Yup--a new job. It's a strange feeling after nearly five years with my previous employer, but the time had come to take on some new challenges and change things up a bit. I've joined a company called Optaros, based out of Boston, although I'll be working from the Austin office scheduled to open in 2007.
Optaros is an "international consulting and systems integration firm" specializing in "Next Generation Internet" development, with a strong focus on leveraging (and participating in) Open Source software. That last bit was particularly import for me, and thankfully, the Open Source and Agile Development memes run strong in the company. In fact, the culture of the company is probably the number one reason I decided to join, though it doesn't hurt that I've worked with some of these folks before (and was happy to be working with them again.)
I hoped up to Boston for my first few days, which was warmer or colder then Texas, depending on who you ask. The difference, of course, is that Boston had snow Monday morning, which was a welcome novelty for me. My time in Boston was spent getting to know people, getting plugged-in to the company, and wiping my new laptop to install linux.
It's an exciting change and hopefully I'll be able to share more details once I've had a few more weeks to get settled in.