bryanjeffrey (ABOUT)

Flying over the Elk River

I realized a little while back that it had been well over a decade since my dad and I had spent any intentional, dedicated father-son time. In spite of the fact that we are partners in one business and have conspired on may other occasions, those of you familiar with family business can probably relate to how little quality time that lends itself to. Somehow birthday dinners and the occasional Sunday with the family (when we make it to Spokane for that long) inevitably hold some mention of business TODOs or a thought to our next quarter strategy.

At any rate, we both carved a weekend out of our schedule, packed the airplane, and headed into the Idaho wilderness for a couple of days of hiking, fishing, and general outdoor guy stuff. We were hardly alone, as the USFS airstrip we flew into (Moose Creek) has gained some popularity among back-country pilots, but it was a drastic change from our usual two-to-three phone ringing, several email account, insurmountable todo-list days. In fact, there was no cell-phone reception for AT&T or Verizon; the closest thing to communication with the outside world was a ranger station about a mile from our campsite.

Suffice it to say, the time was much needed, and my dad is still at least as awesome as he was 15 years ago–maybe even a bit more. It was great to have him teaching me to fly-fish, rather than us pounding out a sales plan or working on development schedules. We definitely need to make a habit of that.

Packing and prepping

One of the bridges acress the creek... just a bit shady

Taking off from Shearer (a USFS strip up the Selway River from Moose Creek).

Over the coming days, you may notice some of my old posts disappearing; specifically those in geek-speak. A couple of years ago, I realized that however holistically I wish to approach life, it’s not fair to force anyone who would like to follow my personal journey to endure, along with it, the techiness inherent in my daily life. With that in mind, I registered another domain, and diligently parked it for future use. At long last, I have blown the dust off of that domain and launched my geekdom blog.

From now on, the less technically inclined should be safe venturing here. That’s not to say that thoughts I share will make any more sense, but at least they should be–in the majority–based in the English language. As for my fellow geeks, the rants on software architecture, system administration, disaster recovery, and what have you will be found at nonparametrics.com.

No promises, but I’m hoping that this separation will make it easier for me to communicate well in both arenas. My ambition is that this blog would provide a window into my story with whatever value that can provide to the blogosphere at large.

~ cheers

I know, I know…. I tease you all with a new blog, and promptly forget about it for several months. For those of you who know me well, this is pretty much right on par. I get a great idea and start after it with the best of intentions, only to drop the ball for some other shinny one–or a bigger and more important one. I really do hope to maintain this someday, but no promises of consistency just yet.

At the moment we are still juggling a monster remodel of our duplex ( not nearly as monster as it might have been with out the wisdom of my wife =), a blossoming young company, growing involvement in a church that is busting at the seams, and family spread all over the northwest. The crazy part is that we still pretend that we have a life most of the time, and we go out with people now and then.

Our business really is going well, and we’re excited to see where it takes us as it grows and takes shape. The time investment is still quite significant, but we hope that it pays off, and not at too high a price. We have a great team and the privilege of serving some exceptional clients. My travel has tapered down a bit as our Spokane office is off and running now and I can focus on developing our services and improving our current offerings.

Aside from work, Alyssa and I were able to sneak away for a weekend in the Great North. Although it was a whirlwind trip, the timing could not have been better. We spent a little over a day and a half wandering around Victoria BC, shopping, talking, and just leaving all of our cares at the airport. If you ever have the chance, tea at the Empress is well worth the time. It is an architectural marvel–not to mention the first-class teas and fare. The Irish Times pub was also a great stop. I may be a bit biased in that, given our great love of most Irish pubs (Kell’s is one of our favorite Portland haunts).

Hopefully I won’t be six months in writing the next post, but only time will tell. Feel free to chide me over not keeping this up; there is no motivator like a good public taunting, and it doesn’t get too much more public. Cheers!