New job/career

Hi everyone! Long time. I just wanted to share what I’m up to, as it’s kinda fun and different.

For about 15 years, I’ve been operating as a one man “break-fix” operation for residential and small business custoners. It’s been a slog and 2/3 of the work has been actually obtaining the work while only 1/3 at most is actually doing it. And obtaining it isn’t easy. And it’s gotten tiring. And I’m sick of driving all over the place all the time. So, it was time for a change!

So what’s the natural progression for someone in my line of work? If you said “general manager of an indoor, monster-themed, blacklight-lit mini golf course/laser tag/arcade venue,” then ding ding you got it! (I’m surprised you guessed)

It’s a very weird new experience and I’ve spent the last 8 months just getting my footing. Geting used to running a 26K sqft store with ~18 employees at any given time. But it’s been a blast, the work is fun and always changing, and the job has been more rewarding than my previous work (which I still do a little of here and there).

So yeah, if you live in (or ever visit) northern Virginia in the US, stop by Monster Mini Golf in Chantilly and I’ll get you onto the course for free!

Congrats on the new gig!

Thanks! I'm loving it!

Running a small business can be very tiring, good luck with the new job

Very cool! I love indoor mini golf.

I had a lot of fun at a blacklight indoor mini golf place in Germany a couple years ago. Their facility had an added feature of using special glasses which gave the playfield a trippy 3D effect: https://golffieber-bonn.de/bonn-holzlar/

The 3D effect is called "Chromadepth" and it's very interesting. The glasses take advantage of chromatic aberration to make reds seem closer than blues. Colors and images are painted on the walls/course which are designed for the glasses. So you get the impression that you're walking on transparent floors and there are objects floating in the air in the room. It's like stepping into a 3D universe made out of those velvet blacklight posters from the 1970's.



Just make sure you use the correct kind of blacklight bulbs! Turns out that it's easy to accidentally replace decorative blacklights with germicidal UVC tubes, which will permanently damage your eyes. (Details about the recent "Bored Ape" incident in Hong Kong here.)

Matt, do you own the business, or run it on behalf of a different owner?

Woah that's such a cool idea! I wonder what kind of effect that those glasses would have in a place that wasn't designed for them Don't worry, our blacklights are specifically entertainment-oriented and designed by a company that makes them for concerts and DJ setups.

Just managing it! Would love to own it but sadly, I don't

The most important question: do you have an empeg in the house soundsystem?