3 choices and they're all bad?
How about the 4th choice of offering your services and experience to the world for a fee?
Work at your own schedule...
Only contribute to those projects you judge to be worthwhile.
Enjoy your knowledge.
Good night.
:-)
Choice #3 isn't too bad... for a while.
Done contract work before; it's not really for me (I prefer spending all my time of the technical stuff). But my job search is cranking up and I'm beginning to find ways to conduct it while avoiding the dozens of contract-house-bait job websites plaguing the Seattle area.
I also learned a couple days ago about how my industry rarely enforces non-compete agreements. Need to digest this for a bit before I do anything.