end of it.

• If you are thinking of leaving or if there’s a risk of getting let go, no matter how distant it may appear, start saving money. Use a sock if you have to so that you have something to fall back on.
• Apply for unemployment benefits punctually when you’ve left your job. If you’re getting severance, your application may not need to be immediate. If you’re not sure if you qualify for the benefits, get confirmation; there is a small window of opportunity and even if you officially qualify you can still miss out.
• Savings + severance + unemployment (best case scenario) can make your funemployment go a loooong way but it won’t last forever. Consider your job strategy and make plans for finding work before the end of it. Now you can go to interest interviews without worrying about ducking out of work or taking 2-hour lunches.
• Keep your options open if a great job comes up. By all means, be picky and spend more time to consider it.
• Use your time to catch up with friends and family; whomever you never get a chance to see because of work.
• Have a loose routine. Feel free to veer from it but allow yourself to return to it if you start to feel discombobulated.
• Consider doing something productive during funemployment. It doesn’t have to feel like work – it could be catching up on your hobbies or projects that have been placed on a backburner.
• Enjoy your freedom but don’t become a shut-in. Get out of the house and hang out at a coffee shop if you have to.
• This is an amazing opportunity to travel longer than what most jobs can offer as vacation time.
• Enjoy it.

Whether someone reads my commentary or finds it useful is not important, although flattering.

A blog doesn’t have to be a story but it can be. In my case, it may be simply a long-running commentary. It won’t necessarily have a start. It certainly will have a middle, and maybe, one day, it will have an end.

At the very least, let’s start with why I’m writing a blog at all.

Like many people of my generation, I started using computers in my early teens. My use gathered momentum; it was fueled easily by curiosity. By the early 1990s I had access to e-mail, early WWW and other Internet protocols. This felt like light-years past calling up BBSes. Trust me, I don’t feel that old (I’m in my 30s) but it does feel like a bygone era. I’ve always learned much from the Internet and from friends that I connect with online, and I still do.

I have, however,  grown from a more introverted and insular personality into a slightly less socially-awkward one. I think so, anyway. When I was younger, I was very happy keeping my opinions to myself. Now, I am more keen to opine and discuss with my peers. Some people call it geeking-out but whatever.

In 1996, I was involved in various things Internet-related. I maintained the unabashedly popular Gillian Anderson Home Page (which has inspired others), contributed to the Unofficial ER (the television program) FAQ, wrote comic book reviews for an online Superman-related newsletter, The Kryptonian Cybernet. Since then, I’ve gone on to work mostly in the IT industry but never quite found the time for such engrossing pursuits again. At least, until recently. When I worked on those fan-related interests, those were all labours of love. There was always material to be had to share with others. With a blog, I find there is a certain writer’s mentality that goes with it. Information or commentary comes from within. Much is created from within and only a portion – on a good blog – is culled from without.

And to finally get to the point, I now have a lot to say, and a lot more free time in which to speak.

My interests haven’t necessarily changed. Like tides, they have always been there but some ebb and others flow. What you will read on my blog are my experiences as well as my interests that are on the crest of those high tides.

If you manage to get this far and decide to come back, please bear with me as I go through the growing pains of writing. I hope to make it as unpleasant as possible for both our sakes.