As my wife mentioned on the family blog, I attended the inaugural RubyJax event last night. I have to warn you that I am easily excited, but the group is chock ful o' some people I am excited about getting to know better.
One of the main reasons I made the decision to leave Symantec and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, was because I felt that the company was very stale from a technical perspective and I when I looked around at the opportunities if I were to switch jobs locally I would be forced into doing something that I didn't love for the sole purpose of putting food on the table.
That type of work and I don't mesh.
As my wife and previous or current co-workers can attest to (besides the short stints as a contractor for NASA and as C++ UI developer at Symantec... where I was bored out of my mind) I am a work-a-holic. When I am knee-deep in problem solving or developing something new, I loose all track of time and usually end up neglecting things I shouldn't. So excuse me while I take this second to say thank you to my beautiful wife for understanding me, and putting up with it all.
That being said, I am extremely happy to be connected to Lark, Steven, Big Tiger, Obie, Chris, Desi and all the others 
(who I couldn't find blogs for), and to have some people that will cause me, just being being in the conversation, to better myself.
And a BIG THANKS to Team Gaia for providing the location (even if it was on the wrong side of Jacksonville). And another big thanks to who ever it was that let me drink their beer, and paid for the Pizza, my turn next time.
Time to go make something useful in Rails.
