What an odd title, that? The latest Thanksgiving can occur is the 28th, which is this Thursday. Much closer to Christmas, so Merry Thanksgiving. I hope you and yours have a joyous holiday...and fewer family fights on this festive day. We’re hosting for Cathy’s family this year, which makes for a frantic period for us getting the house ready. Sorry for the somewhat rambling start. So much has happened over the past month. I didn’t know where else to start. Perhaps I should have led with the Flamingo? [Pink Flamingo Universe - 2024] This was the first Author Nation conference. Joe Solari followed Craig Martelle’s footsteps by taking over as showrunner for what had been the 20 Books Vegas conference. It was a fabulous event. The tone was calmer, by design, but the vibe was still there. I did not go to this conference expecting to learn much. After all, this was the fourth consecutive of the same basic writer’s conference. So why go? That’s the flamingo hiding in the corner. Why fly across the continent, spend thousands of dollars, and spend that much time in Vegas if not to learn? Fellowship. Inspiration. Preparation. And a bit of curiosity. Last year, Craig announced the end of the 20 Books saga. There were doubts that someone could come behind and fill his shoes. Many people said they would not come because Craig wasn’t running it. I’ve never been a fan of the cult of personality. I didn’t come to 20 Books in 2021 because of Craig. Yeah, he’s a great guy, and he gives back to the indy author community. But the show was more than just Craig. Besides, Joe delivered....

This has been an interesting year for me, both as a technologist and an author. When I say year, I mean the past 12 months. I do my "new year" planning in October as this is my birth month. The great thing about setting those goals is reusing them each year as when I slide right past achieving them. But we will not talk about that now. I went to three technical conferences; two for Ruby on Rails and one on enterprise software platforms. Call the latter an occupational hazard. The Rails conferences were in Detroit and Toronto, and the last was in Vegas. As venue cities go, I liked Toronto, then Detroit. Vegas doesn't do it for me. I have one more conference (Author Nation) in November. Yes, that's "this year" in my frame of mind instead of "last year." Why are these conferences exciting to talk about? If you've read the earlier posts, this has been a year of technology renaissance for me. I've returned to Linux. I've started dabbling with Neovim (yes, the fingers still remember all those commands from 20 years ago!). Ruby on Rails released new capabilities focused on solopreneurs and small teams. As I get closer to retirement, I'm exploring what to do in the next phase. That includes looking for my tribe. I'm a creative who likes to give back to his tribe, so it helps to know who they are. With these conferences, I think I've found two of my three tribes. The last can only happen when we ultimately relocate. Rails World was the peak experience for me. I've met a lot of public figures and celebrities in my life; presidents,...