With great travel comes great responsibility! #InTheAir

Hopefully this blog post finds you well!   Here I am… 37,000 feet (Okay, I have no idea how high I’m up, I’ve had my headphones on the entire time :))

Several curious questions often come up among the community, friends, peers and associates.

• WHERE ARE YOU GOING ALL THE TIME?
• Why haven’t you been writing about the things you’ve been working on!!!
• When are you going to come to MY city?! I am a (Customer, Partner, Community Member, Friend, Ninja)
• What do you listen to while in the air?!
• Why don’t you stay at Hilton, I LOVE it there (Okay, no one actually says they LOVE it ;))

So in an effort to honor all of your questions and beyond, here goes! :)

WHERE ARE YOU GOING ALL THE TIME?!

That’s an EXCELLENT Question!   I’ll work my way backwards for your benefit, starting with where I am right now.   At the moment I’m on a flight from Chicago to Vancouver for a 2 day workshop with a customer.  Exciting stuff, right?   Yea, it is exciting! This is actually a project I got involved with my FIRST week on the job, and it’s finally coming to Fruition! [And you know how us vegans like Fruit! :)] I won’t go into details of exactly what we’re doing, but it’s all about Architectural and Business Transformation which will have impacts far reaching above and beyond the data center. So pretty exciting, right?!

Just a few weeks ago I was involved in a pretty transformational Vblock related discussion while in LA which will involve a combination of tools you’ve heard Chad and others (including me) discuss in the past, so I won’t digress too much, but it’s going to be pretty damn exciting!

Jump to the week before and a rockstars dream of an EBC, which kicked off with Go-Kart racing [Resulting in me winning… Oops! Picture is on Facebook ;)] and then a full day of IT Transformation discussions; I don’t even have to tell you just how exciting those kinds of conversations tend to get.   Fortunately while out in Hopkinton I got to spend a little time with Chuck Hollis where we discussed our pasts, futures and something which will be the fodder for not only an OMFG YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME blog post, but also a book which I know ALL of you are asking for; Publishers get at me and you can get first right of refusal ;)     That very same week I headed off to NYC (Hey, I was like, 5 minutes away!) for some internal meetings followed by what were GOING to be customer meetings.   Unfortunately the unnamed customer I was going to meet at… was severely impacted by the Occupy Wall street Movement making it effectively impossible to have that meeting happen.  I guess you can call that #OWSFail ;)

I didn’t travel during the week of Halloween, because I’m not CRAZY. Who does that to themselves?!   However, that is also because I was just returning home after some insane amount of time on the road between the Alpha class of the new ITaaS Offering, the trip to India [blog post coming;)] and Singapore.    So, I was a little tired and justifiably so! [Honestly, months later STILL working on getting over my Jet Lag which has been keeping me up til 6am every day!]

And then heading all the way back to September, on the heels of VMworld in Vegas, I spent a lot of time in Memphis, and a little time in Detroit and LA for Customer meetings.   In all though, it was quite the way to kick off the new role if you ask me!

So in summation; for those wondering, where am I going?  Almost exclusively, to meet with Customers (Like you)    I am Geo-Preferred so I do like to visit as many customers at a time in the same proximity if I can accomplish it!   If that’s you, let me know… Let’s transform your sHtuff ;)

Why haven’t you been writing about these things?!?!

Well, if there’s one thing you should know about me is certain activities wax and wane.   But the real truth of the matter is; I’m still collecting it all to come to some ultimate OMG moment to share with you.   You can read the tweets if you want to know what is going on Interactively.  But when it comes to something you’ll derive some awesome value from; yea, that is where the blog posts will ROCK it out! :)

Also, another reason I haven’t been writing the blog posts is because I’ve been busy playing Starcraft… err, I mean I was finishing writing my first book on Virtualization – VMware vSphere 5 Administration Instant Reference, with Co-authors Van V. Van Noy, and Andy Daniel.    Now that it is done, I’m not saying I have “more” writing time, because I’m also currently working on VMware vSphere 5 Performance: Solving CPU, Memory, Storage and Networking Issues, so … a cats work is never done! ;)   Oh, and did I mention I’ve been traveling a bit?!?! :)   You’ll get a massive dump of material so much you’ll be wishing I went dark for longer ;)

One additional thing is, I also spend the time between the time working on my plans for 2012, and the constant moving target it may become, so bear with me, it is all for the good, and even more for the best! :)

When are you coming to MY City?

I don’t know.  When am I?    Honestly, you can always reach out to your Account Team, CSD, VMUG Leader, vSpecialists, My boss @vCTO, Me (cc’ing many of those mentioned ;)) etc!   Seriously, I am all in favor to work with you on your next transformational journey taking the advantages and discussions I’ve been having with organizations I’m directly changing and beyond and making that level of impact.   I wonder if I can squeeze in a book tour somewhere in there *giggle :)*   But really the keys are in your hands, just ask for it!    You’ll be seeing some major epic things which I’ve been working on with Chuck, the organization and the community which is going to leave you breathless.    So let’s start planning for 2012, shall we? :)

What do you listen to while in the air?

I know you Audiophiles out there are interested in this, oh and the other ones of you who want to stand in judgment of me, no, of me.    To be honest at the moment I’m listening to Avril’s latest album Goodbye Lullaby; Ironic as I travel up to Canada right? I mean it was potentially going to be Bare Naked Ladies ;)

Though in no particular order, what I will listen to *a lot* and pretty much on every single flight, and often in the hotel is

• Taylor Swift’s Speak Now Album
• Various tracks or entire albums of Taylor Swifts
• Pink Floyd
• Molly Marlette
• Katy Perry
• Erasure (I have the entire discography so it’s random)
• Bare Naked Ladies
• The Smiths and some Morrissey on occasion

My playlist isn’t too comprehensive as far as what it sync’d to my iPhone/iPad, the rest of the musics I enjoy while on the ground via Pandora with such classic stations as

• Matchbox 20 Station (Which plays a lot of good parallel stuff… you should definitely check it out!)
• What the Hell radio (Many influences of Avril, Demi Lovato [Who I gained greater appreciation and respect after she came out of Rehab!]
• Kelly Clarkson Radio
• Weird Al Radio
• 80’s Dance Music
• Lady Gaga (For some Gaga and Britney!)

And ofcourse I’ll watch all of my various TV shows like Gossip Girl and other things I regularly catch up on! But I think that’s enough of that! :)

And out of the kindness of my own heart… I will not share the Epic Hilton fail with you… At this time.

But I hope this helps give you a little hint and highlight into the adventures I am pursuing in this wicked wondrous game of helping IT Transformation take it’s hold upon the Enterprise, the Industry and our very own beings.    Like I said… you’re going to be BLOWN AWAY by some of the blog posts I have queued up to show you!  So stay tuned! :)