ian glazer's tuesdaynight

I have interacted, both socially and professionally, with Burton Group in a variety of ways over many years. The quality of people, their integrity, and the quality of their work have always impressed me. In short, Burton Group is the kind of place I want to work for and the people are the kind of eccentric, entertaining people that I love being around. After a few years in the making, I have joined Burton Group as a senior analyst on the Identity and Privacy Strategies team. The first day at a new job is always a little gut churning. When that first day is the first day of the Catalyst conference it gets even more interesting. Today I found myself on stage with the rest of the team during the Identity Management market overview presentation. Stoically silent, I scanned the room for friends in the industry. Needless to say there were more than a few very surprised people. As my first real act as an analyst I recorded an introductory podcast - Not bad as an intro. Obviously, there will be more to come as I take on my research projects. Stay tuned!

It is that time of year again: Catalyst. I know that Nishant and two Marks (Dixon and MacAuley) are headed to San Diego. Who else is going?

This is my fifth or sixth Catalyst conference and will be a bit different for me. I’ll explain more next week.

See you there.

Last week a friend of mine from the tai chi school, William Nicholson, dropped dead. He was at the school joking with other students when he turned his head and fell to the floor. He died leaving his wife and two daughters. I don’t think that you ever fully appreciate the people around you until they are no longer there. William had an amazing positive spirit and great sense of humor. Work was secondary to him. Although he was a successful lawyer, work was merely a means to an end and not an end in and of itself. He was very active in the community. He took an active role with his eldest daughter’s field hockey team. He made sure if someone around him needed help that he found a way to help. In short, he was a man I could have learned a lot more from.Big Willy, as he was known at Great River, was an active martial artist. He had been studying taijiquan for nearly fifteen years. He was at the school usually twice a week. He and I roomed together in Estonia during one of our festivals there. Most recently, he was the head judge at the Traditional Chinese Sword League’s First Tournament. He also helped manage the school’s finances. He will be sorely missed. I’ve taken some time off. Ever since my grandfather’s death I have been working like a fiend. William’s death piled upon that. I really needed this time to clear my head. Though it may not be the most sensible thing to do, I headed out on a little road trip which has given me some time to process those things I should have processed sooner. I keep coming back to this lesson: do not wait. If there is something you want to do, do it as soon as possible. Do not wait. William was a fit 48 year old; you never know when your time is up. Do not wait. It doesn’t matter what those things are that you want to do, be they personal or professional, do them now. I didn’t learn as much as I could from William. What I did learn, I will incorporate into my life. I will not dwell on what I could have learned but did not. I will not wait.

So I just went to Amazon, and I got an HTTP/1.1 Service Unavailable message. Odd, eh? DDOS any one?

… without shopping at Archie McPhee’s? My life is far closer to being complete now.

Just wanted to post a quick follow-up on the Chinese Traditional Sword League tournament. As an event, it went really well. We have over a hundred and fifty people in the audience which was great. The organizers were awesome; in fact, everyone I met in Bozeman just exuded warmth and generosity. Great people all around. So how did I fair? I won the pool bouts, which were used to determine the seeding. I won out with a 4 and 2 record. I got a bye into the semi-finals. I lost in the semis to the guy who placed second. All in all, a decent showing all things considered. Can’t wait until the next one. Until the videos and professional pictures are out - you can see my shots here.

Last week my grandfather died. He was the last of my living grandparents. His decline since the passing of my grandmother was extremely swift. One day he was a spritely 93 year old. He got sick and bang! He was struck old and declined from there. We were lucky to see him in decent shape over Passover.

Among the many many things that he taught me was an important lesson in human relations. “Always be ready to shake someone’s hand,” he once told me, “No matter who they are or how dirty the hand is.” (I think he said this in regards to shaking his car mechanics hand even though it was covered in grease.) It was a simply lesson but one that stuck with me since I heard it as a child. It is one I have tried to practice throughout my life.

I practice taijiquan (tai chi chuan) and have for some years now. I had always been interested in Taoism and (incorrectly) believed that there was a connection between Taoism and taiji. Coming out of university, with a Taoism class fueling my interests, I found myself at the Great River Taoist Center here in DC. And at GRTC I learn that taiji was a true martial art and not some New Age crystal infused pajama festival. The first few classes kicked my ass, and I was hooked.

I am especially sensitive to this as one of these camera units is a block and half from my house. Questions that come to mind are:

• How long will the District retain footage from these cameras?
• Who will maintain this footage: law enforcement or emergency management?
• Can I as a citizen request to see footage as part of a FOIA request?
• Will INS/FBI/ATF/other Federal law enforcement agencies have access to these cameras on an ongoing basis?

As I mentioned there’s one of these cameras a block and half from my house. It sits on a very heavily trafficked corner. People stand there waiting for the bus. There is a huge amount of vehicular traffic that goes right by it. There is a 7-11 right there and there is always some flavor of law enforcement officer there. There is rare street crime in the area and when it does happen it happens blocks away on darker corners. There is no way this camera prevents crime in any way shape or form.