Several months ago, I posted a status update on Facebook to let my friends know that my employment with my then-employer, Flock, was going to come to an end. Flock was bought by online gaming giant Zynga, and for various reasons I decided not to go along for the ride. Flock did need some ongoing help with the transition, however. We had a service and a few dozen servers online that needed to be kept up and running while things wound down. Flock asked if I’d be willing to stay onboard and help with that wind-down, and I agreed to do so.

Meanwhile, I interviewed at several places. Among them was a company named Automattic. Automattic is most famous for making WordPress (both the downloadable version and the service), though they provide other services as well.

I’m Christmas-morning excited to report that I’m a full-time Automattician as of today. I have the whimsical title “Happiness Gardener.” In a nutshell (without getting too technical about it), I’ll provide support primarily for the “Happiness” (or support) team in the form of internal tools. I imagine I’ll do some public-facing things as well, as part of assuring happiness among our users is trying to make it so that they don’t require support in the first place. I’m working with a great bunch of really smart, nice people, and I feel lucky to be invited along. After months of dragging along around my neck the albatross that Flock had become, it’s a real relief to have moved on and started a new and challenging venture.