I’m no longer the IT Director at Latina… because I’m now the Director of Information Technology and Digital Media! The promotion is something that had been talked about in the past, but official word got out from the Publisher/Co-President of the company on Tuesday afternoon:

It is with great pleasure that we announce Matt Fox’s promotion to Director of Information Technology & Digital Media here at Latina Media Ventures.

Matt joined Latina in June 2007 as IT Director.  While his primary responsibility was the network, all things IT here at Latina as well as IT troubleshooting, Matt soon began using his considerable talents to assist with Latina.com.  He has since been incredibly instrumental in executing our brand new re-design; beautifully so and in a very short turnaround time.

Boom.

I’ve had the chance to do a lot of really great work during my time at Latina; some of which was expected of me, some of which wasn’t (and was made painfully clear at times), and it feels great to know they’ve noticed the results. It doesn’t really mean much of a change from the work I’m already doing, but I will have a couple of people answering to me now.

There was plenty of time to think about my promotion, and some other stuff, during the train ride home on Tuesday afternoon. There was a fire in a switching tower outside of the Long Island Rail Road’s Jamaica station on Monday morning, causing a ton of train cancellations and schedule modifications all week long. I don’t know how the LIRR managed, but it turns out that they’ve been using the same switching system in the affected tower for 97 years. Considering the lack of upgrades, I guess it’s safe to assume that the majority of the $400+ I pay each month is going overtime pay for the hordes of LIRR staff working on the problem, and not proactive (and long overdue) upgrades. OK, that wasn’t fair – they do have a new system going online in 2 months, but they could at least work on keeping the “blue juice” from the toilets in the trains from getting on to the floors.

Monday was worse; The LIRR simply stated that train service would be suspended, and took a couple of hours to even explain what was going on. Luckily, my co-worker, Cameron had rented a car to finish up some personal items and offered to drive me out to the island. It worked out well – I got home and he was able to go to some of the larger chain stores out here. Sure there are Target and Home Depot locations in the city, but are they as huge as the ones out here AND conveniently located just minutes away from Taco Bell and White Castle? I got a shot of Cameron (above) posing with some buckets at the Home Depot. We have a friend named Luis. He loves the buckets. We don’t know why. We don’t ask.

As I said earlier, the extra long commute time back and forth from the city left me with plenty of time to think. It’s amazing to see just how much can happen over the course of a year.

About 12 months ago, I found out that Latina would be moving to new offices. The timing completely sucked. I was planning on taking a trip to Sweden with some friends, and the day we’d all be leaving the States happened to be the same day as the move. Needless to say, I had to skip the trip and work on getting the new office ready, prepare the network for relocation, etc. 2 months later, we were moved in to the new space and did so without any major issues. Once I had the chance to sit down and get myself settled in to the new space, I realized how unhappy I was. Work was boring the hell out of me, and there was an overwhelming amount of it to do. I had to put my side projects on hold and never seemed to have any time for myself or anyone else. Any spare time I had was used to spruce up my resume.

Around 6 months later, things were improving. I had some new, interesting, projects going on at Latina and I was able to make more time for myself. I was still pretty swamped with work, but I was much happier. Several months went by, and things were great. I went back to the drawing board on ledouche and came up with the hand-etched flasks idea. The creative juices were flowing again and it felt good. I was even taking the time, literally dropping everything, to relax and be around friends and family.

Things really were good, until I had a bad moment at work. I was having one of those days where things were piling up from all sides. Those happen to everyone now and then, and I can usually deal with them, but that day was different. I had a moment of anger and unintentionally directed it towards a good friend. I said what I said, packed my bag and left the office. One of my buddies happened to be working from home that day so I decided a walk down to his place, from 59th street down to 13th, would give me the chance to clear my head and get myself back to normal. That was about 2 months ago, and she still hasn’t talked to me since. I’ve apologized several times, and have expressed how ashamed I am of myself for what I said, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. Hopefully she’ll speak to me again, someday.

Fast forward to today, and things are great. Sadly, a day doesn’t go by when I don’t think about what a dick I was a couple of months ago, but I try not to dwell. There’s the promotion, I’m busy working on ledouche, and I’m keeping a really good balance between work and my personal life. Actually, the two of them bleed in to each other quite a bit, but it works out well. Overall, my health is good, but I may have to go under the knife soon for some preventative maintenance on the guts. I’ve also been boxing, only with exercise and stress relief in mind, for the past 6 weeks and I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever decided to do. I work out with my heavy bag for about 30 minutes, and then ride my stationary bike for about an hour, 3-4 times a week. I’m feeling better, sleeping better and there’s a little extra room in those Fred Perry shirts I’ve stubbornly been wearing non-stop all summer.  On top of all of that, there’s a Suburban Legends/The Aquabats/Reel Big Fish show in November! Can it get any better? Of course it can – just add some buckets! BUCKETS!

The Aquabats were recently released from their contract with Nitro Records. This is a huge disappointment, especially considering the amount of activity that has been coming from them over the past couple of years. There was the special one-year anniversary edition of Charge!!, Yo!, Check Out this Ride, Christian Jacobs’ involvement with Yo Gabba Gabba, The Aquabats Super Show, as well as a few club tours.

If they ever come to your town or anywhere nearby, go see them. You won’t regret it. Their live show is absolutely crazy, and it’s sometimes harder to tell just who is crazier – the band or their fans. I’ve seen people dressed up as spartans, Mr. T, huge banannas and other things at their shows.

Continue Reading…