2 minute read

In May it will be 2 years that I have been in the Sunshine State (Florida). I am going back to Seattle and Microsoft at the beginning of February. I have met and worked with a lot of great people. I will definitely miss the town (Celebration) and the sun, yet I can’t wait to get back and take some of the great things I have learned from the people I have met while I was here. There are so many things I have done of the past couple of years that I don’t think I would have had the chance/taken the time to do if I didn’t live here. Here is a list in no particular order:

  • Day of Ruby Orlando - This is were I met Cory Foy, Corey Haines and a bunch of guys from HashRocket. These guys were great and put on a great day “boot camp” of Ruby. The best part, as always, was the after dinner party and the 50oz steak.
  • Big Nerd Ranch - This was an amazing trip. Brad Wilson and I spent an entire week learning Cocoa from Arron Hillegass. Great time with some great people.
  • Disney - What can I say: happiest place on Earth. One thing I have to do now is teach the kids that a park is swings and monkey bars not Space Mountain, Epcot, Big Thunder Mountain etc. I think it might be a let down.
  • Disney Cruise - Happiest place on the water :p. Spent time with Peter Provost and family.
  • Channel Intelligence - Met a lot of good people and probably the closest place to Microsoft I have been outside of Microsoft. Probably because it was started by a guy who worked at Microsoft.
  • Thuzi - I met Jim Zimmerman while at a Tampa user group meeting and got into a long talk about MonoTouch and iPhone development (over beers of course). He decided I was crazy enough to work with them so I took a job working on Facebook Applications running on Windows Azure.
  • TDD Firestarter - I met Scott Reynolds and Sean Chambers in Tampa and they talked me into being a Los Techie.
  • Tampa MVC User Group - David Hayden ran a great group and finally got to meet the man behind p&p on the East Coast.
  • Celebration- My little town. Love this place and I think I will miss this most of all.

I am sure there are many more things that I have forgotten yet all in all, great vacation. Lets go home Sparky!

Listened to: Bornlivedie from the album “Signify” by Porcupine Tree

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