I've stayed pretty busy the whole time I've been in Boulder, but the last couple weeks have been busy and stressful. A lot of ups and downs, with a lot of work left to do. I'm learning new things in all directions, but that doesn't keep me from having to deal with all the things I still don't know or haven't mastered.

The fast paced environment of recent leaves me alternating between bouts of work and brief interludes of contemplation. I'm a trooper. I am enjoying the ride as a one-of-a-kind life experience. But the ride isn't always smooth, sometimes you have to hold on to your hat and power through.

I've been very fortunate, and my life has taken interesting turns in the last decade. I have been given such opportunities and experienced a range of things I could never have fathomed. The series of events that leads me to this point in life has been very far from "normal", if there is such a thing. But the variety of projects we're working on now, along with the scale and the rate they're coming together, is at the outer limits of where I've played before. It's big, dynamic stuff. Very cool...and possibly overwhelming at times if you're not prepared. Hence, me doing some contemplating on how best to manage the next phases.

This blog. What an odd concoction. I realize it's not a niche blog, breaking down some new technological mystery every day. It's not devoted to technology, Web 2.0, marketing, gardening, or porn. It just me. It's more of a journal, except it's slightly amplified, in the sense that it's completely public. I can keep people informed of what's going on in my world, and record stuff for myself to look back and remember later. I guess I've always thought of doing something like this, but I get a case of perfectionism/procrastination going on sometimes. It's a horrible disease. You think of a idea, you think about long and hard, and you get to the details. Then you see the pros and cons of each way you could do something. You think and think...pros and cons, pros and cons...then you can't make up your mind which way to go. So you go to sleep, and absolutely nothing gets accomplished from all your hard thought out planning. That has happened a lot in the case of me keeping some kind of blog. I never found the perfect way to incorporate everything, and so I just never got started.

This domain, chad-king.com was purchased by a friend of mine...probably just a couple hours after meeting him. He said do whatever with it. I'm not sure if this is what he had in mind. Haha! But it's a start. I once registered chadking.com, but that was back in 1998 or so, and domains were $100/yr. I never ended up paying for it, and moved on. But with this site, it's pretty much a free for all. So I'm going to enjoy it. I realize it's a little cheesy. When comparing it to a friend's more artistic blog the other day, he responded - "You write about life as life, I write about life as a story book." Which is true. Sometimes I want to write story books, though. Maybe next year.

I just wrapped up a book called, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which is a modern science fiction tale. The main thing that stood out in the book was their economy. It was entirely based on reputation. Intriguing.

Autumn is on its way. Slow and steady...summer is still hear...but I feel it.

There are deer everywhere in Colorado. I'm not sure how hunting works out here, but it is nothing like hunting in Indiana. These deer are not afraid of people at all. I've seen them in the road, in the park, in gardens, eating flowers, and even in the back yard. Not long after we moved into this house, I spotted a doe with two tiny fawns trailing her, strolling through yard, making their way to the open space behind the house.

Today, I saw the same three deer. The fawns are starting to lose their spots.

So after a long day, I sat out on the deck tonight with Nick for a bit, and told some good lies about life, experience, and whatnot. Before long we started seeing shooting stars. The Perseid meteor shower was in full effect, and our view to the west, over the mountains, before the moon came out, was the perfect viewing opportunity. I saw 15-20 shooting stars in a short amount of time, and tried to accompany each one with a nice wish for good measure.

A couple weeks ago, a good friend was visiting, and we tried to catch a glimpse of the milky way above. But the moon and street lights wouldn't let it happen. Tonight, you could see it perfectly, contrasting with the pitch black sky.

As our discussion wandered and landed on books, Nick brought up Kurt Vonnegut and the importance of "knowing what's nice" when you see it. This was a nice experience.

----

Kurt Vonnegut - University of Wisconsin in Madison Speech

And now I want to tell you about my late Uncle Alex. He was my father’s kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, ''If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.''

So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ''If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.''

That’s one favor I’ve asked of you.