Holiday Countdown 2020 - The lost days part 1 - Jack Brickey
Due to the article size limit, older days have to be removed from the main article.
Here's day 1:
Song of the Day: Back Door Santa by B.B. King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEePnKWyzKY)
Jack Brickey is one of our Gold Stars and top questions answerers in the Community. He’s from the USA and grew up in Charlotte NC. He won several Community Awards and I talked to him through the first calendar door.
Jack, how and when did you become one of Atlassian's Community Leaders?
It was June of 2017 when @Monique vdB surprised me with an invitation to join the leader program. Before that, I didn’t even know there was a program. 😊
What motivates you being a Community Leader?
First and foremost helping others. It is my way to give back to the Community as it helped me so much when I was first learning. However, it is also a bit self-serving as it helps me continually learn, especially since I am on Cloud where things frequently change. I'm passionate about engineering. I strive to solve issues and make things better.
What was the first time you ever used an Atlassian product?
It was back in 2014 I think. I was the SVP of Engineering for a company that had a geographically distributed workforce and I, along with my management team, were looking for a tool to help us improve collaboration and make the move to agile software development. We started with Confluence and Jira Server.
So, there were only three years between first contact and becoming a Community Leader - impressive! Do you have a favorite Atlassian memory to date?
There are so many: invitation from @Monique vdB , first Summit San Jose 2017, Summit Barcelona 2018, and awards I have received. However, I would say that the personal friendships I have made with so many Community members is what means the most to me.
Oh yes, I remember our day in Barcelona visiting La Sagrada and Parc Güell - that was a great day with Micky and Alana! Jack, if you could go back in time to give yourself an advice, professional or personal. What would it be?
Never under value the importance of your family and friends. Oh, and buy Apple and Amazon stock.
What do you like to do for fun?
I love woodworking but my wife and I have combined our love for fishing and kayaking and are having an amazing time at the coast back in the marshes enjoying nature and landing a big red drum or flounder.
What is your fondest holiday memory?
So many… The one that pops to mind is when my brother and I would wake super early and this one year we came in to find an electric race car track. Needless to say we woke the entire family crashing cars in the street light illuminated living room.
Jack told me, his favorite holiday meal is a crispy crown roast with wild rice full of nuts and cranberries and his favorite holiday songs are the classics sung by Frank Sinatra, Bring Crosby, Dean Martin and Elvis.
However, his most favorite one is the one linked above: B.B. King’s Back Door Santa.
His favorite holiday movie is Jack Skellington of course – The Nightmare Before Christmas, a true masterpiece blending his two favorite holidays – Halloween and Christmas.
Are there any unique holiday traditions in your family?
Raising the tree. We would always put out a spread of appetizers and drinks, put on Christmas music and decorate the tree. We generally go with a natural tree and now that we are back in NC we will likely restart the transition of going to the NC mountains to pick and cut our own at one of the tree farms. There are beautiful Frasier firs there. Here is one of our last trees:
And, have a closer look at this ornament:
Jack has had this since he was a little boy…
Jack, this year was a difficult one but could you please share a heartwarming moment with us?
2020…what a mess of a year. In 2019 I moved from Austin TX back east to NC to be near family and take care of our mothers as they age. With Covid closing everything down I hadn’t been able to see my mother for many months. When they finally relaxed the restrictions I drove down to see her. It was great just to give her a big hug and see her smiling face up close. I’m grateful for life, family, friends and my pets (of course they are family)
What was your best holiday gift ever?
My wife surprised me with an Audi TT roadster. I had been to see this one for sale many times and my frugal nature wouldn’t allow me to proceed. So she had to make the leap for me.
Do you decorate your house for the holidays? If so, what kind of decorations do you put up?
I used to do so much more. Halloween was my favorite and we went all out. We were the Halloween house in our neighborhood. I make most of the decorations many mechanical with sound effects. My wife does most of the rest of the holidays.
Tell us more about the US. What makes living there so special?
Generally it is the freedom I love so much but there is also diversity (melting pot) that means so much to me. It is far from perfect but I’m not looking for or expecting that.
Jack, what are you doing New Year's Eve?
These days….quietly. We may go to our beach cottage.
Here's your chance to give a special shoutout to someone - who is it and why?
The Atlassian CommuniTEAM. I love each and every one of them and that includes Celina even though she left us. 😊
Thank you Jack for taking part in this year’s calendar, thank you for all you do for the whole Community. We’re so happy to have you! And I’m looking forward to seeing you in person soon. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
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Thomas Schlegel
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