Ever get too Busy? Take the time...Learn

I thought I would take a moment today and re-invigorate a passion I have had for quite some time and that is blogging.  I apologize in advance for the incredible gap between this post and my last and certainly want to ensure you that I will try and avoid this type of gap in the future.  This post, though, is dedicated to my father who I lost on October 29th, 2006.  My hero would have wanted me to move forward and continue to seek the passion that is my life.  I miss you dad..

Introduction

Why the title?  It is easy to sometimes get caught up in life's day-to-day activites and forget to seek your passion.  I am often challenged by this because of the sheer volume of email that crosses my inbox daily - the typical life of someone working at Microsoft.  As reflection in the past few weeks has been a hot topic on my mind, I decided that it was time to make sure that I never got too busy to do what I love.  I have two passions in life - (one I got honestly from my father who served 23 years in the US Army training soldiers in the classrooms) technology & teaching.  I love to learn anything new about technology and in turn take time to teach others what I have learned.  For anyone wondering if I have ever used either of these two skills, take a moment to review the IIS Webcast Series and count the number of times you see my name as the presenter.

Recently, prior to my father's death, I got too "busy" to remember what makes me tick and why I love my job.  I love my product - IIS - and I love to teach my product to all of you.  I got too busy recently fighting this fire or that fire or running this project or that project that I failed to do what I love.  Reflection the past few weeks reminded me that we can never go back so make the most of today and never "wish" anything.  Because of that, I just want to let the world know that I promise two things:  to learn, to teach.  Oh, and to have fun...(guess that is 3, huh?)

Webcasts

First, the IIS Webcast Series will be re-born again starting early next year.  The focus of these webcasts will be on educating all of you on the current Windows Vista release with IIS7, as well as what is new and upcoming in Longhorn Server's release of IIS7.  You should believe me when I say that if you thought there was a lot to learn in IIS 6.0, let me just say "You ain't seen nuttin yet!"  IIS7 is an incredible release with unbelievable potential for all of you but what comes with all this potential is complexity and a learning curve.

These webcasts will target a blended audience as I try and help both IT Professionals & Developers learn more about IIS7 than they ever thought possible.  If TechNet will not have us, then I will use MSDN.  If MSDN will not take us, then I will use Live Meeting.  In either way, we will "Git-R-Done!" 

The topics are in the works right now (if you want any, let me know) but as soon as they are approved I will post them to IIS.NET's Webcast home.

Videos

Second, I am going to spend a lot of time these next few weeks not only experiencing IIS7 but also learning Camtasia Studio as it will become my next best friend.  I will apologize up front that I have tackled the task of making videos with my southern accent but each will be only 4-6 minutes long (limited time listening for your ears) and focused on a particular topic of interest to many of you.  When complete, we will make sure to get them posted to IIS.NET so those of you who don't have time to actually "do" stuff can actually just watch and learn.  We will start simple and if you have anything in particular you would like me to cover, drop me an email or a comment and I will see what I can do.

Articles

Last, it wouldn't be complete if I didn't also publish some articles on IIS.NET while at it.  This is well under way as I am currently in the process of moving all of our IIS Insider columns from TechNet to IIS.NET.  A huge thanks goes to Brett Hill, our Technical Evangelist for IIS, for starting this column way back in 2001 and it will be re-born once again on IIS.NET.  This time we will continue the tradition of having MVPs write the column and will pick this back up in February of next year.  For a review of the current IIS Insider columns, take a look at this archive.  Have a topic idea not already covered, shoot it over to me.

The next action item is to create a diagnostics portal on IIS.NET complete with details, descriptions, download links, and much more for all of the IIS diagnostics tools.  Today, you can pull the entire toolkit or individual tools from IIS.NET though you don't have a handy little area to review prior to download to see if that tool fits your needs.  We will have that soon so that you can make an informed decision and to also raise awareness of the tools themselves.

Oh, and lastly I can't idly sit by and help everyone else clean up their nice articles for publishing on IIS.NET.  I didn't sit on the sidelines when growing up and my dad wouldn't have wanted me to start today.  I will tackle the writing of my own, unique, articles with topics of interest that target IT Professionals.  Why not developers?  My roots are genuine and although I seek and strive to wear the propeller hat <g>, I will stay true to my colors and ensure to help my fellow comrades - IT Professionals.

Blogs

I can hear it now..."Dude, I am reading your blog - are you kidding me?"

Oh my friend, I will not forget all you RSS junkies either.  In my downtime while doing some soul searching (i.e. mourning), I have collected a laundry list of posts waiting to happen.  They are coming my RSS friend and they will start very soon.  Blogs are a nice, quick mechanism to learn new stuff but they do lack structure to be a true learning opportunity (my opinion which might cause fuss.)  I like the above three better but will also tap this new resource call RSS for an opportunity to learn. 

One promise:  My blog will not be an advertisement.  It will be posts only dealing with real questions and real answers.  It might not be up there with the top blogs of our time (i.e. our previous favorite David Wang, BillS, ScottGu and others) but it will hopefully serve useful.  If not, drop me a line and tell me to zip it and focus on other mediums...

Summary

I got too busy "doing my job" that I have forgotten to do my job.  An idle quote from a movie, but nonetheless dead on and recently I have been able to focus my attention on what drives me.  I don't design features, but I help design minds that use these features.  I offer many of you an outlet for learning that isn't available and most of all for Free. 

As I said to my dad in his last minutes, "Dad, there is going to be so many things that I would have wished I said, or I wish I had done and I am not going to be able to say it or do it.  Because of this, I just want you to know and remember this - You are my hero, my best friend, my mentor, and most of all a incredible father."  I might not have said or done all things I would have liked for Dad, but I am going to try and make sure I say all things and do all things I can to help you.  I vow to never get "too busy..."