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Thanks everyone for the encouragement...I have about three more chapters and John has about one more to write for the book (yeah I'm the slacker). At the end of the weekend early next week I'm hoping to make that two chapters and then the week after than only one...It's coming along pretty nicely. If anyone is interested in pre-ordering here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/SharePoint-2007-Disaster-Recovery-Guide/dp/1584505990/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223191459&sr=8-1. I know that a few people had commented or e-mailed me and I never responded. I am all over the place coming up with new things to do. I am going to be getting involved with Tech Masters in KC and ramping up on recruiting more people for the Office Geeks. I still want to do the comic and start a student initiative at a few universities in the area so that we can get more college kids involved in user groups. If anyone has talked to me I kind of want to get kids involved by doing some form of ride share program. I also want to speak at a couple universities to spread the word about user groups. I know when I was in college nobody told me about all the great community stuff. I didn't find out until sometime early on in 2007. Look at all the positive things that happened in my life: - I quit World of Warcraft
- Got an awesome job working with the product that I love
- I'm writing a book
- I became a user group leader
- I started playing Rockband (.Net User Group Installfest was the first time I played)
- I met a lot of good people (Lee Brandt, Scott Spradlin, Paul Galvin, Rob Foster, Jeff Julian, John Alexander, Doug Butscher, Michael Lotter...)
- I spoke at a conference
- I spoke at a couple code camps
- I got to visit a couple cool places, including Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Washington D.C.
I guess the only thing that sucks about this year I realized last week. To go to the code camps and conferences I had some help, but I paid for some stuff out of pocket. That meant that I had no time to visit St. Louis once a month, so I went every three months or so. I kind of lost a lot of time with my friends. I kept in touch somewhat on the phone and im, but it's just not the same as I saw last week when I went to St. Louis. I miss Leah the most. We were both kind of the outcasts from high school. I guess what I learned the most this past year is that you need to find the group of people where you fit in. I feel like I fit in within the SharePoint Community and it's kind of nice. I don't regret anything I did this past year. I will probably do even more later on this year and in the upcoming year. I am going to try to at least speak once a month in 2009. I want to try and speak at two conferences and maybe 10 code camps or user groups. After the book is finished I am going to start working on my comic, the college student user group stuff, and then maybe help out with some ISPA stuff. As for speaking engagements I am attending Tulsa Techfest next week (two cans of food a day or $2 and you get to see me speak twice, plus Michael Lotter and the SharePoint Cowboy, Eric Shupps). I am trying to get into the Tampa Code Camp and Raleigh Code Camps in November and December. I am going to try to hit up the Jacksonville Office Geeks in February and maybe the Best Practices Conference (if I get in that means I'm down one conference and need to find another). If anyone has a good idea for a speaking engagement let me know. I like to hit code camps in areas that I love or areas that I have never been. One of my best friends really wants me in Salt Lake City next year and another one wants me to go to Portland. I have never been to either state. Anyway, I know the really cool code samples have been light lately. I should have something in the next few weeks in store with my Silverlight and AJAX Demos. If not I'll try and play around with some stuff for fun. I get a little antsy if I don't touch code for too long. I'll catch you all later.
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