The past few years, I’ve participated in my school’s alumni band as the basketball team played early season tournament games in New York City. I didn’t do so this year, because the games were scheduled around Thanksgiving. The logistics involved with my schedule, which included travel to and from New York City, were just too much, so I decided not to participate this year. I posted as such to Facebook, and one of my friends jokingly responded, “now that you’ve performed at Carnegie Hall, you’re too good for Alumni Band now?” I got a good laugh out of that, but another friend, who performed in both bands with me, also talked about his “tour of highlights where he’s performed.”
It turned into an amusing thread, but it also got me thinking about high points in my life. Now that I’m able to sit down and reflect about it (today, the Friday after Thanksgiving — I’m intentionally avoiding the Black Friday crowds today), I realize that I’ve had my share of life highlights — possibly more than most people have had in their lifetime. Far be it for me to boast about myself — I’m not that kind of person (seriously, I’m not!) — but here are some of the bigger, high profile moments that I’ve had (that I remember).
I’ll start with my most recent. Earlier this month, I’ve had two within the span of four days. As I mentioned already, I performed with my community band at Carnegie Hall on Veteran’s Day. The previous Friday — only three days earlier — I’d given a presentation at PASS Summit. The former is a big moment in my extracurricular career, while the latter is a big one in my professional life.
From my most recent to one of my first: in 1981, my high school marching band was picked to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. (You can see a video of my band’s performance here! I’m playing the marching bells; you can actually see me around 0:25 in the video!) I think any young person would pick that as a highlight of his or her life! We were positioned after the Superman balloon and in front of Dave Winfield on the Big Apple float. I remember rehearsing on dark city streets in midtown Manhattan at 3 or 4 in the morning, and all the bands gathered on 34th Street after the parade to perform Christmas Sing-A-Long.
I would have a few more moments with my high school band. We performed at a few NFL games, probably none bigger than the infamous snow game. Yes I was there! We were supposed to perform the halftime show, but they didn’t let us on the field — ostensibly for safety reasons. We performed the national anthem from the stands, and left after halftime. We did not even stay long enough to see the infamous snow plow on the field!
We even got to perform pregame at a few Yankee games! This was especially thrilling for me, as a big Yankee fan! The high point was performing a solo with the band my senior year. As a clarinet player, I had to be miked. I remember playing my solo (which I could play in my sleep) while thinking, “I am playing in the outfield at Yankee Stadium!”
My personal highlight reel continued as I joined the band in college. (Funny how most of these highlights seem to involve band!) I got to march in three bowl games (1985 Cherry Bowl, 1988 Sugar Bowl, and 1989 Hall of Fame Bowl) and an NCAA men’s basketball tournament. I even got on TV during the regional final game; we were playing the Syracuse fight song, and the CBS camera panned across the band, stopped in front of me, and the red light came on. I heard from multiple friends and family after that game — “I saw you on TV!”
I’ll stop there — you probably couldn’t care less about my life tour — but as you can see, I’ve had a number of “highlight reel” moments throughout my life. Now that I sit back and think about where I’ve been, I realize that I’ve done pretty well — and I’m not finished yet. We’ll see where my next adventure — whatever it may be — takes me.
So, what “highlights” have you experienced in your life? Every now and then, take a moment to sit down and contemplate what you’ve accomplished — and you’ll realize that you’ve done pretty well.
I felt a need to reblog this article, because this still continues to be an ongoing frustration. I’m reminded of this every time someone (the same person to whom I refer in my original article) feels a need to explain everything in his status update.
Why do people, especially technologists, insist on including every last detail about what they’re doing?
People don’t want detail! They just want the high level overview!
This article’s title comes from something that a former manager used to tell me all the time — often enough that he seemed very fond of saying it. Nevertheless, it’s an important message. This is not the first time I’ve written about this issue, but it’s something that occurs all too frequently. It is a problem in technical and business communication, and the issue is something that bears repeating.
I was reminded of this during our daily status update meeting this morning. The gist of this regularly scheduled meeting is that everyone has a short time — usually no more than a minute, if that — to provide a brief update of what they have going on. The key word here is brief.
One person proceeded to go into detail about some of the projects he had going (he has a tendency to do so). He’s been pretty good…
Additionally, Steve Jones came out with an article this morning about the benefits of conferences. Conferences are a great source of learning and networking. Some, such as SQL Saturday, are even free. If you ever have an opportunity to attend a conference or a seminar, I recommend it highly.
People, all too often, make excuses as to why they don’t learn anything new. Monica’s article lists out many of those excuses, and goes on to say why they are all invalid. She goes on to list resources you can use to further your education. It isn’t just about getting a degree or a certificate credential; it’s also about attending conferences and user groups, reading ‘blogs and articles, talking to people and networking, going to your local library, and getting involved with activities. Go read Monica’s article; it’s a great read.
Education is important, and we are always learning. Don’t use lack of money or lack of time as an excuse not to learn. There are many learning resources out there that you can do on your own time and require little or no money. If you’re seriously interested in learning about some topic, take the initiative and go get it. Otherwise, you run the risk of remaining in the same routine rut for the rest of your life.
Now that PASS Summit is over, I am not scheduled to speak at any more events. Greg did ask me to do a lightning talk about my experience at PASS Summit at our next local user group meeting, but other than that, I’m pretty much finished for 2019.
This isn’t to say I haven’t submitted to anything for 2020. Here’s where I’ve submitted, as of today.
Chicago, March 21: If I’m picked to speak here, it would break new ground for me. Excluding PASS Summit, every SQL Saturday and user group meeting where I’ve spoken have all been within fairly reasonable driving distance from my home in Troy, NY. Chicago is not within reasonable driving distance for me. If I’m selected, my game plan would be to ride out on Amtrak on Thursday night into Friday morning, and return that Saturday night. We’ll see what happens!
A week ago last Saturday, just before noontime, I returned home to Albany after departing Seattle the night before, and traveling across the country on a redeye flight. To say I was tired was an understatement; indeed, after my wife picked me up at the airport and brought me home, I went straight upstairs to the bedroom and just slept all day. Even a day after I arrived home, I was still not completely recovered from my trip. I spent a couple of hours going through almost 300 emails and getting caught up in general. It took me a while to get caught up, if I ever got there at all.
I had every intention of live-blogging my PASS Summit trip, but it didn’t happen. I had wanted to ‘blog about my experience each day of the trip. As it turned out, I never even touched my laptop. I ended up not needing it at all (and that includes for my presentation, which I’ll talk about below). On top of that, I was so busy during the week that I never had the chance to sit down and ‘blog like I wanted to. Instead, I’ll write about my trip exploits in one article. Warning: I expect that this will end up being a long article, so bear with me!
Day 1: Tuesday, Nov. 5
My alarm woke me up at 3:30 am Eastern time (time zones are important to note in this writeup) so that I could catch a 5:30 flight to Baltimore. Upon arriving in Baltimore, I found myself an in-airport diner where I had myself breakfast, then proceeded to the gate to wait for my flight to Seattle. I had a four hour layover in Baltimore, so I had plenty of time to kill!
That’s me on the aisle, Andy Leonard by the window, and another PASS Summit attendee (Mike) in the middle!
While waiting at the gate, I bumped into my first #SQLFamily for the trip. Andy Leonard ended up being on the same flight! We had a nice conversation, and when the time came to board, Andy said he would save me a seat. Sure enough, I found him at the back of the plane, and he had indeed saved me a spot. I took the aisle seat; I figured that six hours was a long time to spend inside an airplane, and I might want to get up and walk around a bit.
The middle seat ended up being taken by another PASS Summit attendee: Mike, from Akron, OH (last name withheld for privacy reasons). The three of us had a wonderful conversation as we flew to Seattle.
Our flight arrived a little after 2 pm Pacific time. It would have arrived even earlier, except the Southwest pilot executed a go-around on our landing attempt. I think he mentioned something about being too close to the flight ahead of us (wake turbulence is not a fun thing, especially on a landing). It was my first experience with an aborted landing, so it was interesting to feel the jets power up and see the flaps retract on our initial landing attempt. The second attempt was more successful.
I had planned all along to not rent a car and make use of public transportation for this trip, so I made my way to the light rail and rode to the Columbia City stop, where I checked into my AirBnB. After taking a few minutes to introduce myself to my host and drop off my bags, I reboarded the light rail and made my way to Westlake Station in downtown Seattle, only a few blocks from the convention center.
Of course, getting off a transit line in any city can be disorienting, even more so in a city with which you’re not completely familiar. I exited Westlake Station at the opposite end (as I would find out later) from where I should have exited. It took me several minutes (and Google Maps on my phone) before I finally figured out which way I was going. After walking a few blocks longer than I should have, I finally found the convention center.
My PASS Summit badge (along with my first few ribbons). Now I know it’s for real!
I made my way upstairs, and ran into another friend: Andy Levy. Having just arrived at the convention center for the first time, Andy took me over to the registration area, where I picked up my badge and started getting myself situated. I also picked up a couple of items that came with my association as a PASS Summit speaker: a hoodie jacket and a polo shirt.
As I walked around the facility, I was stopped by a few different people. I wrote before about how your clothing can be a conversation piece. I made it a point to wear my fraternity hat, as I promised I would. Two people identified themselves to me as members of my fraternity. Another told me that he was from Syracuse (the city, not the university). More examples of clothing as networking in action!
Andy said to me that one of the things about PASS Summit was that “it takes you fifteen minutes to walk fifty feet.” If you’re involved with SQL Saturday (like I am), PASS Summit is, essentially, a great big reunion. Even within my first hour at the conference, I’d already bumped into several people whom I knew. Andy’s words were true; within a short time, I already came across a number of friends I knew from my SQL Saturday involvement!
My first event was the first-timer’s event. That was an interesting experience; it was a large room, and the seats were arranged in groups of six. We were all encouraged to interact with each other and introduce ourselves. We were treated to a few talks from some PASS volunteers, including, among others, my friend, Matt Cushing, who gave a shortened version of his Networking 101 talk. (I just can’t get away from your talk, can I, Matt! 🙂 ) There was even a trivia quiz that matched up our groups of six as teams. The winning team received tickets to one of the game nights. Alas, we didn’t win. Oh well.
The welcome reception was one big party!
The second event of the evening was the welcome reception. After PASS president Grant Fritchey kicked off the reception, it was essentially one great big party! There were multiple drink stations and tables of food, and large crowds of people everywhere. The event was overwhelming — and I say this in a good way! I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I reconnected with a number of friends of mine from the SQL Saturday speaking circuit, and met a number of new ones as well!
One of the new people I met was Anthony, my designated SQL buddy. The idea of the SQL buddy program is for first-time PASS Summit attendees to have a “buddy” with whom they can connect so they’re not overwhelmed by the large crowds of strangers attending. I think it’s a great program, but I have to admit that it probably wasn’t completely applicable for me, because, even despite that this was my first PASS Summit, I wasn’t a stranger, either, since I knew dozens of people attending the event. As it turned out, the few minutes I spent with Anthony was my only contact with him during the week. I had wanted to talk to him even more during the week, but I lost him at the welcome reception, and didn’t reconnect with him again. (I am going to make it a point to drop him a line later!)
I left the event to attend another one, a volunteer party for PASS Summit volunteers. This event was invitation-only; only Summit volunteers were allowed to attend. I’m not sure whether it was my association as a PASS speaker or my willingness to help with the event, but in any case, I did receive an invitation to attend the party. It was held in a bar called SPIN, a ping-pong-themed bar. The venue was pretty cool; I wish we had one of these back home! (Their website says there’s a couple of locations in New York City, which are probably the closest ones to me.) I conversed with a number of people, and had a great time!
I would’ve enjoyed it even more, but by this time, the fact that I had been awake twenty hours was catching up with me. I decided to call it a night and head back to my AirBnB. If the rest of the week was going to be anything like this first day, I was going to be in for a long and tiring, but exciting, week!
Day 2: Wednesday, Nov. 6
My alarm went off around 5:30 — granted, that’s 5:30 Pacific time, and my body was still living on the East Coast, so it wasn’t that much of a problem. I showered, dressed, and caught the light rail to the convention center.
The first order of business was breakfast. I had signed up for a vendor breakfast, and went straight to the conference room. I filled up on my share of breakfast sandwiches, juice, and coffee. I’ll be the first to admit that I signed up primarily for the breakfast, not for the vendor talk. That said, vendor sessions are an integral part of just about any conference; as sponsors, their input and support are invaluable.
I decided to skip the keynote and took the time to explore the convention center. With everything that was going on, I figured it would be my best chance to get some downtime. I located my room where I would be speaking on Friday and got myself a sense of what was where.
At 10:15, I attended the session titled “Becoming a Technical Leader,” presented by Denise McInerney and Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman. I had previously crossed paths with Kellyn at Boston BI SQL Saturday (and likely some others — I’d seen her name before), but as far as I knew, I’d never met Denise (at least not that I remembered). They emphasized communication throughout their session, a topic close to my heart. Overall, it was an excellent presentation.
I had a variety of reasons for choosing sessions to attend. One of the big ones was to advance my own career. I will likely not be doing what I’m currently doing forever, so I wanted to attend sessions that I could use to improve my own professional standing.
With that in mind, I also attended a session called “Build Your Brand with Technical Writing,” presented by my friend, Kathi Kellenberger. She focused on tips and advice for getting published. I’ve had a couple of articles published before (my article on the history of major-league baseball in Troy comes to mind), but writing a book is a bucket list item of mine. I picked up some good pointers from her presentation. I did speak with Kathi, and she suggested that she might have some opportunities for me to write! I might just take her up on it!
For the last session, I decided to take in round 1 of Speaker Idol. For those not familiar with Speaker Idol, it’s an opportunity for people to give a quick presentation — within a span of five minutes. The presentation is judged by a panel, and the winner moves on to the final round. The grand prize is a guaranteed speaker’s slot in next year’s PASS Summit!
Last year’s winner was Rob Volk, who did a presentation of being “the very model of a SQL Server DBA.” (Imagine him singing to the tune of “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General,” and you’ll get the idea.) Click the link and check out his winning presentation. Trust me on this!
There were a number of vendor-sponsored events that evening, but I hadn’t registered for them. I ended up having drinks in a hotel bar with another friend from my SQL Saturday travels, Slava Murygin. We spent a few hours chatting and having drinks before deciding to call it a night.
Two great days down!
Day 3: Thursday, Nov. 7
Another day, another vendor breakfast. The spread was a little more substantial this time: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pastries, and so on. If you’re interested in having a fulfilling breakfast at PASS Summit, I definitely recommend signing up for vendor-sponsored breakfasts! And it also helps if the vendor is doing a talk that interests you!
I started my day of sessions by attending “Making the Leap to Management” by Chris Yates and Adam Jorgensen. Honestly, I’m on the fence as to how interested I am in pursuing a career that involves management. Nevertheless, it is a possibility as I advance further in my career, and a sense of what I could potentially get into is never a bad thing. I did find it interesting that good communication was a common thread throughout the session. I’ve always been a big believer that the vast majority of the world’s problems can be solved by improving communication, and this session seemed to validate that belief.
I attended “Successfully Communicating with Your Customers” after lunch. Denise McInerney gave this talk, and I saw a lot of similarities between her presentation and what I do with some of mine — enough to the point that I told her, after she was finished: “you could do my presentation.” I sent her a LinkedIn connect request and asked if we could stay in touch so we could compare notes.
Right after the presentation, the vendors did their prize drawings. If you’ve ever attended a SQL Saturday, it’s the same concept as the vendor prize drawings at the end of the day (the only difference was that they held it in the middle of the conference): you submit your ticket, and maybe your name is drawn for a prize. You need to be present to win. No, I didn’t win anything on this day. C’est la vie.
I attended another sponsor reception that evening at The Tap House Grill. It was billed as “a chance to meet and network with people outside of the conference.” Among others, I met Janice Gerbrandt, who, along with my friend, Paresh Motiwala (who did not attend Summit this year), lead the PASS Professional Development virtual group. I had previously been acquainted with Janice when I did my virtual presentation on networking back in May; now, I finally met her in person for the first time. During the week, I met a number of people whom I’ve only gotten to know through emails and online correspondence, including most of the staff at PASS.
I also bumped into my friend, George Walters. He was not attending Summit, but he was in town for work-related reasons, and decided to crash the party. It was nevertheless good to see yet another familiar face in a somewhat-strange town!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay out too late. Since I was presenting the next day — not to mention leaving town — I had to go back to my AirBnB and pack my things, as well as get some rest so I could do my presentation the next morning!
Day 4: Friday, Nov. 8
My turn to speak!
At last, it was my day to speak! My presentation was scheduled for the first time slot of the day, at 8 am.
I checked out of my AirBnB before 6 am and made my way, with my luggage, to the convention center. For the last day of the conference, PASS had a baggage check set up, and I made use of it. I checked my bags and went off to find myself breakfast.
Unlike the previous two days, there was no vendor breakfast that morning, so I had breakfast at a hotel restaurant right across the street. Up to that point, nearly every meal I’d had was provided by some PASS or vendor event, so this breakfast was the first meal since I’d arrived in Seattle that I paid out of my own pocket. After finishing breakfast, I went up to my conference room to prepare for my presentation.
As I mentioned earlier, I did not touch my laptop at all during this trip, including for my presentation. Each presentation room included a laptop that was already connected to a projector. All I needed was my presentation on a USB stick. I also used my own presentation clicker. (That said, I kept my laptop nearby anyway, in case a problem came up with the equipment that was supplied. Always have a backup plan.)
The presentation went well! It really wasn’t all that different from my experience with doing SQL Saturday presentations. The audience was larger, it was more geographically diverse, and because it was being recorded, I had the use of microphones. I passed it around when attendees had questions; that way, their questions could be captured as part of the session recording. People I spoke to later told me that they enjoyed my session, and I did a good presentation!
And after it was over, I could honestly refer to myself as a PASS Summit speaker! Achievement unlocked!
One disappointment about my presentation was that it conflicted with round 3 of Speaker Idol. It was especially disappointing, because two of my friends were participating in this round: Slava Murygin and Deborah Melkin. While I never got the chance to see Slava present, I would later get to see Deborah!
I hooked up with Andy Levy so we could go to the exhibitor booths. RDX gave out what was widely thought to be the best (and definitely the most popular) vendor swag: Minecraft swords! We had tried to get them the day before, but they had run out. We were told that they would have twenty more at the beginning of the day, and if we wanted one, we would have to be one of the first twenty. Indeed, Andy and I were number one and two in line when the vendor fair opened for the day!
I volunteered to moderate the Storytelling & Visualization “Birds Of A Feather” lunch table.
I had volunteered to man a Birds of a Feather lunch table. These special-interest tables allowed people to congregate and discuss a common area of interest during lunch. As someone with writing, UX/UI, and design experience, I ended up moderating the Storytelling & Visualization lunch table.
The CASSUG Albany user group (L to R: Greg Moore, Ed Pollack, and yours truly) poses for a photo!
Since the entire CASSUG (Albany user group) leadership team — myself, Greg Moore, and Ed Pollack — was at PASS Summit, I decided that we needed to take a photo of the three of us. Our local user group was well-represented in Seattle that week!
We took our photo at the PASS Community Zone. I spent a lot of time there during the week. It was a good place to congregate, meet people and network, and relax (there were beanbag chairs around the area). It was also a good place for me to recharge — literally. There were outlets set up around the zone, where I could plug my phone in to let it recharge. I spoke to a number of people and made some new networking contacts there throughout the week.
I did make it to the final round of Speaker Idol. As it turned out, I did not miss Deborah’s presentation, as she was one of the finalists. And wouldn’t you know, she ended up winning the entire thing! She was the Speaker Idol winner for 2019! She now has a guaranteed speaker slot for next year’s PASS Summit in Houston! Congrats, Deb!
By this time, PASS Summit was beginning to wind down. There was still another slot of sessions going on, but I didn’t attend. PASS Summit is an exciting, but tiring, experience. I learned that I needed to be picky about what sessions I attended, because trying to attend them all is impossible. I took some time to get myself organized, making sure that my stuff was together, packed, and ready to bring home. The Minecraft sword I’d obtained earlier in the day wouldn’t fit in my carry-on luggage (and it wouldn’t have surprised me if TSA flagged it while going through security). There was a FedEx office on the ground floor of the convention center, and I took advantage of it, shipping my new toy, along with a few other swag items, home. They’d be sitting on my doorstep later in the week.
At this point, a number of people were making arrangements for final dinners and plans before venturing home. Apparently, there was a tradition for a number of #SQLFamily to get dinner at the Crab Pot at the end of PASS Summit. Greg had invited me to accompany him to a small private party with Rensselaer alumni in west Seattle, which is what I elected to do. Unfortunately, because of issues with ordering dinner, I had to settle for taking a couple of hours to reconnect with some old friends before getting a Lyft to the airport and catching my cross-country redeye flight home.
Epilogue
By the end of PASS Summit, I’d amassed quite the collection of ribbons!
There’s a number of things I left out of my commentary; most of it is superfluous. Besides, I didn’t want to feel like I was rambling, not to mention that I’ve been sitting on this article for over a week.
PASS Summit was everything I’d been told and I expected: exciting, overwhelming, tiring, and fun! I had an absolute blast during my week in Seattle! I would attend every year if I could. Unfortunately, there are mitigating circumstances that prevent me from attending more often (the biggest being the registration fee; unlike SQL Saturday, PASS Summit is not free to attend. Since I’m doing this on my own dime — my company does not pay me to go — my resource to attend are limited. I was able to attend because I was selected to speak, so my fee was waived). That said, should an opportunity for me to attend ever comes up, I will not hesitate to go again!
I will definitely submit my presentations to speak at PASS Summit again. Hopefully, I’ll be selected again! And hopefully, you’ll be able to experience the same excitement and learning experience that I did at PASS Summit!
I’m getting back into the swing of things after being offline for a week and a half! My first PASS Summit was an absolute blast! I have a ‘blog article in the works about my PASS Summit experience, so stay tuned!
I’m spending time getting caught up on emails and schedules. I walked into my office this morning and discovered that I’ve been assigned a new SQL Server-related project, so I might have some updates coming with that relatively soon.
Thanks to our sponsors, Datto, Capital Tech Search, and CommerceHub, for making this event possible!
Additionally, we will have our annual Holiday party at Brown’s Brewing on December 9! Those of you who’ve attended our meetings are eligible for raffle prizes, such as the following:
Full Growler from Brown’s Brewing Gift Certificate from Brown’s Brewing 1 Night at Residence Inn in East Greenbush Gift Certificate from Chris’ Pizza in Wynantskill 1 year of free trash pick up from County Waste Removal
It is now less than twenty-four hours before I depart for Seattle and PASS Summit!
I still need to pack. From my quick little poll from last week, it looks like I’ll wear my fraternity hat, and I’ll pack lots of orange shirts! And don’t worry, Yankees haters; my baseball jersey is staying home.
Last week, I got an email from Southwest, saying that my flight plans have changed. I was originally supposed to depart at 6:20 am, flying from Albany (ALB) to Chicago (MDW) to Seattle (SEA). Instead, my flight leaves at 5:30 am and going through Baltimore (BWI) instead of Chicago-Midway. And if the earlier hour wasn’t enough, I now have a four-hour layover in Baltimore. Ugh. At least I’ll have plenty of time to grab breakfast and relax before my flight to Seattle. Note to self: bring a book to read (or something to do) while waiting for four hours in an airport.
Other than that, travel prep continues. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be on my way to the West Coast!
When I arrived at work this morning, temps were somewhere in the forties, and a strong wind was blowing (in fact, I believe there’s a high wind warning in effect), which brought wind chills down even more. I said to myself, I think it’s time to switch over to my heavier jacket. I did a quick check of the weather in Seattle. Although it’s not quite the chilly Arctic winter conditions to which we upstate New Yorkers are accustomed, it still looks like it’ll be cold autumn weather. So at the very least, I’ll bring my heavier jacket and at least one sweatshirt with me to Seattle.
It also got me thinking about all the little things that I need to think about any time I travel, much less go to a big event like PASS Summit. Other than the activities that I have planned for my trip, there are things like how am I getting to the airport (I’m still debating whether to drive myself and take advantage of the $6-a-day economy lot, or make my wife drop me off at 5 am), how well will I be able to navigate the light rail system, how long will it take to get to and from my AirBnB, and so on. Planning for the big things is important, but forgetting something little, such as forgetting to pack your presentation remote (which I’ve done plenty of times before), can be enough to sabotage your trip.
One helpful tip: create a checklist of what you need to bring or do. A checklist ensures that important little things are not overlooked. (I’ve written before about the importance of checklists. I’ve been meaning to talk more about them; I’ll make it a point to revisit it at some point.)
When planning, little things can sometimes make a big difference.
Welcome to Ray Kim's 'blog 