Thank You Shimano

While I was there I grew up. I traveled the world: to Asia, to western Europe, to Australia, to the Northeast and Northwest USA, to the midwest and back and forth. I learned what it was to be a 'Premier' status member. I trained in databases, load balancers, Microsoft and Linux, backup, virtualization, management and self-empowerment. I cycled with professional teams, local enthusiasts and commuters. I bought my first home. I got engaged. I got married. I got divorced. I worked for 4 different managers and was liked by all of them. I got good reviews... repeatedly. I met with and helped interesting people around the world. I made friends in Nunspeet, The Netherlands. I made friends in Osaka, Japan. I made friends in Singapore. I stayed alone in the depths of winter far from home and stayed with best mates in the height of summer's enthusiasm. I skiied at a top resort, partied at the world's best party, ate cheese and drank wine amongst friends and colleagues. I participated in multiple triathlons and trained during my lunch hour with enthusiastic co-workers greeting me at the end of nearly every workout. I witnessed an American riding to victory on the Champs d'Ellyses. I helped expand a company from a chaotic, disparate web presence to a globally unified, branded, tool-driven business-empowering e-Business system. I worked with three ISP's. I helped expand the "global" web environment from two servers to over 40. I worked with SAN's and storage, LAN's and WAN's, global IT systems, ecommerce, content management, domain management, managed service providers, hardware vendors, software developers and an infinite host of 'techno' gadgetry that I'd never have touched in many places. I joked with colleagues about the future, the management, the bonus structure, the pay. I was disgruntled little. I was happy mostly. I learned to choose that happiness is indeed a conscious choice. My colleagues once called me "Angry Gary". My family now calls me "Buddha Roo". I learned to live the latter through my actions and presence.