A Pirate looks at 40 - Personal Note

Added the picture from my email just now at noon.

Jimmy Buffet got it mostly right, stanza 4, yup, stanza 5(it's really about Lotusphere but he exaggerated on the 2 week thing). My wife meets stanza 6, but she stayed, guess she didn't mind my carousing with yellows.
Sadly for many stanza 8 is still true.
It's been a long hard road and it's still pretty unpaved up ahead, but there are lights on the side of the road so all is not lost just yet. Oddly enough I was sent a quote to pave my development yesterday, funny how these things work.

I received not one, not 2 but 6 calls today asking about the previous owner of my office phone number. Almost 5 years now, I think some serious data pruning needs to be done at some of the telemarketing companies.

Nice to know I am still of interest, in this economy, the same 2 companies keep calling me in, then saying no, not sure what they want by now, but it is always interesting. I live in South Florida, get over it, if you want me, deal with it, they both have offices here, go figure.

We decided to outbuild a Lotus Foundations Server. Funny how adventurous one can be when one thinks they know what they are doing. And scary to see that I really do know too. And nice to see the interest and growth of this new line of business.

When I joined Lotus my partner Brendan told me once I forgot more than most people know about Notes & Domino. While the context of the situation may have been right, I knew, and continue to find, greater knowledge than mine from fellow bloggers and readers. And it's humbling to know others read my posts, even the people I annoy sometimes. It's also nice to include others when possible, IBM support gets maligned by some, but I try to help the people that help me there.

Like the toll booth workers, I always used to talk to them and thank them for their work, it's s mall thing but their life sucks and you know it. And now they don't have those jobs either because we all have little meters in our cars with rfid/bluetooth/wi-fi or whatever yours works with in your area.

So why write a post for my birthday? Sometimes you want to throw out some personal pieces and let others know the world is not always so boring and cold.

My kids think I am ancient, funny, so did I when I thought about turning 40, when I was 20 and graduating college. Where did the 20 go? 3 in Lotus were some of my best working years that I can honestly say I met so many great people. 2 years working on Broadway, 1 time on stage, but business and IT, even then.

Banks, I worked with many, and still do, but Bankers Trust and the old 130 Liberty Street building was home for a few years and we had a great team, FE, Carl, Larry, Chi, Brian, and so many others lost to time. Burger King and Ryder, twice in 12 years, who would have guessed.

I spent my 30th birthday in Athens, with Lotus and my then girlfriend, now wife, and it's hard to beat that one for birthdays. This year it's quiet. I told my wife real geeks only celebrate their 42nd birthday. So watch out for that one!

We lost Grandma Sylvia, Vanessa's grandmother at 94, New Years Day and she was sharp as a nail to the end and had a memory to match. There's no joy in Raleigh Close anymore.

Makes you wonder what we are all trying to do here after all. Found some old friends, or I should say they found me, thanks Facebook and Linkedin.

I need more hours in my day, more days in my week and more weeks in a year...or maybe just hire some more employees. Don't send resumes, I'll let you know when I am open for them.

It's not a normal time management issue, it is a too many balls for one person, delegation is key.

Thanks to everyone out there, at home, love to Vanessa, Noffiya, Elnadav and Shalhevet, at the office and in places I hope to see again sometime soon. If you read this far I probably owe you money, a drink or will be partnering with you on something soon.