What I find amazing after leaving corporate life is that there are actually other people out there in business. While that is a ‘super doh!’ statement, I hadn’t really taken the time to notice other people and what they do for a living. How many people actually work out of coffee shops, cafes and other public locations. The construction workers, office workers, waiters, public safety, librarians, mechanics… of course the list is endless, but how much we all interact and depend on each other’s services and abilities.
The shear number of people who offer services, sell products, etc… just doesn’t seem to sink in when you’re in a 6’x8′ cube worrying about some other entities (i.e. big companies) problems. While, I’ve been working on growing Avatar Consultants, I’ve been able to take a few deep breaths and look at what other people do. It’s opened my eyes to the real world again, something that I’d been missing in corporate and I revel in my newfound freedoms.
That is the makeup of my tasks this week. While I’m pretty much caught up on my email, I do have a large backlog of feeds that I need to parse through and read. Luckily Google Reader makes that easy.
As for the rest of the week, I’ve got a lot of work in the research and planning phases that will help me find and meet with new clients. I’ve got a number of ideas and will pursue them along with some good old-fashioned in-person networking.
A few things that are tripping me up this week are my phone and those little config details on my new laptop. My phone has been kind of goofy every since I got back from Florida last month, but it really is acting strange in the past week. I can’t seem to get everything to sync in Vista yet (though I have had it work in the past) and the alarms do not go off when they are supposed to. A little later today I’ll try re-flashing the firmware to see if I can weed out the bad apples on the darn thing.
Also, even though a person gets all the major applications, utilities, plugins, bookmarks and other such items set up on a new computer, there always seems to be some last little things. I seem to find that I’m missing little bits of productivity every 30 minutes or so, just because of a forgotten config, tool, bookmark and so on.
Other than that, it’s been a productive 1st half of the week, can’t wait to meet with a few other people that I want to connect with and see what happens from there.
So I’ve completed my last day with Michael Foods. The last two weeks have been an almost non-stop brain dump and documentation marathon. It’s taken extra hours each day and left me drained of ambition to do much else when I got home.
Now that this transition is over, I’m going to be able to focus my attention on clients. I’ve also got a lot of work to do yet with that – there is a tremendous amount of work on the web site that needs to be done, marketing materials (glossies, cards, brochures, letterhead, etc…), and numerous other items.
Still, I’m excited about getting started with Avatar Consultants, the name of my consulting firm that I’ll be working to launch over the coming weeks. If you visit the site, please be aware that it is still under construction. I’ll be getting a lot more done this coming weekend, but it may look a little sparse on the services and such.
So stay tuned, I’m going to be pretty busy, but I’m going to be blogging a lot more. I’ll also be on Twitter much more than today as well, just due to the nature of working in different environments and having the opportunity to network more.
This is a difficult post for me, and an exciting one as well. There are many good times that I’ll remember from working at Michael Foods, and I have to admit that I’m going to miss working with such a great group of people. Anyone looking to join Michael Food’s IT department couldn’t look for a better team of people – seriously, the people are great and the environment is a good one – don’t hesitate.
So why am I leaving? Because it’s time. I’ve been with Michael Foods for a total of 9 years, the first two as a contract employee, the remaining as an FTE. The experiences have been numerous and varied. It is simply time for me to take the next step in my career – my goals no longer match the needs of the position I held, I simply need more room to grow in the directions I want to pursue. Simple as that.
So, to my former coworkers, and friends that I leave behind on a day to day basis I need to say goodbye. I’m sure that I’ll get a number of calls and questions on a number of topics, but for many I’ll probably not be in touch. While this is a shame, I look forward to the possibilities of working with any of my former coworkers again someday in the future. Simply to all, I want to say thank you.
There have also been many, several people that I want to thank individually – and I couldn’t fit it all in my goodbye email, so here it goes.
Jon – For patience & answer for every question – you’re a good friend
Pat – For teaching me how to appreciate individuals potential & look for new ideas
Jimmy – As a mentor in leadership & team building
Craig – For the importance of bandwidth, details, & the big picture
Pete – For project management & planning
Deb – For people skills & career coaching
Guy – For a different perspective & approach to things
Again, to everyone else I’ve worked with at Michael Foods, both in IT and the business – thank you for 9 great years. It will not be forgotten. Best wishes to you and your future endeavors.
Sorry for being a day late, I ran out of time yesterday!
Today was the wrap-up of the main conference, as only the post-con sessions are left. It’s always kind of a let-down because you know that its almost over. Alright, there actually were several good sessions today. Here’s my recap.
Session one was The File Server Is Dead: Implementing Windows SharePoint Services Document Libraries with Dan Holme of Intelliem. Obviously, the main point of Document Libraries is to store documents from the Office Suite since Office 2003/2007 can publish directly to the DL. Other uses are searching documents, wikis, lists, RSS feeds, email notification, email publishing, collaboration, document visioning, the list can seem endless if you want to add 3rd party extensions. Very good session.
Session two called Goodbye RIS, Hello WDS presented by Jeremy Moskowitz of Moskowitz, Inc. covered Windows Deployment Services. Jeremy delivered a heck of a session diving into the differences of RIS to WDS, and how to leverage WDS for not only Vista and Longhorn, but also XP and 2003. Topics covered ranged from creating and managing boot images, to images, image groups, post install configuration, answer files, WinPE, BDD, and a smattering of useful tools for the enterprising admin.
After the coffee break, I went to Volume Activation 2.0 in Vista and Longhorn Server, hosted by Sean Deuby of Intel. A very interesting and very misunderstood feature of Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn is the activation schemes used by Microsoft. Sean demystified the process and the technology involved. There are several methods used for system activation and a good system architect will need to understand the needs of the business to decide on the best option. One learning from this – Volume Activation will be as important to your infrastructure as DHCP – prepare now. This was one very educational session, whether anyone wanted to hear it or not. Thanks Sean for delivering on a very difficult topic!
After the lunch break it was on to session four of the day. Cracking the DaVista Code: The Best Things You’re Not Using in Vista with Mark Minasi. This session delved into the hidden (or little-known) features of Windows Vista. Mark talked about things like the take ownership tool, elevated explorer, use of ALT in explorer, backup tools, using WinPE to backup systems to a network, tags & indexing, new built-in tools like RoboCopy, restoring missing UI features, new Windows Logo key shortcuts, resizing partitions, WAIK. All that and much, much more. If you ever get a chance to attend a Mark Minasi session – do it, he’s entertaining and educational. A hard combination to find in many seminars.
Finally, after another break, this time for ice cream :), it was the final session of the day (and main conference), the Q&A Closing Session. Here, all the speakers were available for any question (and many debates!) on attendee questions. As usual, there was several lively discussions on many topics, with much input from the presenters as well as the attendees because of so many ways business use technology, and simply perceive certain issues. Very fun!
Tomorrow is the post-conference session Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) Web Content Management with Bob Mixon.
Update: Bob Mixon had broken his ankle earlier in the day and the session had to be canceled. I transferred in to a different session on IT Provisioning with Dan Holme – more tomorrow.
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
