Missing : Kathy Sierra

I used to be a Professional working in airline distribution system business. Man, life was great : I was making good money in the countries I wanted (I even managed to reject an offer from Qantas, stupid me) being international consultant in this niche market with old techs. Then came September 11.

Within half a day my professional skills were made obsolete (okay there were worth things around, but still : it was still bad). I then decided then to switch to new techs in general and Java Programming language in particular. I started this self-training to prepare for the Java programmer certification.

This is when Kathy Sierra came into my professional life (messiah image dressed in white surrounded with a halo of dazzling light). Seriously though : thanks to her books and the amazing JavaRanch site I had the certification and could get a job in that technical area. I've carried on and passed another two professional certifications thanks to her brilliant Head First Series : these allowed me to get a great job (well, surely my favorite job ever) back in my country. I am sooooooo grateful she helped me when I needed the most : she had a definite and positive influence on my professional life.

And then there was this a-ma-zing blog (ranked #1 in The Viral Valley top 25 of marketing blogs). Creating Passionate Users allowed me to keep the pace with Web 2.0 technologies and culture and gave me the energy to blog (this last bit may not be such a good thing though).

And then there was this death threats issue which saw her stopping the blog.

Kathy : I do hope you're well. We really, REALLY are missing your blog.

Please come back to your witty and cherry self and blog again. The IT industry and the blogosphere are definitely not the same when you are not around.