Is there life beyond IT?

When I first bacame involved in IT, I would have replied to that question with something like, "Beyond IT?  What do you mean?  Is there anything beyond IT?"  I was absorbed by IT, programming, designing, enhancing, hacks (not in the "Black Hat", destructive form but in the original meaning of the term), and all things IT.  I learned any and all languages that I could. I delved into any and all subjects IT (from assembler design and development to databases to artificial intelligence to telecommunications and anything else).  At one point I was receiving 12 publications a month from ACM . . . and 12 from IEEE.  (I had to take a speed reading course in order to keep up with them . . . but, of course, I never considered the alternative of not receiving some of them. ;-)  yes, I was absorbed by IT.

However, as the years have gone by and, among other things, I have been in a second marriage, I have begun to approach the point where I am no longer satisfied to be absorbed by IT.  I have always enjoyed some hobbies . . . although, admittedly, not very many that didn't involve IT.  Yet, as I entered into my second marraige with Amy (my wife), I learned that there were more things to do in this world, like SCUBA, travel just for fun (and not just for IT conventions ;-), photography, and being involved with my church, to name a few.  I also came to appreciate cooking and the joy of having someone not only to cook for but also to appreciate being cooked for.  In other words, I began to realize that there actually is Life Beyond IT.

Don't get me wrong, I still have areas of IT that fascinate me.  For instance, I have been doing database work and I have come to really enjoy that . . . more so than developing in conventional programming languages.  However, with our (fairly) recent move to a new home where I will, for the first time ever, have my own woodworking shop (albeit a small one), I am finding more and more of a desire to enjoy my personal time and more and more resentment at my work-hours encroaching on that personal time.

So, I have decided to make a concerted effort to track my on-going drift from being all-consumed by work in the IT profession toward actually having a Life Beyond IT.  I don't know that anyone will have the slightest interest in this but I know that I need to write down my hopes, dreams, accomplishments, and "back-sliding".  My plan is to minimize the mention of things IT and maximize the mention of the rest of my life . . . thus the title: Life Beyond IT.

And, so it begins.