A few thoughts on maintaining your sanity as an attendee of re:Invent. As a person who values peace and quiet, Las Vegas is my least favorite city. The lights and sounds are 24x7. Sin City doesn’t sleep but that shouldn’t stop you from getting some rest. If you are a recharged-by-socializing, power-through-the-week-then-crash type, all the power to you. I need frequent breaks and a good night’s sleep! Hotel room too noisy?

Digital privacy has been a personal focus of mine since the 2018 Facebook user data scandals shined a bright light on a festering problem. I am appalled at the number of data breaches but also the quantity of and general use of my personal information by many companies. Since then, I have taken the following steps to curb the amount of my personal data being collected: Deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

After taking a break from blogging for a few years, I’ve decided to reboot theryanburke.com. I’ve departed Google’s Blogger platform and now I’m running my own blog with Hugo deployed on AWS. What’s new with me? I’ve been working for AWS for four and a half years. I moved from Denver to Seattle and back. I got married. Bought a house. Adopted a cat. Life is good. With the reboot of the blog, my intent is to move away from slice of life content and use this space more as a journal for projects, initiatives, and ideas.