The end of the year is a good time to sit back and to reflect. This has been an eventful year both personally and professionally. There have been lots of changes on both levels.

On a professional level this has been an interesting year - a year of transitions and facing many new challenges such as I haven't had to deal with in a while. The most challenging part has been as a somewhat public figure trying to balance the transition towards .Net without giving the impression of totally leaving behind the FoxPro world and making it clear that the West Wind line of Fox products will not be abandoned. It's been a tough line to walk as there's no doubt that for West Wind the Fox line of products is carrying the company while I'm also heavily investing in .Net knowledge which is not providing much in the way of revenue at this time. I continue to work with both technologies which by itself is a time consuming task. At the same time I feel like I have to fight the notion from many people that doing anything .Net  is a 'traitor' move against FoxPro. I've tried to balance both and to this day I use both to nearly equal halves in my daily work. Add to that the continual learning process going on in .Net and I can see why sometimes I need a break <g>...

On a personal level too there's been a lot of back and forth in living situations and trying to manage a busy business schedule with a personal life especially around other people in my life. It's hard for non-developers to understand a developer's mind set and time requirements. When I hear of hardcore developers that also have a family and actually are able to make a good deal of time to be with them I'm amazed how they can pull that off without falling behind. This year was my chance to try and figure that out myself and well, it's been a rough road to say the least...

It's a good time to reflect on the crazy amount of time spent sitting in front of this box and pick at the keyboard. To reflect on the intention on spending more time away from it and be in touch with the world. It's so easy to get lost in the mental business of software dev in particular, to let the mind just rev to 1000mph, and to not take the time to relax and feel the world around me. Maybe it's time for a resolution to spent more quality time in the 'real world'... beyond the computer and beyond the extreme thrills which more and more seems to be the whole of my world.

Or maybe it's just that being right here is one of those 'Now', totally immersed experiences. When coding there's a certain Zen-ness about the state of mind that goes with it.

It's a strange feeling - these last few days have been reeeeally slow and I've spent precious little time doing much of anything, much less working. It is so different than the usual frantic pace of everyday life. I almost feel guilty - almost... it's been much needed for  a recharge.