Is it just me or did 2019 go by ridiculously fast? As we wrap up the year we’ve reached the 5 year anniversary of this blog. 5 years is half a decade and it’s amazing how much has changed. I started this blog sitting next to a wood stove in the corner of a small local coffee shop in Oregon. I planned to do weekly installments but the realities of work and playing in multiple music projects have forced this into more of a monthly installment. The coffee shop has been closed for a few years now and I’ve relocated to Arizona.

Not only has my location changed but much has changed for me professionally as well. When I started this blog I was primarily a windows systems administrator working with on premise virtualization clusters and just starting to dip my toe in the water of Linux and AWS. 5 years later I work 99% on Linux and haven’t managed on premise clusters in 2 years. I’ve learned to write code in Python and Groovy as well as scripting languages like Bash and Powershell. I’ve picked up 3 Amazon certifications built configuration management from scratch on several different config management platforms, worked to optimize code deployment, custom monitoring, infrastructure planning, completed several on prem to cloud migrations for large scale, managed a popular awards show site live during the event, completed classic to VPC migration, and so many other things.

The point is not to dwell on my own accomplishments in a self congratulatory way, but rather to reflect on my journey thus far, and appreciate the people who have been there along the way to help, as well as the opportunities that have been granted to me. I hope dear reader as you read this you can reflect on your own career growth over the last half decade. I raise a large cup of coffee to you wishing you all the best in your new year and hope the things I blog here will be helpful or relevant to you, even if one person finds something helpful it’s well worth the time.