Work / Life Update

It's been a little while, and sometimes it's nice to not talk ONLY about technical mumbo jumbo.  So, here's a quick update on what's going on in my life...

Let's start with the important stuff

My Kids
Nathan is my oldest and he's almost 5.  I can't believe it.  He's becoming a really funny little man.  He's picked up some bad habits from his old man and is relatively addicted to "screen things" - like computers, Wii, mobile phones (for the games), etc.  He's an asynchronous learner, and is crazy bright with things like Math and reading and "reasoning" concepts.  He's not as bright with other things (like coloring, cutting with scissors, etc.) but - hey - he's not 5!  :)  He starts Kindergarten this fall.  Wow.  He ALMOST beat me at backgammon the other night.  Almost.

Jacob is our middle boy and he's almost 3 1/2.  He's is really stretching his boundaries (and our patience) recently.  His strengths right now are very spatial / mechanical / imaginative oriented.  He loves to build with lego/duplo and play with Playdoh.  I've started taking him on the trips to Lowes to build stuff.  This last week he had "dry fit" all the parts in like 4 seconds and was ready to go.  Nathan and I were still reading directions :)

Andrew is our youngest.  He's 10 months old and into EVERYTHING.  I seriously think we need to contract him out as a "babyproof inspector."  He became mobile much earlier than our older boys, so we weren't quite ready for his level of.. um.. curiosity :)  He's about ready to walk.  He'll walk along with a walker, or if you hold his hands.  He likes to stand in the middle of the room, bend down, pick stuff up, and then stand back up.  For some reason he like to pick things up and bash himself in the forehead with them too.  He must get that from his momma.

My Better Half
Speaking of... Jenny and I have been married for almost 9 years now.  Crazy.  It was about this time 10 years ago that we were on a Mission Trip to Eastern Kentucky and I'm pretty sure she couldn't stand me.  No really.  I could barely stand myself.  I hope we can get away for some "just us" trips later this summer.  It's difficult right now with Andrew being so young, and school for Nathan, etc., but we'll see.

My 3 Words
If you remember, which you probably don't, but if you DO - I have a goal to read 40 leadership/inspirational books this year.  It's a lofty goal.  The month of February really jacked my schedule, but I'm pressing forward.  Here's where I'm at so far:

• The Servant by James Hunter
• Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey (currently in the middle of a leadership / bookstudy on this)
• First Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Good to Great by Jim Collins (an annual read for me)
• Tribes by Seth Godin (a re-read)
• Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley
• Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel
• Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley (currently reading)
• Outliers by Malcom Gladwell (next on the list)

As for "play" and "share" - I'm getting better at both.  I'm giving more of my time away to other Churches doing service / technical projects.  I'm also spending some more time with the boys and looking forward to warmer weather so we can actually get out of the house!  We're looking forward to doing more geocaching - a new hobby we're wanting to develop.

Work Stuff

Now I guess we'll dive into work...So, it looks like things are "stuck" on a few projects right now... here's where they stand...

Exchange 2010
If you've read through our "install" or "skunkworks" posts, you know that Exchange 2010 is a hot topic for us.  But you'll also know that we're "stuck" because of Cisco Unity not having Exchange 2010 support yet.

Wireless
We've got dozens and dozens and dozens of independant, IOS-based Cisco wireless access points - spread about 14 locations in 5 states.  We still use WEP and everyone and their uncle knows our "hidden" SSID and WEP key.  That's annoying.  We're looking to move toward something else, but we're also looking to gather somesort of centralized console into wireless at our primary location(s).  So, we have an active proposal in for some Ruckus gear.  We should know this week whether that gets approved.

Disaster Recovery
We're still dealing with the fallout from our dropped (cry / tear / whine) rack full of DR gear.  After chasing ghosts and working up and down the foodchain with our hardware/software vendors, we're wandering through the "insurance claim" process.  They are great to work with, and I just got the last of the technical detail to them last week.  We hope to get this buttoned up soon.  Tied to DR is also our XSAN Storage challenge - we're "almost full" again with our XSAN storage and have a project in the works on that.  We hope to know more later this week whether we can get some funding approved for that project soon.

Microsoft Dynamics SL
One of my guys, @mburleson, is leading our project to upgrade to the latest version of Dynamics.  He's doing very well.  This is the second "large" upgrade of this product he's led through since joining the team in 2008.  I'm sure he'll be ready to put some large focus elsewhere :)  If all goes as expected, we'll be done with this no later than 5/1 - 6 more weeks!  We'd love to see it done sooner of course.

I guess that's the really big stuff...

What about you?  What's going on in your life?

Comments

[Sarah Hauer]

finally a blog post i can understand! just got my copy of Outliers from the library -- let's discuss in a couple of weeks :)

[Mark J. Graham]

You have some excellent book choices there. Great post!

[John (8BIT)]

seriously, choosing to cheat should be at the top. i'm reading it... again.

[Darrell Jordan]

I agree on the Choosing to Cheat book. I read it and let a friend read it. When he was finished, his wife read it. When he went to give it back to me, he suggested that our pastor read it. I told him to let him borrow it. I am going to have to get over that way again so we can do lunch. I will have to drag Tony over with me. :)

dj

[DW Hunter]

@sarah - ha! I'll probably start reading that one in about a week.

@mark - thanks. do you have anything to add to the list?

@john - word. Good book. These aren't in order :)

@darrell - seriously, bring Tony when/if you wander over this week...

[Darrell Jordan]

It won't be this week but we will have to get over that way soon. I will have to see when I can get a day off of work again.

dj

[James P]

Thought of using Meraki (www.meraki.com)?

[DW Hunter]

James--

No, I haven't considered Meraki in our environment. The prices look very competitive though.

--DW