October 2026

I'm a little late with my October update but I have a pretty valid excuse. October is normally a very, very busy month in the household. On top of the normal everyday hustle of life, there were significant life moments to celebrate, school break vacations, playoff baseball to watch, and then Halloween and getting ready for hunting to cap it all off.

It's taken me a bit to clear my mind and organize my thoughts. Sitting in the deer stand last weekend helped immensely. That said, I'm still not 100% able to recall everything that happened.

Fall sports officially came to a close with both soccer and fall baseball wrapping up. The undefeated soccer season was not meant to be with the team losing their first and only game this month. My youngest came so very close to scoring his first-ever soccer goal. He was getting ready to tap it in and one of his older teammates came flying in to take it away. He was bummed, we were bummed, his teammate was bummed. He's already excited for more soccer next year and more opportunities to get his first goal. And I'm excited to sit, watch him play soccer again, and see him get that first goal. I never thought I would say this, but maybe we'll even check out some professional soccer next summer. *Gasp*

My oldest and his fall ball team managed to win one of their games with him pitching one of his best performances, throwing the "stinky cheese" as one of his coaches called it. (For those who don't follow baseball, that's a nasty pitch that's hard to hit.) Getting that win was a huge confidence builder, given the beatdowns by mustached baseball players in September. Despite the overall losing record, it was a fun season. Fall ball was what fall ball is. Just fun. We enjoyed beautiful weather and hanging out with old teammates, coaches, and parents.

There was another family trip this month. This time to Wisconsin Dells to take on the water parks. We were victorious in our conquest, spending multiple days swimming, sliding, and climbing up many, many flights of stairs. It was a fun trip with a little bit of mischief playing "Marco Polo" in the hotel room, causing my youngest to face-plant into the side of the bed, knocking a tooth loose. Fortunately, it was a baby tooth. Dad dodged the bullet on that one. I suppose he did too. 😉

After a trip to the Dells, it was back to work and I went to Las Vegas for Guidewire's annual customer conference, Connections. This was my second year attending and it was for special reasons. Last year we were just getting into the Guidewire ecosystem. This year we're all in and our work was recognized with an Innovation Award. My face was plastered on a banner hanging in the commons area with a quote I gave. And I participated in the keynote on Tuesday.

I was originally supposed to provide a 90-second answer to a question, then it became a 60-second answer, and then at the last minute it was cut to a 30-second answer. While you would think shorter is better, when you've prepped for 90 seconds cutting to 30 seconds is somewhat challenging.

My portion of the keynote went well, even when I brain-farted and couldn't get "general AI" out of my mouth. Oops. Everyone told me the gaffe made the answer all the more real, so I'm sticking with that.

To add to my special Connections, I was honored to be part of the 2026 Guidewire All-Star class. Here is the write-up about what I was doing earlier this year and why I was nominated and inducted into the 2026 class.

"Ben architected the industry-first migration of crop insurance onto Guidewire within an aggressive 12-month timeline. By leveraging an AI-first methodology to reverse-engineer 25 years of legacy RPG logic and orchestrating 15+ complex integrations, he delivered a modern, scalable foundation for heavily regulated crop claims."

It was a great experience and I am blessed to be recognized for my efforts. I was wiped by the end of the conference. I met a lot of new and great people, and it even caused me to update my LinkedIn profile. It was only out of date by 7+ years. I learned a lot, generated a ton of new ideas, and I already have a laundry list of things I want to change to get ready for the future. It'll be a long road, but it'll be worth it.

Once I got back home, it was time for Halloween. My oldest created his own Star Wars Boba Fett costume. He worked really hard on pulling it all together, using the 3D printer to print armor pieces and accessories, and then painting his prints. It turned out epic and he won a friend's Halloween party costume contest. All that work paid off. My youngest kept with the Star Wars theme and went as a Scout Trooper. His costume was great too. A little less effort as we just used off-the-shelf things, like pouches, elbow guards, and other standard [Evil] Galactic Empire (Amazon) purchases.

In between all of the October things, there were parties and outings to celebrate life's milestones. Dinners and roller rinks, family gatherings, and brief moments of quiet. And I did manage to sneak in some time to watch playoff baseball and see the Brewers win their first World Series.

So far November is looking to be a little quieter. At least in the deer stand. The calm before the holiday season.

- Ben