Last Month (or Three)
Last time I said “Wow. It’s been quite the month!” I feel like I should say “Wow, it’s been quite the month (or two, or three)!” but perhaps even more so.
Work
I normally put my Life section first, but some of that relies on work first.
- Long story short, I’ve actually been job hunting for a few months. I didn’t admit it publicly because a few coworkers are on Twitter,. But I ended up telling my manager about how I was looking for a new place. And, interestingly, got a TON of support from him and the company. They want me to find a good job as much as I do. How lucky am I?
- I moved off of the project I had been working on for months, and for now am just working on different side tickets. The pro is the work is varied enough it’s been nice. Another pro is that I feel a bit more productive by closing more tickets faster because they’re smaller. It’s good for the rest of my time at this company until I move somewhere else.
Life
- Life has been all over the place really. I’ve been applying for some really awesome job opportunities over the past few months, and have gotten REALLY far in the process. The rejections usually seem to be some quirk not related to me (they quit hiring, decided not to fill position, wanted to hire internally instead of externally, etc.). It’s still a bit disheartening, but at least I know it’s usually not me.
- I landed on jury duty at the end of October. Then got picked for the jury. Then got picked as jury foreman. All of this I’m ok with, and honestly was proud of being able to lead that group to come to a unanimous decision. It’s a bit of an intense case, although it was definitely really fascinating and interesting watching the court process and the case unfold.
- The Kansas City Women’s Chorus is having another concert! I’m in it again and having rehearsed for another couple of months, it’s been rather amazing to hear us evolve and get better, but also the feeling of singing with that group of beautiful voices still puts me in an amazing feeling of awe. I’m excited for our concert, and hope they can sell a lot of tickets! (Kansas City friends: you should totally go to this!)
- Hacktoberfest
Speaking/Talks
Organized
- I helped organize the Missouri Iowa Nebraska Kansas Women in Computing (MINKWIC) conference on Nov 3rd and 4th. Over 200 women (mostly students) showed up!
Attended
- I went to Strange Loop 2017 in St. Louis, MO in September.
Given
- I gave “Life as a Midwestern Developer” at AlterConf Austin 2017 in August..
- I was accepted, and then gave “Intro to Hacking with the Raspberry Pi” and “The Power of Secrets” at DevUp Conf 2017. (I redid the Raspberry Pi talk from scratch to be nicer-looking, easier to see slides, and better projects and examples. Also found some incorrect information I fixed.)
- I gave “Pursuing a Passion Project: Struggles and Successes” at MINKWIC 2017. (I was a fill-in for a spot that freed up at the last minute.)
Invited
- I was invited to give a talk at deliver:Agile in April 2018. I accepted this, and I am still deciding on the topic.
Rejected
- Ela Conf and Thunderplains turned me down.
Published
- Last Month (8/6/2017)
- I feel like I have about 40 drafts of blog posts now that I should work on at least a few of them.
Entertainment
- I finally finished one of my favorite shows: Orphan Black. I’m bummed that it’s over for good, but I’m really glad it ended on a really good note.
- I’m thinking since I finished Buffy the Vampire Slayer recently, I probably should go watch Angel. So I’m about 18 episodes in. It’s a bit slower to pick up than Buffy was, but still seems interesting.
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