Thanks to Chris Whisonant and Curt Stone for hearing my tale of woe (I wasn’t whining). Here are 5 Things You Don’t Know About Me:

1. I used to be in the theatre in high school and college. My college professor, David Regal, told me I should give up whatever my degree was and go into acting full time.
2. I used to be in radio production/broadcasting in college also. My other college professor, Jerry Curtsinger, told me I should give up whatever my degree was and go into radio full time. (I just found out today that he died on May 22, 2006. He was a very cool guy… One of the few professors I’ve ever went out drinking with, and the only one I’ve drank with after a 12 hour final exam.)
3. I brew my own beer. It’s a hobby I got into a few years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I think that my beer is good, but I keep practicing…
4. I worked for the McDonald’s Corporation for six years. Unlike others, I’ve always felt that my years at McDonald’s were good. Yes, I smelled like burgers for two months after I left, but it taught me some very important life lessons. I also had some great times.
5. I’m a HUGE fan of Pink Floyd. (For me, it’s like a religion.) I’m also a great fan of Hall and Oates. (It’s something about Daryl Hall’s voice.) I also enjoy the music of Jimmy Buffett, Alan Thicke‘s son, Robin, and will listen to any song if there are strings and orchestration in it (like anything from E.L.O.).

Since I took so long to get some time to get this list together, I may have to add 5 more soon. Oh, and Tawnya and Bruce… YOU’RE IT!!!

For those of you who registered early enough (and provided an email address), you should have received an email regarding how to logon to the Lotusphere Online site and how to update your badge information. (There are two separate URL’s.)

No much on there yet, but it looks promising. Hopefully, it will perform a bit faster…

If you see me online, feel free to ping me.

At this point, I believe that no one has ‘tagged’ me for the ‘5 Things You Don’t Know About Me’ game, while other people are being tagged by multiple people.

Here’s one thing that you’ll now know about me… I feel now like used to feel when we’d play sports in grade school (even though I was quite good at sports)!

I notice that the developerWorks team at IBM/Lotus Software has put up a page for Lotusphere 2007. There’s a section in there called ‘Blogs’ which is listing many of the bloggers out there that are speaking or running a Birds of a Feather (BOF) at Lotusphere. As I look at the list of my fellow bloggers/speakers, I wondered what it took to get added to that list. I mean, I plan to not only blog this year, but to do some podcasts while I’m down there. What does it take to be a ‘noticed’ blogger? Could this be what’s preventing me from really moving forward in my career?

As Arsenio Hall used to say, “Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…”

I’ve moved all the podcasts I could find to Podshow, so you can find my place at http://thepridelands.podshow.com/ and you can subscribe to the podcast feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepridelandspodcast. Just a warning… if you already subscribe to my old podcast feed and change it, you might get the podcasts again. Sorry…

Yes, I said it… Merry CHRISTmas!!! I’m tired (it’s 4:43AM) and after midnight Mass, I came home and started wrapping gifts. I’m done… and TIRED! I’m going to bed! Hope you and yours have a great one. More later…

It has been about 2 months since I last stepped into Fort Street Brewery. It wasn’t a problem I had there. In fact, my family and I are treated like royalty… actually, more like ‘regulars’. We were just tight on cash, plus we were sick, plus work turned me into a zombie, so we had stopped going there. It was tough… We missed our consecutive streak on attending the Fantasy Camps (10 in a row), plus we missed the 100th beer released.

Last night, we stopped in for dinner and to try Doug Beedy’s latest creation, a fine beverage called Tannenbaum Lager’. It’s made with pine honey (nope, never heard of it either… That’s what makes Doug ‘the Mad Scientist of Brewing’) and it was delicious. Slightly sweet, but smooth with no hoppy undertones. I also tried ‘Black Ice’, which is a schwarzbier, or black lager. (This has become one of my favorites after just one glass.) In between those two beers, I tried ‘hIgh-BU-ti-full’ (pronounced Hi Beautiful), which is an Imperial India Pale Ale that satisified my ‘hop’ cravings.

There were two things that made the night special. First, it was the way we were ‘welcomed back’… It seemed like everyone welcomed us back. It felt good, and we promised ourselves to regain our ‘regular’ status. Second, I had a surprise waiting for me behind the bar. Gregg Eldred was travelling to Dearborn, Michigan (and has since almost become a semi-regular up here), and he pinged me one day to ask for recommendations about places to eat near Dearborn. Without hesitation, I gushed about FSB (Fort Street Brewery). Now, it seems that every time he’s near FSB, he (and his pride) stop in for a bite to eat and a beverage. This last time, I tried to arrange to meet up with him, but my signals got crossed (phone signals actually), and I missed him, but that didn’t stop him from providing me a gift certificate to cover my beverages for the evening. Gregg, I WILL get you back! Thanks!

Overall, it was a nice evening. It’s good to be ‘home’…

We interupt this ‘radio silence’ to wish OpenNTF a very Happy 5th Birthday. May the next five years be as successful as the first five. Congratulations to Bruce, Nathan, Anil, Vince, all of the project chefs and contributers, the sponsors and even those us that use and support OpenNTF. Party at Bruce’s house!!!  

I know it’s been a while, but I’m back, and I brought someone with me. My lovely wife, Jennifer, said that she might want to blog from time to time, and since I’m a good husband (most of the time), I told her I’d give her a place to blog until she decided if she wants a blog of her own. Welcome Jennifer!