Coming to America

I never travelled much as a youngster (not that I'm a particularly old man now), apart from the odd holiday to France and Italy, even as far as Greece and Turkey, but never really that far out of Europe. When I reached studenthood - the time when typically people are spreading their wings and seeing more of the world for themselves, I got as far as Hong Kong, once, but nothing as exciting as America. I didn't get to the US until well into my 20s, when I started working with US companies, and every time I leave I feel like I've barely touched on a great country.

For all my ribbing of my American cousins, I feel a great kindred with them. A couple of years ago a work associate came over from LA and we spent a week travelling around Europe together. I've rarely enjoyed myself as much in a work situation. Just recently an SE from Orange County, CA came over to the UK and we spent a week traveling the UK (including Swindon and Exeter) and hardly got on each other's nerves at all. He then flew to Norway for the weekend for a cleansing of the spirit and wallet. I sadly didn't get there as I was hoping to catch up with Kai Roer. Next time Kai...

However, when I got back to base one day last week, I forget which, it's all been a bit of a blur, there was a mail in my inbox which caused quite a proud stirring. I wrote a blog entry on ZDNet, for a competition to win tickets to RSA Europe 2007, in London. Now, my reasons for entering were primarily because I'd screwed up the registration process, and had already written most of the content for the article in a post here. To my everlasting surprise, I won. Not only did I win a ticket to RSA Europe 2007 however, I have tickets and hotel (economy of course) to RSA San Francisco 2008 in April. Woohoo!

So, after months of speculation as to when I would be coming out to the West Coast, I can finally commit to a date, and to where I will be - RSA Europe 2008, April 7-11 at the Moscone Center in San Fran - with a full conference pass. I would love to meet you all (y'all) there. I should actually be coming out for a few days next month too, but I think I'll be pretty much heads down in Redwood City HQ. Don't let that stop you coming to see me (and that means you Mike D.)

Now for the freaky bit. I had a dream last night that I worked with Richard Stiennon at my old company. We were thoroughly nice to each other and I woke up feeling I had wronged him for taking the opposing stance on network security (my old company sold network security devices, if that helps in your analysis Dr. Freud?). What does this mean? Do I have some sort of deep desire to atone for my past sins of device-based deception? Do I have a secret yearning to work with Stiennon? Do I need therapy? Perhaps all of the above... maybe I just need another holiday?