Peace via poo

While out walking my dog in the rain on his afternoon rounds, he stopped to sniff at something, probably some less-responsible owner's dog poo. And he sniffed. And he sniffed. And he sniffed.

And after a while, I got antsy, started to pull him away to continue our walk ... but then I stopped. A sense of peace that I haven't felt in recent memory came over me -- I was in no rush. All major obligations out of the way. All project- and job-hunting phone calls and emails out of the way. No fulltime job eating away at 30% or more of my day to get in the way of simply taking my time to sniff the ... well, whatever it was.

That realization was refreshing. Maybe almost Zen. I could feel a layer of burnt-outedness peel itself away from me, a burden off my shoulders, a weight off my back. I stood up straighter at that moment.

Sniff that poo, buddy, sniff that poo. I got all the time in the world.

Interesting Snapshot

SlideShare Rockstar?

Received an email from SlideShare this morning, regarding my (very basic) WCF presentation from last year's Code Camp:

***
Hi andrewbadera,

We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job ... you must be doing something right. ;-)

Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.

Congratulations,
-SlideShare Team

***

wtf ... bs? I've gotten some emails from people about it before, it's been viewed a few times ... but 50k overnight? Not likely. 20090401! bestofslideshare? I don't think so! #bestofslidesharebs

Rock on, Dad! World's longest angioplasty balloon

My father, Mike Badera, founder, president/CEO of Precision Extrusion, Inc. (site could use a refresh, I know ;) has, with the partners in his joint venture in Ireland, created the world's longest angioplasty balloon, at 340mm.


It's my understanding that until now, there was no stable process to produce a quality thin-wall balloon, or multiples of balloons, at this size. It's also my understanding that there aren't a lot of in-body applications for a 340mm angioplasty balloon, but that there exist previously unmet needs in the 200-250mm range.

Awesome! Glad to hear all that work in Ireland is paying off Dad!

Read more on DeviceLink.com -- here.
(warning: Google is tripping a malware warning, but my virus software sees nothing)

UPDATE: CANCELLED :( March 11th, 2009: Microsoft Roadshow in town

Update: unfortunately Microsoft has had to cut the Albany stop on the Roadshow, probably for the remainder of 2009.

Per Chris Bowen's blog, the MS Roadshow is back in Tech Valley! Once again hosted by Autotask, the event is next Wednesday, March 11th, 8:30am-4:00pm.

Register online.