Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

I'm too tired to write more than a few lines, but I thank you all for your kind thoughts, on this, my birthday and the beginning of the last year of my twenties. 

No doubt it's all over soon since after this, 30, and death, lay around the corner.

Yep, my twenties were a blur, people, and somewhere in there I gained a wife, and a whole pile of in-laws, cousins, sisters, brothers, a few bozos, and I must say, I've done well. ;) 

I've squeezed my 4-year Bachelors of Software Engineering into only 11 years (!) and finally there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  I should graduate this June with a decade of full time software work under my belt and a freshly minted piece of B.S. by my side.  That will be a nice way to begin my 30s. 

My 20's were punctuated with (in no particular order):

• Getting married to a fabulous woman, and going to Zimbabwe for 3 weeks to meet her Parents, ask their approval and offer them 'lobola' - a bride gift
• Being diagnosed with Type 1 Insulin Dependant Diabetes and being hooked to an Insulin Pump 24 hours a day
• Giving Technical Presentations in Germany, London, Singapore and Malaysia
• Going on a 14-city roadshow with Microsoft during the .COM years
• Watching my Dad retire from the Portland Fire Department after 30 years as my younger brother begins his first year as a Fire Fighter
• 9/11 - I remember it like my Dad remembers the moment Kennedy was shot
• Selling Don Box his first Apple Newton while I worked at Incredible Universe, went to school at night and wrote 'C' code on Windows 3.1 even later at night
• Creating a successful shareware product, marketing it, selling it, and finally selling the company and buying a house
• Doing Standup Comedy at a few local open mikes
• Working for a startup in California and watching it disintegrate
• Writing 'C', the C++, then OWL, then VB3, then C++/MFC, then 16 bits became 32 and all my ints changed, then COM, then VB5, then VB6, then C++ again, then Java, then C#, and then C again (on a PalmPilot).

It's been a whirlwind decade, and I've gotta say, I REALLY didn't see any of the last 10 years coming!  But, I suppose that's the curse, right: "May you live in interesting times."