First off let me just say... <Lou Costello>Hey Abbott!... I've been a b-a-a-a-d, boy</Lou Costello>

I know that it has been a LONG time since my last post, but in my defense a lot has been going on... After a much needed vacation back in May and a week at MS Tech Ed 2009 (where I worked with MS at the MS SharePoint Booth... (which I can honestly say was the best time that I have ever had at a Tech Ed event; getting to work side by side with MS internal SharePoint folks and having a chance to interact with so many SharePoint devotee's from the MVP folks to the installed user base was phenomenal)... At the same time I was coming to the end of a difficult decision that in order to deepen my SharePoint knowledge I really needed to leave Training/Writing (as a full time occupation) and take a position with a company that was a) large enough to have a strong need for a killer MOSS deployment, b) had reached a critical point where they realized this, and (most importantly) c) did not have a MOSS implementation in place already (as I really wanted to be the one to build this the "right way" from the ground up).  Beyond this I wanted to find a company that was a leader in their industry and was committed to investing in this deployment.

After interviewing with multiple companies I took a position with Lake Region Medical in Chaska, MN as their SharePoint Administrator/Developer/Architect, etc... they met all of the above criteria and they are the world’s largest OEM and contract manufacturer of wire formed medical devices and components specializing in minimally invasive devices for cardio, endo and neurovascular applications.  And beyond all of this they are truly building a world class data center and network infrastructure, and are a great bunch of people to boot!  This occurred June 1st.

So as you might imagine the first several weeks have been a whirlwind of activity... but now that things are leveling off a bit, I will aspire to becoming more of a regular blogger on all things SharePoint! I am still connected with New Horizons, with the possibility that I might be a "guest lecturer" from time to time... and I am most certainly going to carry forward the torch of the Twin Cities SharePoint Camp (as this is and has been a true labor of love for me to be able to give something back to the community that has given so much to me).  Beyond that, I am certainly going to continue writing, here on the blog and long term in the industry...

To quote Joe Walsh, "Life's been good to me so far...."

Sincerely,

Jim a.k.a. The Pointed Man.