Well, I guess every blog needs an intro.   I hope this is the first and last post that feels like a journal entry.  I was never very good with those.  They were either mundane accounts of daily life {brushed teeth,  did math homework,  drank a few to many beers}, juvenile accounts of love gone wrong, or some stream of consciousness rant about something or other.  Hopefully this will be a more focused account of the work I am doing, with some discussion of new or interesting tools for systems administration, security, monitoring, open source software, and a sprinkling of my other interests when I just can’t keep from writing about them.  I expect this will evolve as I get better at this and depending on the feedback I get (yes this is your blog to) move in some yet unknown direction.  Don’t be surprised if a rant or two gets in the mix every once in a while.  I am a sysadmin so ranting is in my blood.

So many good things going on in my world these days.  I recently joined Reductive Labs.  I am incredibly excited about the work we are doing, where the company is going, and working with Luke and Andrew full time.  It is great to be working on technology not just with it.  Over the next month, I will be traveling to at least one client site with Luke,  working with some development partners on a web based Puppet reporting interface, and formalizing our training courses.  I plan to write about all these things for a few reasons:

• Clarity of composition yields clarity of thought. I strongly believe that writing about the things we are doing encourages us to think more clearly.  So if I am not writing about the work that I am doing I am probably missing a huge opportunity to understand the problems better.
• Open communication about our work gets others involved and excited. Having work colleagues is great, but small teams tend to share the same box, and while we are not carbon copies of one another it is easy for us to get focused on the wrong solution to the wrong problem.  Hopefully this can be a forum to not only expose others to great technology for systems management, deployment, and integration but as a place to get good feedback on our ideas and get others involved.
• It’s all about the Interwebs stupid. It just makes good sense to write about the work we are doing.  You can’t have street cred without a blog these days, and I generally think that is a good thing.