2007 ended wonderfully, with ~10 days of candy, crying, and spending quality time with the family. 2007 was an interesting year.

It started with:

• Jerry learning to crawl
• Isilon stock @ 27
• Vying for a director’s position at work
• A list of goals

It ended with:

• Jerry learning to talk
• Isilon stock @ 5
• Sole director of development
• Having accomplished none of those goals

2007 was a lot of adjusting - adjusting to Jerry’s ever growing demands of my heart and attention; adjusting to the thought of not retiring in the next ten years; adjusting to the reality that between Isilon and Jerry, I can’t seem to get anything else done.

Here I am in the bathroom on my blackberry. I’ve just finished writing seven emails, some of which were long, most of which may cause consternation - but all of which had me so excited that I couldn’t sleep.

I didn’t realize how invigorating the ownership of the development group would be. I think this goes along with my “decision” about my next move - I find it very difficult to focus on today if I don’t know about tomorrow. I’ve got focus - I don’t need to worry about when I’m going to learn Japanese or how I will figure out what to research - I know when I’ll tackle those problems and several years to develop my approach.

Thoughts of Isilon skyrocketing to a glorious future have turned out to be premature - but that future is still very much a possibility.

It is worth pointing out that not only is Isilon still facing a great opportunity, but so am I; it is unlikely I will have the energy, time, nor fortune to follow a company from an early-stage startup through its transition to a (prosperous) public company while being in a position of leadership - the position I will soon be given (in the next week) may be temporary or it may be permanent, but in either case it is a great opportunity.

This is an update from Jerry’s Language. These are all words that Jerry is using regulary - is pronunciation isn’t perfect, of course. =)

“i want” car truck cheese wheel daddy mama bus feet boy toy mixer fire truck backhoe phone call popcorn ambulance big small go nose “up high” down orange juice video おしまい だっこ もっと ない おもい みず とり どうぞ かく がいこつ まる ひこき 大きい バビーカー いたい あし みみ かお ぼし め て

I took the last week off from Isilon to spend it with my family. My brother-in-law and sister were in town for the week with their three boys, Andrey, Matthew, and Nathan. Katrina came in for two days, mom & dad were here for the week, and Zack took a few days off work. It was a great week of reunion and fun.

The highlight was having lots of time to spend with Jerry. Jerry has bonded strongly with me and I found myself being pulled in one direction or another - he is really beginning to assert himself and exercise his power over me. As expected, this leads to a natural clash of wills. I’ve had some great examples of that: