Blog of James Kies

Thank you God for Sundays

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:27:45 GMT

What a great day, spent 1.5 hours at breakfast on purpose! (we planned ahead an bought each kid a cool new puzzle book and crayons so they were plenty entertained!) while we experienced life at a snails pace for a few on purpose moments. Then we mozsyed on over to the kids schoolhouse playground, lots of fencing to contain them, where we all played at length while mom and sissy were able to mostly sit in the shade and read books. Small Cayden skydiving from edge of slide scare in the mix, not a mistake any of us will be making again soon, we were able to finish the evening playing in the sprinklers, kiddy-pool, BBQ-n some shrimp, steak, corn-on-cob, asparagus, mushrooms, scallions, made some spicy guacamole and some stupid spicy grilled jalapenos (hahahahaha not funny hot), thank you God for Sundays.

BrainCramp Oh I mean BrainBench

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:55:05 GMT

So, http://www.Brainbench.com is having a competition this week and have opened up all of their tests for free! Not sure I will be able to walk tomorrow but here is my current evening list.

Kids learning to Program!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:20:03 GMT

What am amazing weekend, in addition to great weather, great food, and great time with the family, the two oldest children have gotten a taste of "Software Development" and they like it! I am wondering if I should baby step or jump right into enterprise development! smile. Will keep you up to date. So far just simple windows console apps using C# and Visual Studio 2010, but Kaitlyn is hungry to build things that live on the Web so I know where this is headed!

Happy Coding! -J

Where are all the kids sections and childrens isles in the digital age

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:11:36 GMT

I was setting my daughter up on her new Kindle and was surprised when Amazon didn't offer to let me create a "child" account to link to my own... Got me to thinking about how technology vendors of the past really missed the boat on helping to sculpt the future generation by offering small opportunities for parents to stay involved and help ease them / coach them into some of the things that the internet and technology allows. a big Google -1 for Amazon for not having kid accounts and a wake up call to the future that more and more of this will be expected from providers of big systems! We love youtube, we FEAR FEAR FEAR the side bar ads, filtering is absolutely insufficent.....

More ranting to follow!

Happy Day, -James

having a job versus having a purpose

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:07:21 GMT

Watching "We bought a Zoo" today with my wife, children and sister was brilliant fun and got me to thinking about all the work-life paths that lay in front of me, in front of all of us. In my company we work tirelessly, 70+ hour weeks on regular basis, trying to infused enough of ourselves into something that it might take on a life of its own. For us it is a bit like those slow to light fires where you find yourself blowing on the embers to get them to take spark, adding more fuel, blowing more air.... You know that it will light and you have set your mind to being there when it does. I am constantly confronted with the reality of my situation, the financial short comings, the rising costs of.. everything... The aging of my Children as the cost of diapers is replace with the cost of roller-skating, is replaced with the costs of vehicles and eventually colleges... Then around every turn, especially on the days I feel the insurmountable weight of it all the most, I am bombarded with opportunity from local, surrounding and exotic places that already have raging fires and from casual onlooker to fire stoker in charge they offer me more money, less responsibility, fewer worries in trade for walking away. I often struggle with what it is I am in business for, who wins if the fire doesn't light, who loses if it does?

Days like today answer it all for me, the Sermon I had for breakfast, fighting my flesh the whole time to stay in bed, even to stop and just read a book in the parking lot. The movie, the time with family, the endless blue Florida Sky and January temperatures you can sun bathe in! I do what I do, and no less inspired dream of another will suffice that it is like the storyline in the movie, a life with purpose, a job that means everything but riches (though not a bad side-effect), an enterprise that God can use to solve your financial needs while enabling you to do work that can change the world for the cause of good. I do what I do to live a life filled with meaningful work, not easy work, not glorified work, not money work, I bring what I am and the skills I have to the table 120% of the time to be that difference in business, in technology, in the world that I wish to see.

I have renewed resolve today to pick up the cross and put 16+ years of skill on the line to better the lives of others, to improve the condition in which others live, to encourage and strengthen families starting with the Men that are and should be leading them. I am resolved that if in Mission work, working under the employment of my company, or working in the company of others, I will push hard and walk tall because there are 10 other Men of my caliber that aren't afforded the opportunity, aren't provided the skills, aren't put in this place, at this time. As for me and my house, and my business, we will serve the Lord and hold faithful to the calling on our lives.

It always surprises me how much Agile Lean and Scrum comes up with me and my thinking. In some way I see how jobs that might otherwise seem to be sucking the life away from its drone workforce can be transformed into a job with a clear and meaningful purpose if those that lead it would take a strong Servant Leadership position and empower the people to do amazing work.

Happy day! -James

2012 New Years Resolutions

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:26:58 GMT

2012, I have a resolve this year to:

Attempt to see 20% of the sunrises, and 33% of the sunsets this year with my wife and children.

Find a better way to be very on purpose with work/life balance.

To "Spend your Vote" in a way that lines up closed to my whats important list. (Making on purpose decisions about how to vote on what is important by how we choose to spend our time, applying Agile Lean and Scrum principals to every day living.)

Establish sustainable healthy life long patterns for acceptable health and fitness regimine.

Author 1 non fiction literary works.

Spend several days this year, honoring my wife and children each in complete isolation from the rest of the crew, or other of lifes distractions to just spend time together. Perhaps a Quarterly plan can be charted out to being with. After a few successful Quarters we can adjust accordingly.

Start a new mens ministry, join the iron-sharpens-iron mens ministry here in town, and continue / press forward with opportunities to serve our Church.

2am, again

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:57 GMT

Bummer, somehow time just gets away. I have spent the evening working on a new programming environment and langauge base for some exciting work coming up and lost the evening to it. Played great game of army men with Ash, Cayden and Braeden where we setup 50 or so army guys on each side of the surface, then took turns throwing a tennis ball at one anothers encampment. By the end we had some complex rules and scoring system established, was ridiculous fun. Kaitlyn went to "debate? drama? arguing?" this evening, she seems to be taking to it, looking forward to learning what it is all about.

Day Report:

Helped around the house 5 [6] 7

Participated in Parenting 5 [6] 7

Took care of business 7 [8] 9

Exercise 2 [3] 4

Reading/Study 6 [7] 8

Prayer Life 2 [3] 4

Bed Time 7 [8] 9

Today, I worked at NW most of the day, spent a few hours with the family after work, relieved Tiffany that she might escape during that time.

Tomorrow, (1) I plan to get up by 9:30 to meet with Rich and do our estimations before the daily stand up. (2) I will make a firm decision on future CMS. (3) I will reach out to Ian, Corey and Local Company regarding 2012 and present a short write-up outlining a business relationship. (4) Dishes, Trash, 2.5 hrs kids, bed time, prayer time, read 45 min, walk 1hr.

Roadblocks, none at this time.