I'm at a loss...

So many of you may have noticed that I've been fairly quiet over the past few days. A few people have IMed me expressing concern, and for that I thank you guys. Rest assured, my absence is not anything health related. Unfortunately, the same is not true for Paul at Xheo.com. He has come down with a very persistent case of food poisoning. I hope he gets better soon, and I would ask that you all keep him in your prayers, as he has been sick for the past week.

My absense has been related to several positive things in my professional life (which happens to be the only life I really have at the moment). First and foremost, my company is finally wrapping everything up, and we're extremely close to the launch of our new website. Those of you that are close to me know that I'm thoroughly excited about this, mostly because I've been working on this for over a year now. Things are starting to come together in a big way.

Secondly, I've been working on getting my web servers moved, a huge ordeal that is a royal pain in the behind, but will ultimately be great for the company. Our servers will be tons more reliable, and I can begin hosting other clients again. Unfortunately, the launch of our new site is tied up until the servers are ready to go, but that's ok. A few more days won't hurt us.

A couple really big things are coming down the pipe in the next few days. Along with the new website, I'll also be launching several sister websites, all powered by Interscape. The first is www.PatchDayReview.com, and it will be the new home of my weekly review of MS vulnerabilities and fixes. At this point, it will be powered by .Text, but I'm hoping to move it to myKB soon so that I can make it searchable. Maybe I'll have to write a .Text search engine instead. We'll also be launching two other websites at the same time, but I can't really talk about them yet. I can say that they're going to be really exciting, and they will be a great kickoff to Interscape's community-based efforts.

A few other exciting things are coming as well. I'd love to be able to talk about them yet, but I can't really until October rolls around. I'm just amazed how well everything is falling into place, and how good things are just snowballing. The weeks ahead will be extremely exciting.

Having said all that, I sit now at my computer, and I am very sad. I just found out that my good friend and mentor, Brady Gaster, quit his dream job at Interface and is moving back to North Carolina. I freely admit that I'm upset for wholly selfish reasons. I met Brady six months ago, when we were co-workers at myKB.com. Brady may very well be one of the coolest people I know. Why? Well, for starters, the guy is one of the best .NET developers I know. Period. Second, he's a really great friend. Third, the guy is a hell of a DJ.

Now, I hear all the time from people that I interact with that I'm really smart, and I have a lot of potential.... blah blah blah. Lots of people take it upon themselves to make me their “pet project”. They always tell me how they're gonna teach me everything they know and make me great. Cool at first, gets real old after a while. Brady didn't do any of that. He just knew how I operate, and how I learn. He was there to kick me in the ass and make me code better. He was constantly teaching me, whether he realized it or not. He didn't tell me that he was going to mold me into the person that he wanted to be but could never achieve. Instead, he was an example, and gave me the desire to WANT to take up position on his flank and follow him into battle. I did willingly. And he became my mentor.

Brady pushed me where no one else knew how. He didn't just accept the answers when I gave them to him, he made me explain why. He challenged me in ways few have. But most importantly, he treated me as an equal, on every level. He didn't make me feel inferior because of my age, and understood what I needed to be a better coder. He gave me the validation I needed when I was unsure of my skills as a developer; when I thought I knew what I was doing, but did not have anyone else to say “yeah that's right, keep going.”

I talk to Brady all the time, and I still learn new things from him, and he pushes me to be better without even realizing it. We get geeked out about his new system for Data-Aware Objects, or how this code does that really cool thing, etc. He just really knows how to make you feel better about yourself, and I know I'm a better person when I'm around him. He's like the older brother I always wanted.

So I'm a selfish bastard. I want him to stay. There's so much I wanna learn from the guy, and sometimes an IM window just doesn't cut it. But, at the same time, I'm so happy for him. He's rediscovered God in his life, rediscovered his roots, and rediscovered himself. He's gonna go back and start over, and that's a very cool thing. I envy him.

So, Brady, here's to you. You've done more for me than you will ever know. Good luck back home, have a safe journey, and don't forget about your young apprentice. I'll miss ya man. Thanks for everything.