My first real experience at a start-up has finally come to an end. It is a great product that had very bad timing. I expected us to weather the storm, but I did not expect my last day to be last week. I put in some crazy hours, worked around multiple changes, and made some friends along the way.

It hasn't been a total loss because I've learned a few things:

1. Things can change in a heartbeat.
2. Preparing for the worst isn't fun, but it is less painful than being caught off guard.
3. Nobody really fully understands javascript, but it's not that hard to learn.
4. Internet Explorer sucks, but its quirks can be worked around.
5. Ruby on Rails can be a lot of fun if you take some time to get into it.

All in all, it's been a positive experience.  I hope it does well, and maybe I'll have a chance to work there again.  In the meantime, it's back to ronin work on the WWW.