Unlike the generation of my parents, I do not feel that I am defined by the work I do.  I love my job and it plays a huge role in my life but I would like to think that my sense of self-worth extends beyond my work life. I am often forced to think about this when considering new topics for my blog. As a technical professional I am often expected to blog as a means of securing career advancement or being recognized in the communities in which I work.  But what about blogging just for me?  Should I be forced to choose professional blogging over personal blogging?  Is a mixed topic blog a strength or a liability?  read more…

Room and Board embarked on a total replacement of their corporate intranet. The project required a full deployment of SharePoint that reflected their corporate brand and company culture. I spent two weeks defining requirements, determining scope and facilitating decision on architecture. Following envisioning, I created a “proof of concept” site which was followed by the production deployment. I created a branded corporate intranet that included masterpage, custom layouts and themes adapting a design created for their company web site. The project included a set of custom web parts, documentation, training and ongoing mentoring. read more…

Last weekend I discovered a treasure.  There is a cereal plant in my home town and parked behind it is a string of box cars a quarter of a mile long.  I assume that these train cars are being used to store supplies used in the plant but they remain here for long periods of time without moving.  This provides ample opportunity for artists to mark them up.  I walked the tracks this week taking photos of just few of the cars. read more…