The new and improved me

The last few months of my life have been jam-packed, although it has seemed like a sabbatical of sorts.

 

Around mid-December we (Pluralsight) finished a fairly big content development project for Microsoft, which dovetailed nicely onto our inaugural .NET Campsight event in November. Then, before the holidays hit, I was  able to find a chunk of time to thoroughly organize my thoughts on contract-first service design, development techniques, and tool support, which turned into a nice two-part series for my column, Service Station, in MSDN Magazine. I shipped the articles the week of Christmas and was quite happy with how they turned out. Although they won't hit the mag for another few months, I've been dying to get this done - covering the topic in-depth, starting with fundamental issues and motivation, but also including practical coverage on how to make it work for you today. I have more to blog about on this topic, especially after spending more time with Christian's awesome tool, but I'll save that for another post.

 

After shipping the articles, I made a clean break from the laptop and all things technical. I immersed myself with my family and the holiday season. We had some big reunions on both sides of our families, and literally "tons" of good food. I was also heavily involved in a variety of church and youth activities throughout the season, which always helps me appreciate different perspectives and situations. The holidays often have an awakening effect on me, not just in terms of resolutions, but something deeper that helps me reconnect with myself and those closest with me. This was especially true this year for some reason.

 

One of the pragmatic results of my annual awakening was a desire to become completely organized and clutter-free, removing many of the things that just get in the way and don't contribute to my activities. A while back I wrote about how a realization that I was becoming a pack-rat like my grandmother. Over the past few weeks, I did something I never thought I would do…I slowly chipped away at the rats nest by throwing out mounds of items that I once found so valuable. For example, I got rid of years and years worth of magazine issues including those from MSJ, MIND, MSDN Magazine, and others (who needs 'em with Google?). I tossed several storage containers full of MSDN CDs and DVDs, keeping only the most current that I actually use periodically. I gave away boxes and boxes of technical books that I haven't touched in years. At moments I couldn't believe what I was doing, but at the same time it felt so liberating. I just kept reassuring myself "you haven't touched it in years…why in the world would you ever need it?"

 

I don't know why it's so hard to part with stuff that's closely related to your career, but it is. I gave away old computers to others who would make better use of them. I junked boxes of miscellaneous hardware components that were way out of date . I gave about a dozen backpacks and computer bags (swag from conferences over the years) to the local thrift store where they could come in handy for students. I even emptied my closet by giving away what seemed like hundreds of conference shirts, which bought me major points with my wife. And the work didn't stop there - it continued with the same cleansing of my files, email, photos, music, games, etc. And one weekend while I was camping in snow caves with a youth group, my wife surprised me with a complete office makeover, new furniture and all. What a change.

 

It now feels completely different when I go to work in the morning… It was long overdue - something that everyone should do every decade or so. :-P

 

Oh, and like everyone else, I got deathly sick for a while.

 

I'm now preparing for the second installment of .NET Campsight (Feb 28, 2005), which has some nice upgrades since v1. The biggest change is that it will have more BizTalk and Sharepoint coverage, not too mention a better location at the Redmond Town Center, a spot that has something for everyone. We've tried to keep what everyone liked best from v1 and chucked what they liked least.

 

We've also been busy getting the rest of Pluralsight's curriculum in place for 2005, which will go live on our site rsn. In addtion to planning and writing courseware, I'm also involved in a few other non-training/writing projects, but I can't say much about either of them at this point.

 

I'm really excited about 2005, especially with my new-and-improved perspective. I hope all of you have productive and successful years, and if you need any tips on getting organized, give me a holler…I'm quite good at it now.  :)  Anyway, I'd better get busy…