My father passed away last month. He was 81 years old and he was a survivor. Since his death, I’ve been thinking about all the challenges he faced in life and how he managed to survive them.

My father was in high school when his own father died. His response was to enlist in the US Navy after graduation so that his mother would not be burdened by another mouth to feed.

He didn't just enlist in the Navy: He served honorably for 23 years; he went to school at night and on weekends, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree from George Washington and a Master’s degree from the Naval Graduate Academy. He and my mother raised 6 children (including me). He received his commission, served in 2 foreign wars, saw combat in Viet Nam as a Hospital Corpsman, and retired as a Lieutenant Commander after 23 years of honorable service.

After retiring from the Navy, he entered private left and he excelled at this as well. He worked over 20 years at St. John Hospital, overseeing its expansion into one of the largest health care organizations in Michigan. He was active in the community and served as a President of the Grosse Pointe Rotary Club. His children grew up and moved away and began families of their own. By the time he retired, he was Vice President of St. John Medical Center and ready to move to Florida to play bridge.

In Florida, he didn’t just take up bridge: He learned the game so well that he became a Life Master within 5 years. He was also active in his new community of Sun City Center, serving as President of the Bridge Club and a member of the Knights of Columbus. He remained very active while his health allowed him to be.

In his later years, his health began to fail. Skin cancer, blood disease, and nerve damage in his back and leg all took their toll on him. But he remained positive and downplayed the limitations of his physical body. The Vietnam War did not kill him and raising 6 kids did not kill him and the stress of running a hospital did not kill him, so what chance did skin cancer have?

Two years ago, he was struck by his greatest physical ailment when Alzheimer's began to rob him of his memories and his speech and his mind. Still, he remained positive. I heard from multiple caregivers that he always had a kind word for them. This was his way of defeating Alzheimer's - at least temporarily.

Last month, Normand Giard finally succumbed to all the physical trauma he had endured. He slipped into a coma and died quietly within 48 hours. My father passed away on May 10, 2013. My family flew to Florida to mourn him and to comfort my mother and to hug one another; then we each flew back home to resume our lives.

But the story doesn't end here. When I think of my father and his life, I am struck by what I see as his greatest strength - his ability to face the difficulties thrown in front of him and perceive these as challenges, rather than obstacles. My father focused on finding solutions to his problems, rather than dwelling on unfortunate circumstances.

My plan is to honor my father's memory by trying to emulate this trait. By focusing less on the obstacles in my path and more on the opportunities these obstacles present; By seeing each challenge in my life as an opportunity to excel, rather than an excuse to fail; by finding things to be grateful for, instead of things to complain about.

This will be my gift to my father - Normand Giard, the survivor, whom I miss very much on this Father's Day.

My youngest son recently completed his senior season of high school basketball, ending my 8 consecutive years as a high school basketball parent.

To commemorate the occasion, I created a highlight video of his team's season.

2012 was a busy year for me.

I did well at my day job as a consultant for Sogeti. At the beginning of 2012 I was promoted to Senior Manager consultant. Of course, that title means nothing to you, but there are only a few of us in Michigan, so we are basically responsible for leadership in the unit. I think my biggest accomplishment in this role was to improve our counselor program, encouraging senior consultants to serve as mentors to more junior consultants.

I also completed a number of successful projects for a string of Sogeti customers. Along the way, I learned more about Windows Azure, SQL Server Reporting Services, Identity Management, and cascading style sheets.

I continued my active role in the developer community.

Although I didn't seek re-election as an officer of The Great Lakes Area .NET User Group (GANG), I remain involved in the group and focused much of my time on recruiting speakers. Seth Juarez, Sarah Dutkiewicz, Phil Japikse, Kathleen Dollard, Steve Smith, Gael Fraiteur, Mike Wood, Randy Pagels, Jason Follas, Jimmy Bogard, and Ted Neward all spoke at GANG during 2012 - an impressive list by any measure. As a bonus, we held an extra meeting in October at which Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin interviewed Jeff Wilcox for an episode of The Tablet Show, which you can hear at http://thetabletshow.com/?ShowNum=55.

Early in the year, I organized the first Detroit Day of Azure, an event that featured 14 outstanding speakers from 7 different states. The conference sold out and the feedback was positive. You can watch many of the presentations at http://detroitdayofazure.com/.

I continued to do a lot of public speaking in 2012, delivering about 30 public presentations during the year. I spoke at 15 conferences, 6 user group meetings, and a couple companies during the year. The most challenging event was the Tampa Code Camp, where I delivered 5(!) different presentations in a single day. The high point of my 2012 speaking came at Tech Ed North America, where I won the Speaker Idol competition. As a result of winning this contest, I was invited to speak at the 2013 Tech Ed conference in New Orleans this June. I was able to attend a lot of conferences in 2012 thanks to the Support of Telerik. As a member of the Telerik Insiders program, they sponsor my travel and I help to promote their products and company at the events where I speak.

I taught an Azure Kick Start for Microsoft in March.

At the beginning of the year, I accepted an invitation to join the INETA Board of Directors and in March, I was elected INETA Treasurer. INETA is an organization that supports .NET User Groups around the world. My primary role is promoting the Champions program, which recognizes people who contribute their time to help the developer community.

At the end of the year, I volunteered to help Dave McKinnon organize 1DevDay Detroit, an ambitious conference held at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. We sold 600 tickets to this event and I was honored when Dave asked me to serve as Master of Ceremonies.

I continued producing episodes of Technology and Friends and I think the show has improved with time. I'm proud to say I was able to publish at least one episode every week of 2012. Hopefully, I can keep this streak alive during 2013. As of the end of 2012, I had release 246 episodes.

In November, I won the first annual Compiler Award, which was created by the current GANG officers. They presented me with an engraved trophy and I was surprised and grateful to receive it.

I had a lot of success this past year, but I also received a lot of help. The user group volunteers kept GANG going strong and many of them helped run the Day of Azure. When I whined on Twitter that I was stressed about teaching the Azurei Kick Start, Dennis Burton volunteered to teach two of the modules – a huge relief for me. I facilitated an Azure “Birds of a Feather” session at Tech Ed and I was fortunate to have experienced Azure developer Mihai Tataran to co-present and answer all the hard questions. When running the INETA Champs program, I enlisted the help of Dave Noderer and Mark Rosenbert, who are connected to the developer community outside my local region. It’s largely because of the help I receive that I’ve been so willing to give my time to others.

As I look back on 2012, I'm proud of the things that I accomplished, but I realize that I focused a disproportionate amount of my time on work.

There were reasons for this: My two sons are getting older (18 and 21) and have become independent and I have no intention of stifling that independence; also a long-term romantic relationship ended suddenly and unexpectedly (for me, anyway) at the end of 2011.

I did spend many weekends this past spring and summer traveling the country with my son and his basketball team. The summer season ended at a tournament in Las Vegas, NV.

Both my sons are preparing to graduate in the next few months – one from high school and one from college. Tim has been accepted to 4 different colleges, but has not yet decided on his destination. Nick will complete a business degree this summer and plans to launch a career coaching college basketball. He is currently the Freshman basketball coach at Okemos High School.

Bu my time commitments were different this year than they have been the past few years, so I put my time and energy toward achieving my goals and I tried to accomplish as much as I could.

In 2013, I plan to have a bit more balance in my life. And a bit more sleep.

Today is Thanksgiving and I am making pumpkin pies and preparing to call my mother and brother and go to my sister’s house and enjoy dinner and an evening with my siblings and their families. But I’m also remembering the good things in my life and thanking God for them.

Today, I am thankful for my family - especially for my two sons who continue make me proud every day.

I am thankful for my friends, especially those who supported me through the difficult times of my life.

I am thankful for the occasional encounter with a kind stranger. These events renew my faith in the people of this world.

I am thankful that I am stronger today than I was a decade ago. At that time, I had no idea how I would move forward.

I am thankful for the success I've had in the community and for any respect that his been shown to me by my peers.

I am thankful that I have not had to worry about feeding my family or putting a roof over my head.

And finally, I am thankful that my faith in God has kept me focused on the future, despite my strong desire to dwell on the past.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.

While traveling recently, I lost my wallet. It happened in the airport - somewhere between the Detroit security checkpoint and the Baltimore luggage claim. After checking with the airport and the airline and retracing my steps, I was convinced it was lost forever and I began to replace the cards inside.

Weeks later, I received a message on Facebook from a stranger.

A woman found my wallet in the airport. Reading my name on my driver's license, she searched for me online and found me on Facebook and sent me a message, so that I could confirm my identity and my address.

Shortly after our Facebook exchange, the wallet arrived in the mail, along with a money order for all the cash that was in it - over $200.

I was struck by this incredible act of kindness and honesty by a complete stranger. She could easily have kept the wallet or kept the cash and no one would have known or thought poorly of her. But she went out of her way to find me and return everything she found.

I am unlikely to meet this woman personally, but that does not mean I cannot repay the kindness. My plan is to pay it forward - to pass kindness on to strangers who cross my path. The likelihood these strangers will repay me in kind is low and I accept that. With any luck, they will be inspired to help others and the kindness will work its way back to the original stranger who helped me and the universe will be remain in balance. And a better place.

2011 is drawing to a close and I'm ready to declare it a success.

My sons are happy and healthy and getting good grades. I had the pleasure of watching my son Nick play basketball for Michigan State this year and I hired a personal trainer for Timmy this past summer, which improved his game a great deal.

This year, I co-authored my first book - Real World .NET, C#, and Silverlight [http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Real-World-NET-C-and-Silverlight-Indispensible-Experiences-from-15-MVPs.productCd-1118021967.html], which was released in November by Wrox. I wrote a chapter on ASP.NET 4, MVC, and jQuery.

In my day job at Sogeti, I spent most of the year at the same customer (a large auto manufacturer in downtown Detroit) and I've been able to deliver several different projects for them. My managers saw fit to promote to Manager Consultant at the end of the year. Among my new responsibilities are engaging our consultants with the developer community and promoting Azure within the region.

In November 2011, my two years as president of the Great Lakes Area .NET User Group came to an end. I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish the past two years and confident that the impressions I made on the group will be felt for years to come.

I received some recognition this year. I was renewed as a Microsoft MVP in July and I was promoted to Senior Manager at Sogeti a couple weeks ago. I attended my first MVP Summit in February and March and I enjoyed it so much I'm planning to return in 2012.

I love speaking at conferences and user groups and I continued to do this in 2011. In addition to deliver numerous presentations at user groups and community conferences in Michigan and Ohio, I spoke at MADExpo in Virginia, at CodeStock and DevLink in Tennessee, at the Chicago Code Camp in Illinois, and at the Redmond .NET User Group in Washington.

I attended a few conferences at which I did not speak, including CodeMash, the Telerik Insiders Summit, the Microsoft MVP Summit, and DevConnections.

Not everything was positive this year. My father has fallen very ill and has moved to a nursing home near his home in Florida. And I'm still trying to figure out why a relationship lasted 5 years and ended so suddenly.

But all in all, my life seems to be moving in the right direction after some bumps over the past few years. I'm looking forward to the emancipation of my sons in the next 18 months as they graduate - one from high school and the other from college. Things may really get interesting then.

2010 was a roller coaster.

My children – Nick and Timmy – are active and healthy and bright and are turning into young men and leaders. They make me proud every time I think of them. Timmy turned 16 this year and looks more like a man every month.

One of the high points of the year was watching my son Nick achieve a goal toward which he has worked for years. After two tryouts, he is now a member of the Michigan State University varsity basketball team. Nick has been invited to some good teams in the past, but this is the team that has advanced to the Final Four each of the last two years. As a lifelong MSU fan, I was thrilled to see him become a part of this elite team. I am extremely proud of him and it made this a special year.

In March of this year, I achieved a goal of my own when I was named a Microsoft MVP. I’m grateful to Jennifer and to Alan who nominated me and to those who supported me.

One 2010 accomplishment of which I’m very proud is the resurgence of the Great Lakes Area .Net User Group (GANG) - a professional organization that I served as president this year. Attendance nearly tripled from the year’s first meeting to the last meeting and the group is now seen as a model for other user groups in the region. I made a point this year of attending a lot of other user groups, even when I was not the speaker. This helped me steal ideas draw inspiration for GANG.

I renewed several old friendships in 2010, catching up with people I hadn’t seen for years. The Internet helped me with this. In July, my high school class held its 30-year reunion. I attended and had a blast. My contribution to the event was a slide show of old photos of classmates that was projected on a wall throughout the evening. People loved it.

I continued my trend of doing a lot of public speaking this year. 2010 started for me with a tour of Ohio during which I spoke at 4 user groups in 3 days. I spoke at the Cleveland .Net User Group in March and August I spoke at the very first meeting of the newly-formed Lexington, KY .Net User Group (although my presentation was abbreviated due to a bomb threat). I spoke at both Codestock and Devlink this year and even gave a vendor session at CodeMash. I presented at 3 different Day of .Net conferences, the Pittsburgh Code Camp, the Cloud Camp Detroit, the State of Michigan Developer Briefing, and a SQL Server 2008 R2 customer event, sponsored by Microsoft in Cleveland.

I was even a guest on a podcast for the first time (besides my own), appearing on the Community Megaphone Podcast with G. Andrew Duthie and Dane Morgridge.

My own show – Technology And Friends – is stronger than ever. I released over 70 episodes in 2010. I tried to keep a consistent schedule with the show and I’m proud to say that I released at least one show every week since January 18. The show also appears weekly on Channel 17 in ann arbor.

I completed my first full year as an INETA mentor and several people expressed appreciation for the increased communication they received since I took over. I covered four states (MI, OH, PA, and WV) most of the year. Recently Sam Nasr volunteered to take over responsibilities for Ohio.

When I look back on 2010, it is impossible for me not to think of 2009. Those who know me know that 2009 was a difficult year for me, mostly due to the death of my sister Denise and my family’s struggle to protect her daughter’s inheritance. These struggles continued in 2010 as I faced a lawsuit from someone trying to steal most of Denise’s assets. But I completed my work as Denise’s representative and that tragedy is now behind us. The closure left me with a feeling that Denise is finally at rest. In retrospect it was the second most difficult year of my life, but 2010 was a marked improvement.

My family faced another challenge this year when my 78-year-old father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I visited him in the fall and saw a noticeable change in his appearance and his behavior. My father survived two wars and skin cancer, so we will see how he does battling this.

My close friend Souha lost her mother this year, which shook her considerably. I read the eulogy at the funeral and I’ve tried to provide support, but this still pains her.

All told, the good far outweighed the bad this year. The valleys of the rollercoaster helped me to appreciate the peaks.

This has truly been a remarkable year in my life. 2010 brought some problems, but God helped me make it through these problems and, in the end, the problems were far overshadowed by the amazing things that took place these past 12 months.

I published over 125 blog posts in 2010. Below are my favorite posts from this site over the past 12 months

Goals for GANG in 2010 (Jan 20)
A banner year for our GANG (Nov 24)
These two posts belong together. In January, I sat down with the new leadership team of the Great Lakes Area .Net User Group (GANG). Together, we laid out some goals for the year and steps to achieve those goals. After the last meeting, I recorded how we were able to achieve each of our goals.

Producing an Online TV Show (Mar 20)
This is a 6-part series I wrote on the steps I take to produce Technology and Friends. If anyone is interested in producing a similar show, this is a good place to start.

DevLink 2010 (Aug 17)
This post is how I want to write every conference summary. I talked about the overall conference, about my presentation, and I shared what I learned at individual sessions. Other conference recap posts fall short primarily because I lack the time to organize my thoughts.

The Elements of Style (Jun 22)
I like this review because it describes both the importance of the book and its importance to my life.

Declaring variables with var (May 13)
This article describes a coding issue I had barely considered until it came up during a code review. I realized at the time, that I didn't have an opinion on the topic. So I did some reading, formed a conclusion and articulated that conclusion. Isn't that what a blog is all about?

Are certifications worthwhile? (May 18)
I finally wrote down my thoughts on an argument I've had many times.

A Dream Comes True (Nov 14)
Hey, guess what? I'm an MVP! (Jul 1)
These are brief news announcements of key events in my life during 2010. I was proud and wanted to share them. So I'm sharing them again here. So sue me.

In 2010, I released 68 episodes of my online TV show - Technology and
Friends.

I've tried and failed to select my 10 favorite shows. I recognize that some shows are better than others, but I found it hard to whittle a top 20 down to a top 10. I feel strongly about the first two episodes on this list, but the remaining 8 could change depending on the day or my mood. In any event, I'm proud of the show and proud of each episode listed below.

Episode 100
This milestone episode featured clips from previous show. It's light-hearted and entertaining and I think it turned out really well.

Episode 131: 2010 Ann Arbor Give Camp
I'm particularly proud of this one because of the effort I put into it. I started with almost 5 hours of video and somehow got it down to under 20 minutes. I think it captures the spirit of Give Camp very well.

Episode 76-Gary Short on Technical Debt
Gary carries this episode with his humor and intelligence.

Episode 81-Jennifer Marsman on Windows 7 Development
Jennifer always packs a ton into her presentations, so it's no surprise her interview turned out great. All I had to do was ask a couple open-ended questions and listen.

Episode 105-Nathan Blevins on Mindstorm
This is one of the first shows I did with a prop. Nathan showed off a robot and the software that runs it.

Episode 123-Joe Ross on Ford Sync
I like this one because it is a different perspective. The whole interview was filmed in the front seat of a car and we get a close look at the Sync hardware.

Episode 88-Cameron Skinner on VS2010 Architecture Tools
Cameron had a full schedule but made time to share his experience with me. Lots of informaiton in this one.

Episode 77-Mike Amundsen on HTTP and REST
This is a topic that often makes my head spin. I included it because I learned so much from Mike.

Episode 111-Mike Wood on Moving to the Cloud
This conversation isn't extremely technical, but Mike brings up some great points to consider when choosing a technology.

Episode 78-Jim Holmes on Unit Testing
Almost a year later, I still get a lot of comments on this one.

This weekend, I experienced something that most people never will. My son Nick played in a Division 1 basketball game. He wore #40 for the Michigan State University Spartans and played 2 minutes in a 96-66 win over Eastern Michigan. The Spartans have an excellent team this year – they are currently ranked #2 in the nation after coming off 2 straight Final Fours – yet Nick made the roster as a walk-on.

The most important thing in my life is the success and well-being of my two sons. Most of my life the last couple decades has revolved around them and I often take more joy in their successes than in my own.

I have followed Michigan State sports for even longer. MSU is my alma mater and I have supported and defended her athletic teams through good times and bad the past 30 years.

Friday night in East Lansing with 2 minutes to go in the game, two of my favorite things were mystically combined into a new ultra-super-awesome-mega-favorite thing, that was greater than the sum of its parts. It was like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups times 1,000 – It was my son and my favorite team.

I will never forget the moment my son’s name was announced and he ran onto the Breslin Center court. What he did during those 2 minutes was unremarkable and unimportant. The fact that he was out there, wearing the Green and White and 15,000 fans were cheering for him (none more than this one) is important and remarkable.

I am enormously proud of Nick for the hard work he put into getting here. And I am grateful for this gift he has given me.

f

More photos

I attended a high school reunion tonight and had a blast.

Maybe it's because we see each other so seldom; maybe it's the festiveness of the occasion; maybe it's our shared history or our diverging paths; but this group seems to get nicer as they get older.

It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since I graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School.

For the event, I made a slideshow of photos that my classmates sent me. Many people told me they enjoyed it, so I will share it here.

You can view the original photos here.

2009 was a difficult year for me in many ways. My sister Denise was less than three years older than me when she passed away in July. Her death left a wound that is still healing. Worse than her death was the revelation afterward that she had been betrayed by someone close to her - someone we all trusted. We are still fighting this battle and it continues to elevate stress in my family.

But I also experienced many positives events in 2009.

The support of friends and family has been instrumental in getting me through these difficult times. If you are in this group, then I thank you. The tragedy shared by my family has brought us closer together in many ways.

My two sons continue to grow (physically and emotionally) and they continue to impress me with each new stage of their life. Timmy is now in high school and is showing more leadership qualities than I expected. Not long ago, he organized an independent basketball team completely on his own. They competed in a large league and he even convinced his brother to coach the team. His team performed well, despite playing in a league with kids mostly 1-2 years older. Timmy is working hard to balance school work with football and basketball. Nick is in his first year at Michigan State University. The time away from home is maturing him and each time I see him, I see more of a man and less of a boy. I remember a similar transformation in me during my first year at MSU. I particularly admire the fact that he is setting high goals for himself.

I have been dating a woman for quite a while. She didn't grow up in the US and her background is very different from mine, which presents some challenges; however, she is exceptionally kind and she is the most giving person I have ever met and I'm grateful she remains part of my life.

I did a fair amount of volunteer work this year, but most of it was not altruistic. I volunteer at a local non-profit music club in exchange for free admission to the concerts; I volunteer at the local public access TV station as a way to learn more about television production. The most good I did through volunteering was with the three Give Camps in which I was involved this year. I'm looking forward to participating more next year.

The biggest personal goal I did not hit this year was to lose 25 pounds. Resolving my sister's estate, being a single father, and other commitments kept me in the car so much that I had little time to exercise. Still this needs to be on the list next year.

One of my professional goals for this year was to be more involved in the software development community. In particular, I wanted to do more public speaking.  In 2009, I spoke at 5 conferences, 4 user groups, 3 internal Sogeti talks and 2 special events (ArcReady and NPlus1 summit). I expect this trend to continue as I have 5 presentations scheduled for January 2009.

I also became more involved in the Great Lakes Area .Net User Group this year. As Vice President, I took on the role of speaker coordinator and was able to line up some excellent presentations for the group.

In January I began production of my TV show "Technology and Friends" (although the show did not have a title for the first few episodes). During 2009, I published 63 episodes online. Recently this show has also begun airing on Channel 17 of my local cable system. Recording and producing was a great experience. It gives me the opportunity to talk with a lot of smart people and I have learned a lot about software, communication and video production.

I began my blog two years ago, but I devoted more energy to it in 2009. This article is the 155the entry for the year - an average of almost 13 per month. I don't know if I'll keep up that pace in 2010.

Despite the poor economy in Michigan, I managed to stay employed all year. During 2009, I worked for a significant time for three customers. At the end of each engagement, each customer had wonderful things to say about my work.

As the Microsoft Application Development lead in Michigan for Sogeti, I focused primarily on technical training for our consultants and on building a sense of community. I organized a series of "Grok Talks"  designed to exchange information. Some talks were delivered by Sogeti consultants (giving them valuable presentation experience) and some by experts in the industry. This was a big success and we plan to continue it next year, even though I will not continue in the same lead role.

As I write this, I realize that 2009 had more positives than negatives. The loss of my sister and subsequent discoveries still made it a difficult year, but I was able to accomplish a lot, thanks to some hard work and the support of family and friends.

I am looking forward to a happy and productive 2010. I have big plans, some of which I plan to share soon on this site.

Happy New Year and may God bless you all. 

Sometimes, life gets hard and it's easy to forget that I have much for which to be thankful. Here are some things for which I am thankful this year.

My sons
At 15 and 18, they have grown up strong and smart and good natured (at least they are good-natured by teenager standards). They are tall, good-looking, athletic and popular, without being arrogant about it. I cannot wait for them to fully grow to manhood.

My siblings
My sister passed away this year. Her death and what followed put a major strain on the whole family. My siblings and I banded together for support, without which we could not have made it through this trying time.

My parents
They are pushing 80 and their health varies each day, but they are still going strong. I'm glad they are still a part of my life.

My friends
You know who you are and I appreciate the listening ear and the cold beer.

My career
This wasn't my first career choice, but it is the one that I've enjoyed the most. The constant learning keeps me moving forward.

Happy Thanksgiving all. Don't forget the good things and good people in your life.

HopeMongers is attempting to connect people together via charitable donations. The web site HopeMongers.org allows individual contributors to donate small amounts of money (they use the term "Microgiving" to describe this) to individual projects that help the poor of the world.

By doing so, they eliminate much of the bureaucracy and cost that burdens many other charitable institutions. The projects that HopeMongers supports tend to be small in size and focused on an individual community. Examples include digging a well to provide clean drinking water for a village in Haiti; construction of a building to house an orphanage in Uganda; and a computer education center in South Africa.

"All the money that's donated to HopeMongers goes to the project" said lead architect Phil Japikse.

On the web site, each project lists the amount needed to fully fund it and the amount raised so far.

Sam Henry of Microsoft is the driving force behind this site and he has traveled around the world seeking, vetting and overseeing projects to show on the site.

But many others are involved in the development of the web site.

DiscountAsp.net donated the web hosting; SAAS hosts TFS and the build servers for free; and most of the development time was donated by dozens of talented developers. Those who didn't volunteer worked on the project at a discounted bill rate.

The development team was spread across the US and worked part-time, which presented a number of challenges. For instance, most of the collaboration took place between 10PM and 1AM Eastern time, via LiveMeeting. For those interested in the technology, the site is built using ASP.Net web forms built with JQuery, C# and NHibernate.

The site is now live and accepting donations. Visit http://www.HopeMongers.org  to learn about the projects and to give a little. You can even donate to the HopeMongers project itself from the site.

I gave $10 to help provide clean drinking water to a village in Uganda and I feel better for having done so.

I am months late producing this video. But now that it's finished, I want to show it off. Earlier this year, my son's 8th grade basketball team tied for the city championship. Here are highlights from the season.

My sister Denise passed away very suddenly Saturday morning. I very much appreciate all those who have offered their love and support over the past few days.  Below are the details of her funeral and visitation.

Visitation
 Wednesday 7/15, 3-9PM
 Thursday 1-9PM (Rosary at 7PM)
 Wujek-Calcaterra & Sons Funeral Home
 36900 Schoenherr Rd.
 Sterling Heights, MI 48312
 Map: http://is.gd/1yL05

Funeral Mass
 Friday 7/16, 10AM
 St. Isadore Catholic Church
 18201 23 Mile Rd. (at Romeo Plank Rd)
 Macomb, MI 48042
 Map: http://is.gd/1yLLJ

Entombment
 Resurrection Cemetery
 18201 Clinton River Road
 Clinton Township , MI 48038
 http://is.gd/1yLN6

Mike Cramer and I grew up in suburban Detroit when Mark "The Bird" Fidrych burst onto the sports scene.  Tall, lanky, long-haired and filled with quirks, the Bird captured the imagination of both kids and adults during his time with the Detroit Tigers. His career was brief but spectacular. He won Rookie of the Year in 1976, but an misdiagnosed arm injury the following year hindered his performance for the rest of his career.  Several attempted comebacks fell short and Fidrych pitched his last Major League game in 1980.

In 1976, Fidrych was famous for both his pitching prowess (he started the All-Star game and was runner-up in the Cy Young voting as a rookie) and for his on-field personality.  I saw him pitch once that year.  I was 14 years old and I remember well his enthusiasm for the game.  He would talk to the baseball between pitches and sometimes he would get down on his hands and knees to smooth out the dirt of the mound. He never hid his joy after getting a batter out or retiring a side or winning a game.

Now Mike Cramer has a film which features Mark Fidrych and the effect he had on a young boy in suburban Detroit - an effect The Bird still had when the boy grew up and struggled with his empty life at middle age and set out across the country to find the answers from his boyhood hero.

Mike's movie - Dear Mr. Fidrych- debuts this Friday night June 26 at the Detroit-Windsor International Film Festival.

Mr. Fidrych will not be in attendance.  The Bird passed away less than three months ago, killed while working alone on a dump truck on his Massachusetts farm.

But the Bird is in this film and I believe he will be at this screening in spirit. I hope you go watch it. The Bird and the movie may inspire you the way he inspired me when I was a kid; the way he inspired Mike Cramer and the boy turned man of the movie.  Maybe he'll inspire a generation of sports fans and movie fans who never got a chance to see him.

Maybe this is the comeback that baseball denied The Bird.

Today I start a new job. 

My last employer and I parted ways about a month ago when they decided to close their Michigan office.  I've been extremely busy since then - interviewing; writing articles; preparing and delivering presentations; attending DevLink; and spending time with my family.  I even managed to sneak in a California vacation last month. 

After weeks of interviewing, I ended up with four job offers.  I chose Sogeti primarily because of the people I met.  They have hired a number of very bright developers in Michigan during the last year and the prospect of working with them excites me.  I didn't choose the highest offer or the shortest commute (although these were both factors, of course).  I chose the position that I felt would benefit me the most in the long term.  I tried to see myself a year after working for each company and I believe I chose the one that would enhance me the most professionally.  I relish the idea of learning from people smarter than me.

I'm nervous for the unkown but excited for the challenge.

I was working at a large utility company in downtown Cincinnati on the morning of September 11 2001.  I had only been at my desk an hour when I heard the rumors: someone had flown a plane into the World Trade Center.  I checked CNN.com but was unable to access its site.  Every news site I tried reported that their server was too busy to respond. 

Instant messages began to trickle in.  Co-workers relayed phone calls from their families.  The office was filled with rumors: a second plane had hit the other tower; one tower had collapsed; another tower had collapsed; the Pentagon was hit; the White House was hit.  It became difficult to separate truth from fiction.  It became nearly impossible to focus on work.  Eventually someone wheeled a TV up to our floor and we were able to watch live reports and hear the news with at least some credibility.

If an enemy attacks the US, Cincinnati could be considered a likely target - many federal government offices, including the IRS and Court of Appeals are there; Procter & Gamble, one of the world's largest companies is headquartered there; and a nuclear power plant sits a few miles west of the city.
 
The department manager walked through our floor around 10AM to announce that management had considered the issue and decided all employees should remain at work.  A half hour later, he returned and informed us that they had changed their mind - the building was closing and all employees were to go home. 

I was one of the last to leave the building because I told a friend that I would drive him home if he couldn't find a ride from someone who lived near him (By that time, the buses were not running)  He found a ride from someone else, but by the time he told me, the building was nearly empty.

When I walked outside, it was nearly midday but the city was eerily quiet.  There were no cars, no buses and no people.  No boats sailed on the Ohio River that morning.  From horizon to horizon, no airplanes appeared in the sky.  Even the birds were gone.

In those days, I used to park about a mile from my office and I didn’t see a soul on my walk.  It could have been 3AM Sunday except for the sun burning overhead.  I was reminded of movies in which the protagonist awakes and goes outside to discover he is the only living man left in the world. 

I drove straight to the school where my two sons (1st and 5th grade) were enrolled.  I walked to one boy's classroom and stood at the window and watched him silently.  I'm not sure how long I stood there but the bell eventually rang and I stopped him as he exited for his next class and chatted for a few minutes, telling him nothing about the attack.  I told him I loved him.  Then I walked to my other son's classroom and did the exact same thing.  I spoke to my wife, who worked at the school.  We had little to say to each other.  School was not dismissed early that day and I left before the boys did.

On the way home, I stopped at a coffee house and sat, numb thinking of the day's events.  I knew thousands had died in New York, but I didn't know what it meant to the rest of us.  I didn't know what would happen in the coming weeks and months.  Were we at war?  Would we be attacked again soon - closer to home this time? 

I once read that everyone in America remembered where they were when they heard about John F Kennedy's assassination.  I was a year old in 1963 and wasn't aware of it until years later.  But I believe the same can be said of September 11.  It is our generation's Kennedy.  I haven't met anyone above the age of 20 who doesn't remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the World Trade Center Attack. 

It turned out that the outward changes in our lives were minimal - no further attacks of this magnitude were carried out and no terrorists came near Cincinnati.  But I think we were all changed that day. 

But our attitudes changed that day.  As a country, we became more vigilant and more suspicious.  Security tightened noticeably in public places and most people did not complain about the inconvenience.  People now have a greater appreciation of the risks taken by firefighters, policemen and soldiers as they carry out their duties.  Most of us take our safety less for granted than we did before.

Our lives were instantly separated into the time before September 11 and the time after.  Seven years ago, we didn't how - but we knew that things had changed.