Random Thoughts
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Ice, Illness, and iPhone Privacy: Taking Control of Your Apple AI Settings
So the last couple of weeks have been interesting. First, about mid-February until late last week, the weather where I live has been interesting. To the point of us not being able to leave the house for a couple of weeks due to ice on the driveway and on the street. Now, you may think,… Continue reading
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From Virtualization to AI: Have We Lost Our Way on Data Center Sustainability?
Now, I want to start out by saying that AI is both fascinating and scary at the same time. There are certainly huge benefits that can be realized out of “good, well-trained” AI, promising everything from better healthcare to smarter cities. Heck, it is even being used to clean clothes better (my new LG washer… Continue reading
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When Letting Go Leads to Growth: Lessons from 2024 & A New Theme for 2025
An Unexpected (or sorta Expected) Liberation 2024 has been a funny and weird year. For the most part, my creative desire had waned. And learning a new product was proving to be more challenging than I thought (I suspect largely because I was trying to learn to the level of what I knew before —… Continue reading
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The Great Office Migration: Why This Remote Worker Is Staying in the Wild
I just finished recording this piece yesterday – take two, actually. Last week’s attempt ended up in the digital trash bin, but sometimes persistence pays off. As a remote work veteran, the current RTO push has me contemplating a world I’ve happily left behind: office politics, ambient noise, and the daily grind of commuting. At… Continue reading
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Taking Time to Upskill in Today’s Job Market
Job hunting has transformed dramatically since my early career days. Back then, the formula was simple: prepare multiple resumes, visit the library for free training, and network through local business associations. Government-sponsored retraining programs were readily available (and still are, though often underutilized). These resources were typically free or low-cost, targeting newcomers to the job… Continue reading
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Career Curveballs: How I Accidentally became a Free Agent
Breaking News: Local Tech Storyteller Unexpectedly Promoted to “Professional Job Hunter” by Broadcom! After 19 years of marriage to VMware, we’ve decided to consciously uncouple. Translation: I got laid off, and now I’m back on the job market—a landscape so different from 1992 that my resume might as well be written in hieroglyphics. And as… Continue reading
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Navigating Change: Reflections on Self-Care Amidst Company Transitions
When I returned from vacation recently, I was prompted to ponder the question, ‘How do you practice self-care?’ This reflection couldn’t have come at a more poignant moment, coinciding with significant changes at VMware, a company I’ve grown with over the years. The recent layoffs brought a whirlwind of emotions — sadness for departing colleagues,… Continue reading
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Exploring Personal Taglines: A Journey Through Tech and Self-Discovery
An intriguing writing prompt came up today: If humans had taglines, what would yours be? A tagline is a catchy phrase or slogan, like Coke’s “Open Happiness” or Apple’s “Think Different.” Recently, I’ve been reflecting on my personal brand, which feels particularly timely given my 15-year journey in the End User Computing (EUC) world. For… Continue reading
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Literary Lifelines: The Books That Defined My World
Ever since I was a child, books have been my escape and my education. Growing up as an only child in the late 70s and 80s, I found solace in the pages of novels while the world around me was glued to the TV. Books became my sanctuary, especially during my frequent school changes—I attended… Continue reading
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Beyond Materialism: Attainable Contentment in ‘Having It All’
I used to host this and a couple of other blogs—one personal and one about cigars—on a small provider in Canada. They were acquired just before the pandemic, and the pricing was… well, shocking, to say the least. So, I decided to move my blog (and domain names) to WordPress (WP). I’ve been using WP… Continue reading