February 9, 2007

The Pendulum Has Stopped

This should be the last-career related post for a bit.

As of today, I'm no longer searching for full-time employment. I've decided to take a full-time position with the place that I've been working at for the last eight weeks. (I'm going to continue to leave their name out of this blog, however. I will say that they are a non-profit organization, and the work is improving as time goes by.)

I'm still allowed to do contract work inside the games industry, and I'm in talks with a few interested parties.

In a lot of ways, I'm glad that I'm out but still have my foot in the door. Some distance from the industry will let me regain my sense of perspective about a lot of people, companies and practices so that I can approach them in a more logical (and sane) fashion.

A quick brain dump...

XNA Open Source Bounty: Still waiting on finalizing the arrangement with my partners. Just so you can have a heads-up as to what the bounty will be, it's going to be a C#/XNA port of either GLQuake or Quake II to work under Windows. Seperating out the networking so that it will also work on the Xbox 360 is optional, but would have a bounty "bonus."

Source Engine Mod: Have had no time this week, but have all weekend to track down my last bug.

Contract House: The company that bounced two paychecks is JAGTech & Associates. Since I still haven't received reimbursement for the bounced check fees, etc., I'm sending off a demand letter tomorrow morning. I'll keep everyone posted, because whether or not the "reason" the checks bounced was true or not, the company's behavior since has been inexcusable.

Ritual: Ten weeks, and I still don't have my stuff.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats dude, hopefully the stress levels will fall quickly.

How does one convince another company to return one's stuff? Never had the problem myself - people generally just give you your shit back cos they know it's trivial to waste time. What's taking them so long?

Steve said...

I know its been over a year since your latest blog, but i'm currently working for Jagtech&assoc and like you my first check bounced.. I guess my question to you is, was everything resolved, and if so was it all in a timely manner?

Michael Russell said...

No, he still owes me for my bounced check fees, etc.

The only reason that I got paid was the place I was contracting through put a stop-payment on future checks to JAGTech (the earlier checks he had already cashed) and they paid me out of that money what I was owed.

He claimed there was a debit card on the payroll account that got stolen and that's why everything had bounced, etc. I asked for documentation to back that up and I never got it. Don't trust them any further than you can throw them.

rippedoffbyjagtech said...

FYI,
Once more I have spent the entire day waiting to rectify this matter with no solution. My attorney has directed me to turn all evidence over to the State of Texas and Federal Government tomorrow at 3pm if full payment of monies owed to me is not received. I have been told that there is sufficient evidence to pursue both State and Federal charges in this matter, and I have agreed to bear witness and turn over all evidence I have compiled in this matter. I have also been told that there are several others who are being included as witnesses against:
Stephanie Gooden and Josh Herman
of JAGtech & Associates Inc.
in the charges of Fraud, Fraud aginst Federal Tax Laws, Texas Labor Laws, and Check Fraud.
From what I and my lawyer have gathered, this has been going on for quite some time.
You may be contacted by Detectives reguarding this matter, and your cooperation will be kindly appreciated.
Thank you,

rippedoffbyjagtech said...

FYI,
Once more I have spent the entire day waiting to rectify this matter with no solution. My attorney has directed me to turn all evidence over to the State of Texas and Federal Government tomorrow at 3pm if full payment of monies owed to me is not received. I have been told that there is sufficient evidence to pursue both State and Federal charges in this matter, and I have agreed to bear witness and turn over all evidence I have compiled in this matter. I have also been told that there are several others who are being included as witnesses against:
Stephanie Gooden and Josh Herman
of JAGtech & Associates Inc.
in the charges of Fraud, Fraud aginst Federal Tax Laws, Texas Labor Laws, and Check Fraud.
From what I and my lawyer have gathered, this has been going on for quite some time.
You may be contacted by Detectives reguarding this matter, and your cooperation will be kindly appreciated.
Thank you,

Anonymous said...

im sorry to say this but you will never see your money again. I know who your speaking of and Mike ive met you once or twice but i doubt you remember me. He didnt pay you, not because the debit card was stolen, but because he wasted all of his money before paying his overdue bills. So he claimed fraud activity with the bank so he would get his money back and keep what he bought. But dont be worried its all catching up to him. Hes in really big trouble with many companies and i cant name them. He fooled alot of people hes a habitual liar. Hes convinced himself that his lies are actually true i'm pretty sure theres something mentally wrong with him but i guess we will all find out one day.

Unknown said...

He's still doing it to people same guy same games here in myrtle beach a.c. it was fixxmycomputers.com