Note: The Notes file this week is DEFINITELY worth looking at this week too. The people have spoken. DevOps’ish won’t be changing its name any time soon. I received a lot of great feedback; thank you for that. As I’m writing this, I can feel the effects of my COVID-19 booster kicking in. The joint pain is the tell for me. Max received his first shot today too. He and I will be pretty sore in the morning. Max is genuinely excited to get his vaccinations and get back to gallivanting across the globe. It’s looking like we’ll be heading to San Diego at some point in Q1 2022. Having just gotten back from Los Angeles, I can definitively say I’m comfortable taking the family back to California. Meanwhile, onboarding at AWS is going well. Amazon has a rigorous onboarding process that will ultimately inform me more about the culture and how work happens. I know it sounds like I’m marveling at the process, but it’s the most rigorous onboarding process I’ve been through in the private sector. It’s awesome. I know where tools are that I would’ve had to learn through osmosis at other companies. I’m behind on all of it, and while that’s fine (the point is to finish it over a longer time arc than I’m allowing). I’m getting through it, but there are just some things I won’t fully grasp at first and will need to see in practice (this is a personality trait). I have to commit to adapting to the Process and Tools. I’m starting to see where I can fit in, too, so there will be some technical work starting soon. It’s a good feeling because Friday, all I wanted to do was “be productive.” Get some onboarding done and some upstream work done. That felt nice. Waking up to merged PRs on a Saturday morning will always feel good. ...

Happy Halloween 🎃💀👻 I started my new role as a Senior Developer Advocate on the AWS Kubernetes team this week. Working for the second largest employer in the United States and the #1 cloud in the world is an extremely interesting dynamic. I’m adapting slowly but surely to the scale. It has a surprisingly familiar feel. I guess that’s what happens when one of your friends brings you in. But, I also have so many friends at AWS and Amazon too. It’s not like the Kubernetes world is that big to begin with. Tech isn’t that much bigger. But, it’s nice someone you met in 2017, another person you met in 2018, and on and on is DM’ing you welcome messages throughout the week. I genuinely feel appreciated. It’s an odd feeling; I don’t think I’ve ever felt to this extent. I have a very real feeling of belonging. Also, Max turned six this weekend. It’s been a really good week. I hope your upcoming week is awesome! ...

KubeCon hangover is real. I grossly overestimated how much I’d be able to do in four days, of course. I spent my little break between jobs trying to sleep in most days. Spend extra time with Max (daddy pick-ups from school are a real thing now). But, any time I went to do something technical or constructive, it took a lot longer than I thought it would. I did a lot of little niceties to various websites, pre-employment stuff, write the $newjob blog post, and generally did not think about complex things. I wanted to tinker with a list of little projects, but I opted to read maybe or play Madden instead. It wasn’t bad, but to say I’ve recovered from KubeCon is a gross overestimation. I’m going to shut myself in and lay on heating packs all day tomorrow, more than likely. Two bad ankles, a bone spur in the neck, and a bad shoulder all snarling at you doesn’t make for a good time. ...

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021 in Downtown Los Angeles was fantastic. I got to see friends I hadn’t seen in a long time and some people I met for the first time. “I didn’t realize you were so tall” was a common statement from people I was meeting for the first time. It was very cool to meet folks in the community and Red Hat for the first time. It was also interesting to see new companies entering the cloud native ecosystem. I spent more than one time looking up companies or products I’d not heard of before. It was also interesting NOT to see Google Cloud or VMware there. Those companies opted not to get a booth based on their company COVID-19 policies. It was a little weird being in such a large venue with only a few thousand people. The L.A. Convention Center made for some long walks. I ended up crushing my Apple Health rings every day. Except for maybe the last day on site. One thing I noted after day two was that I was very dehydrated. You can’t drink while wearing a mask. It got to the point where I drank a liter to two liters before the conference. Retreat outside and drink as much water as possible. I was then drinking a ton of water at the end of the day. ...

Personal Note: If you’re reading this and you’re at KubeCon in L.A. and you don’t find me and say hello. I’ll be sad. I had a crazy day. I flew on a freaking plane! Two thousand three hundred miles, no less! I’m in Los Angeles, California, for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021. Keep your eyes peeled on my Twitter for the most up to date shenanigans. I already have a travel tip in the books for folks ride sharing from LAX. Also, I announced my resignation this week from Red Hat. It has been an incredible three years. I finally can now say I’ve figured out I’m good at turning a problem with nothing solving it into something that people never thought possible. What I’m most known for at Red Hat is live streaming. But, that was something that became a massive conduit of information and knowledge sharing. The team had a challenge; we needed a solution. I was the right person, with the right gear, at the right time. Sometimes, things work out like that. ...