There are a few times each year where I get personal in this space. It's not often, it's not too personal, but if it annoys you... shut it and come back tomorrow.

Memorial Day is my favorite holiday around DC. Unlike most of the others, it's not just a day off or a time to see a parade or just a day with lousy Metro service... though all are true. The real highlight of the weekend for me is Rolling Thunder. Of course, I didn't get to see it the same was as my friend S Dawn Jones (USMC) who covered it from the White House.

But I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the people that I look up to and have admired in business, life, etc and I found a couple common threads that tie most of them together. The single most common thread is serving in the military. So here - in roughly chronological order - are some people I'd like to thank:

Yes, another personal note... that's what the weekends are for. Oh well.

Last night, I caught via Robert Scoble that Charlton Heston had died. While most people remember him as Moses and the gun-toting defender of the 2nd Amendment as the President of the NRA, there are some other facets that come to mind.

First, he was a fellow Illinoisian. He grew up and stuck around all the way through college. Longer than I did. ;)

Maybe it's a part of the DC culture or maybe it's the overall direction that things are going - I don't know - what I do know is that there's one question that seems to be coming up repeatedly in a variety of circles:

How can we use technology for good?

Personally, I consider that there are two different "goods" out there:

First, there are the Little Goods. Helping out a friend, meeting a customer's needs, and holding a door for someone are all little things that just about anyone can do to make things better for someone. If you do them enough, I think you can change the world one person at a time.

But on a different level, there are Big Goods. These are things that require action from larger groups of people and they affect larger groups of people. The outpouring of support for the US after 9-11, the huge amount of private contributions to accountable organizations to help other people, and just about every blood drive I've ever seen.

As I'm closing out the CaseySoftware books at the end of each year, I take the opportunity to review, compare, and track the details against the previous year. Overall, it's been a good year for CaseySoftware in terms of finances, growth, activity, etc. Here's a quick summary:

Yes, as a geek, I have hard metrics to go with each of these, not all are for public consumption. ;)

I generally don't use this space to get quite this personal, but after an enlightening conversation yesterday and this being Christmas Eve, I figured "why not?"

In a gross overgeneralization, one of the problems with an engineer mindset like mine is that we tend to follow formulas. We learn early on that formulas work, they're predictable, and we know how to interact with them. While I consider my ability to improve to be one of my most valuable talents, I find myself falling into formulas now and then in my personal life, but hadn't thought about it much in my professional life. So the conversation yesterday struck me. Here's the other half (and the important part) of the conversation:

I realized that when I give you specifics you stick to them

it's best to not give you specifics have you figure it our and let you have the room to explore and be creative

I need you on your toes

well...being a leader is finding what's best for those around you, although it might for a little while be tougher on you and on them

you are welcome...and it's what's best for all of us. I have to know that you can make the best decisions in my absence based on you not on just on what I would do or the guidelines provided...that's how the right decisions will be made

On a personal note... 

It was three years ago this evening that I started blogging.  It's funny to go back and read that post:  blogs.CaseySoftware.com is Online.  I was traveling for a deadend job, was getting more enmeshed in a deadend without a hope of escaping.  I started this site and this blog to pave the way to better things and had to blog under the super-creative pseudonyms "KC" and "CEO".  So silly.  While it prevented my boss from finding my name, it also made "KC and the Sunshine Band" the only thing that would appear for my Adsense for months...

I can't begin to name all the things that have changed personally, professionally, and in just about every way possible.  Some quick notes that I can think of off the top of my head:

• I've met some great people across the spectrum in terms of skills, geography, and experiences.  I've learned something from most of them and a lot from a few.  Most are linked in the blogroll to the left.
• Many of the other bloggers who started up about the same time are gone.  More than  half of that original blogroll are completely gone, some haven't updated in a over a year.
• CaseySoftware shifted from a parttime operation doing tiny one-off tweaks to existing projects to having a large and growing base of customers doing a mix of custom projects on top of a few established products and wholy new development work.
• Despite all my efforts, I still can't find a qualified junior/mid level PHP guy to come on parttime...  *hint*hint*
• Somewhere along the way, I was mistaken for someone whose opinion matters.  While I'm quick to correct people and point out the obvious absurdity of such a statement, I appreciate the mistake.  ;)

So anyway, if you've made it here, welcome.  If you've found something useful, let me know and I'll remove it immediately... can't have any of that lurking around.  ;)  Tomororw I'll return to the regular agenda.

In case you haven't noticed, things have been pretty quiet around here for the last week. No, CaseySoftware didn't go under. In fact, just the opposite... we're expanding operations in a couple new areas by the end of the calendar year. This past week was a well-deserved and massively required break.

When you're running a small business, taking time off seems unlikely, even impossible. You know things are going to ex/implode while you're gone. More importantly, since you're often your own Business Development team, you know that taking time out can be devastating longer term... so here are some tips in making it happen.

• First, schedule it far in advance. The farther the better. I scheduled this September trip sometime in April.
• Second, you can schedule it to overlap with a holiday. If you can turn a four day weekend into a six, have you really cost yourself much?
• Finally, have a backup plan. Who responds to email and the issues that will come up?

Alright, so all of those can be difficult at best and seem impossible 98% of the time. So is it really worth it? I would have to say unequivocally Yes. Taking time off can do a variety of things.