This is not a technical post. This is a post about someone that the word “hero” just doesn’t begin to encompass the full story. This is a story about someone I know that risked all that he had for a cause he believed in, and would do so again. I knew Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Elliott Miller (US Navy Seal) when we were in Boy Scouts together. We didn’t go the same school, so I only got to know Elliott through our scouting trips and when we both worked on the local Boy Scout camp staff together.

I’m a reader by nature. I grew up in a town that had a hand full of other people my own age, only one of which was really into the same things I was. Because of that I spent a great amount of my time reading. Mostly science fiction and fantasy stuff (I’m sure that’s pretty common in the tech industry). I’m still an avid reader (I love my Kindle) but I do spend a fair amount of time in my car (roughly an hour and a half every work day) so listening to some audio books/podcasts has been a decent way to feed my story addiction.

It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the resources we have available to us as developers. It seems new websites and such are popping up every day with great content on how to stay current. One I wasn’t aware of until recently is http://msdev.com. This site has links to lots of tutorials, virtual labs and seminars. For example, check out their “Everything You Need to Know About Azure as a Developer” series.