Wow, what a year 2019 was! It was generally a lot of fun and a successful year in many ways; but it was also probably the busiest and one of the most challenging years so far. That’s why this blog has been dormant, I haven’t had the time or energy for posts. But I will catch up and hopefully will be back on track for documenting some of the fun that I have in 2020!

Personally, 2019 was a year of change. My son graduated from high school and continued his education journey in the School of Engineering at Colorado State University. As you may have experienced or can imagine, having your young adult move out of the house is a time of change for you personally, along with your family. I’m really proud of him and excited to see where he goes with his passions, and am excited to see how our relationship grows.

2019 brought in a career change for me. As some of you may know; my career has revolved around implementation and optimization of core business administrative functions in Human Resources, Finance, Staffing and Supply Chain management software. I have been a software engineer, systems administrator, architect, manager and product manager around PeopleSoft / Oracle software. Over the last 25 years I was a consultant for 2/3 of that time and I loved helping companies of all sizes, in many industries, optimize their business. I frequently presented at national conferences and have really mastered my craft; I was at the top of my game. But there was something missing; perhaps it all became too familiar and repetitive? Perhaps I was having a mid-life crisis? I’m not sure; but I left my job at Children’s Hospital Colorado of 10+ years and started a new career and position in both technologies and industry I was unfamiliar with; with the goal of managing change and bringing an enterprise approach to a maturing firm. This year was difficult, full of too much work, near collision with professional burn-out, and learning new tech to support the start of a fast transformation. I’m taking a couple of weeks off for R&R and to put together a sustainable plan for me and our team on our exciting journey into 2020!

When I come home, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer or scroll endlessly through social media. I find myself putting down my phone and not picking it up again until the next day. I check email much less frequently. I have lost all interest in Facebook, and even on my favorite social experience of Instagram I find myself only logging in only once or twice a week; for maybe 5 minutes. Not wanting to be in front of a monitor when I’m off work has also impacted other hobbies like photography and music production. But I have found that disengaging from the internet has been therapeutic and allowed me to focus my limited time on my offline relationships and hobbies. I have found I don’t need to have a pulse on everyone I’ve ever met’s day-to-day life. I hope to continue to refine and find a good balance of online engagement for 2020 and beyond.

In 2019 I volunteered to be the Field Trip Coordinator for the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club. I put together 20+ field trips which I led 10 including networking on joint trips with several other local clubs. I’ve given several presentations for various rock clubs sharing my journey and processes I’ve had success with. I also have been leading in building on our already automated web experience for our club members to make coordination of events for our very large (300+ member) club much simpler and enjoyable for our club members. I agreed to this leadership position prior to switching jobs, but felt I could do it in tandem so I moved forward full throttle! Although a tremendous amount of fun and satisfaction, this role definitely had a significant learning curve and was more work than I had planned–probably not aided by my ambitious goals. Luckily things went well, and I was asked to continue with this volunteer position into 2020, which I’m excited to do. 2020 should be much smoother this year now that I have my feet wet!

On the music front, 2019 was a good year as well. The Electronic Air DJ crew for KGNU Community Radio changed and I was more active in the rotation. I also DJed several non-radio events for the station as they continue to grow their outreach into different targeted communities. I continued work with my music projects having two fun recording events, one with Multicast and the other with a larger group Replicast. We are still going through the 20+ hours of material paring down these impromptu jam sessions; there are many great ideas and interplay between musicians that will manifest themselves in future projects. Multicast did a couple of remixes for a German artist Sven Kossler on Carpe Sonum records which was officially released in October. The album is amazing and we’re really proud to have our remixes part of the release. Additionally we got a couple of our albums on mainstream streaming services and are finalizing a new full length album on Carpe Sonum for release in 2020. The Chill Out Enforcement Crew project will have another limited edition flexi floppy diskette release sent to press before the end of the year.

Since I use this blog as a personal diary for my many interests, I am committed to at least post a few more 2019 recap articles summarizing the amazing times I’ve had in the variety of interests I foray in. I have big plans for 2020 building off of all the hard work from 2019 and will try to strike a balance in my professional and personal lives so I can continue to document the journey.