Got back 2 days ago from our trip to Austin - it was great, though I'll share my latest "transition". Now instead of partying wildly on 6th Street like everyone else, Casey & I spent the countdown in our hotel room. Also instead of hitting the bars (& tattoo parlours ;)) on 6th Street (where mostly the co-eds hangout), we hit a yuppy-ish bar on 4th Street. My point is that I'm beyond the wild & crazy days of my life and I guess I realize that now. Sure, I don't mind going crazy & wild at some point, but it would take me a few pints to get me there. ;)
Today (& tomorrow also), I spent the day at home. The snow is just now stopping, from its start about 24 hours ago and we are looking at over 11" of accumulation. Some of you who live in areas where this is a common occurrence (Northern Europe/UK/US) may laugh, but it shut us down, travel-wise. Even if you had the expertise & aptitude to drive around, you wouldn't want to, because of all the other crazy drivers that are out & about, thinking they know better. Even if it was 1", we'd still be in the same predicament. Go ahead ... laugh. ;) I can't wait 'til summer... but I do wish I was out on a ski slope ... :)
I got a new domainname! Right now, I'm just using it for the homepage, but I could see doing all kinds of other stuff with it, too. All of my other ideas (purdy.com/net/org [heck, even jasonpurdy.com]) were taken, so when the .info domains came out, I jumped at it.
Gotta write my next column - I'm behind. I think I will address programming trends - I get a lot of e-mail from the visitors of developer.com asking if they should focus on this (.NET/VB) or that (Perl/Java). My approach is similar to Damian's answer, where they should tackle programming practices first before "specializing" in a particular technology.
Jason