I used to work at a place called The Voyager Company back in the mid-90s. We made CD-ROMs (remember those) back when CD-ROMs looked like they might be the future, at least for a little while. The place closed down in 1997, gave me a severance check I used to buy my first Jeep, and that was the end of that. Here’s a clip from an astrology CD we made:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTI-2emGAQ

Okay, so maybe it’s not such a huge mystery why the place went under. Or maybe it still is. I worked there for about two and a half years, testing software, managing the group of testers, and maintaining the testing “lab”, which was basically a couple of long tables piled with several out-of-date computers. We did make some cool stuff along the way, and any job that forced me to watch Spinal Tap, Robocop and A Night to Remember multiple times as part of my regular duties couldn’t be all bad.

The problem was, or my problem was, anyway, no matter how interesting a job might look to an outsider, eventually the people on the inside are gonna be sick of it. Do the same interesting tasks, or look at the same interesting thing, every day and it’s gonna wear you down. At least I have to believe that or else I’ve got to take responsibility for how most all of my jobs have ended. But really, could you look at this every day for a couple of months and not go just a little insane:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUQN98dKfuE

The only reason I’m even thinking about this old job is because I realized recently how much it contrasts to the job I’m doing now. On the surface, the jobs look the same. They’ve got the same title and fairly similar job descriptions. But the main difference is that at Voyager, I was mostly helping artists make their art work on new technology. At my current job, well, I’m not. We won’t get into who I’m helping or what I’m helping them do, but there’s not a whole lot of art going on.

As I try to squeeze some form of creative activity into whatever time is left over after work is done, I find myself thinking more about jobs I had where I got to do the creative work, or jobs like at Voyager where at least I was able to contribute in some way to someone else’s creative works. I have a feeling this will all contribute to whatever decisions I make when it’s time to move on to the next thing. Assuming the economy allows for such thinking and doesn’t, as it does now, force everyone to take whatever they can get and be thankful they’ve got it. But yeah, when I watch a clip like the one below, and recall the crazy days and nights trying to force the technology to do what the art demanded of it, and ultimately succeeding, it makes, for example, banner ads feel a little lame:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPYOSLqN5Ns

That clips is from Laurie Anderson’s Puppet Motel. I worked on the Mac version of it my first day at Voyager. A couple of years later when we wrapped the Windows version, on the spur of the moment I decided it should be my last day. I stayed because it was raining out and I wouldn’t have had anything fun to do in the rain. This was seriously my thinking on the matter that day. And that thinking reminds me not to get too nostalgic over the Voyager job, or any other job I ever had, because no matter how good they might look in the rearview mirror, there wasn’t a single job I didn’t spend some time trying to figure out how to bust the hell out of at some point.

But hey, Voyager folks, don’t think I hated the place. I didn’t. You were all crazy talented and I consider myself lucky to have worked with you as long as I did. I sure can’t say that about some places I’ve been. Time to leave the mid-90s back where I found them as I contemplate my next move.