For the past four years, I've been associated with the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee in one way or another - the first two were as a student while I was in graduate school; the past two have been as the all-around resident geek. It's been quite a ride. But, as all good rides do, this one has come to an end. In a little over two weeks, my wife and I will hitch up the wagon, gather our belongings and wander west to Graceland. I've got a new gig. The boxes are packed. The house is sold. And it's time to move on.
It's a bittersweet affair, this moving thing. Knoxville became our home - against the warnings of older and wiser souls, we drank the East Tennessee water and fell in love with the mountains and the foothills and the bizarre orange that permeates everything for a hundred miles in all directions. We grew roots and they clung hard and fast. We made friends that became our family. And we hate to go. But, we really must. We're moving to Memphis, three hundred and seventy miles west of these old mountains, to settle on the banks of the mighty Mississippi where occasionally the land gives a slight rise, but only enough to make you long for a real hill. I'm sure over time we'll fall in love with the river the way we have with these mountains. But there will always be a longing.
Even so, we are excited and nervous and a bit giddy about starting all over. There's the new job - I'll be doing web services development, which has been the favorite aspect of my current position (but only a small slice). So, I've been blessed with the opportunity to do what I love all the time. And then there are all the other various aspects of life these days - a new city, a new house (eventually), a new church, etc., etc., etc. It's been an unbelievable adventure thus far. And it's only getting better ;-)
From this side of things, who knows what all this will bring. I've been quiet in these parts lately because, as you would expect, I've been busy getting ready to move. But I've been toying around with the idea of retooling the focus of this blog and maybe the entire site. Up till now this blog has been focused primarily on my experiences and observations on scripting languages - first Python and lately Ruby - with a primary focus on my usage of them in the web environments. I've thought about minimizing that and going in a more web design direction. Right now it's still just thoughts. But, we'll see what this adventure holds. Everything's a changing.
In the meantime, I'll be holding onto my hat.
