More Assorted and Useless TechEd Notes

Scoble linked to me!  Not exactly my best stuff to have generated a link, but I'll take it.  I'm actually well known among my colleagues and employers for telling it like it is, so I guess its one of the best things I have to offer.  Does anyone think this trait could be valuable for an independent consultant?  I've been pondering this of late, as I try to decide what I'm going to do after my current gig is up around September.  I mean its easy to get lots of billable hours if you just do what you're asked to do, but sometimes the best thing is to actually not do what you've been asked, or to just offer some raw advice that may not get you lots of work either.  Feel free to send me your thoughts or advice on whether I should continue with low-risk corporate jobs or go out on my own in some fashion.  I've got to minimize the risk since I've got a wonderful wife and two kids, but I do think something more independent would be more interesting.

I keep meeting more people.  I've ran into Donny Mack and Doug Seven of DotNetJunkies several times and got to wear one of their T-Shirts yesterday.  Its kind of funny, since their shirt makes fun of ASPAlliance and my ASPAlliance shirt makes fun of them!  Speaking of the ASPAlliance, since I contributed to Steve Smith's and Rob Howard's ASP.NET Developer Cookbook, I got to go to dinner last night at the Cool River Cafe with all the SAMS/QUE authors and publishing folks.  I met so many people that I won't even begin to try to name them all, but I did have a really good time, although I was also very exhausted at the end of this day.  Thanks to Amy Sorokos for making this possible, and thanks for the $40 filet mignon with crab topping, which was the biggest and best steak I've ever had!  I'm looking forward to seeing whether or not I can get a better or more expensive steak tonight at the MVP dinner.