Blog

Every once in a while, I write out some thoughts and put them up here! My 55+ blog posts can range across a wide variety of topics, both professional and personal, both technical and non-technical.

When I do blog, I tweet them out at @geekygirlsarah. You can subscribe to the RSS feed as well.

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2024

Where I've Been

(Nov 3rd, 2024)
I've been quiet lately. At least online. And kind of in-person too. Here's some updates.

2022

(Dec 31st, 2022)
Ah, it's the end of 2022. I'm sitting on my couch at home with my two cats as the window is open because it's a nice 60F outside. Because who knows what the weather is supposed to be anymore? It's also the year I turned 40...

Reflections on the Past Year

(Mar 13th, 2022)
Another year has passed. Another long year. Even though the pandemic is still messing with everyone's lives (including mine, and why I'm putting this out finally in March), I think a lot of good things have happened this year and I'd like to take my usual annual time to go back over it.

Nevertheless, Sarah Coded

(Mar 8th, 2022)
Happy International Women's Day! This is my annual 'Nevertheless, She Coded' post!

2021

The Most Important Things I've Learned About Software Management from My Developer Career So Far

(Jun 22nd, 2021)
I started my first programming-related job in 2005. Since then, I've had 13 managers across 10 teams (not including any contract work). It's a lot. I've definitely had a variety of amazing, wonderful managers I'd drop a job in a heartbeat and go work for. I also have had managers I quite frankly hope I don't run into again. Through these experiences, I've learned a lot about what I think makes up great management, both in terms of how a team can be managed and traits I believe a great manager has.

I've Hit Community Burnout

(Jan 18th, 2021)
At the last half of 2020, I started live streaming on Twitch. One of the popular things is for Twitch streamers to have their own Discord servers. [...] But the point of this blog post is to focus on an issue I see brewing for me: Community Burnout.

Year in Review: Looking Back at 2020 and Looking Forward at 2021

(Jan 1st, 2021)
I've tried to do a year-end retrospective for the past several years. Sometimes I pull it off (2015, 2018) and sometimes I don't (2016, 2019). I started to write a reflection and goals for 2019/2020 last year and wrote some of it on and off. By the time I got about halfway done, the Coronavirus pandemic hit in March and I basically lost the motivation. It's been a weird year.

2020

A Story About Growing Up in Kansas City

(Aug 4th, 2020)
I grew up in Kansas City. It's probably most famous for being that weird city in BOTH Kansas & Missouri. There's another interesting trait about it. The Missouri River cuts through KC too. I often heard about how South of the River was bad. Lots of crime. Drive-by shootings. etc. I was taught not to cross certain streets. It's all inherently based in racism and red-lining.

I Would Love to Be a Mother Someday But...

(May 10th, 2020)
I was a part of the "cast" of the Listen To Your Mother 2017 - Kansas City show with about a dozen others. We all read essays about our mothers, about motherhood, or about being a mom. I wrote an essay in 2013 and revised it for this show. Since it's Mother's Day and I haven't made this public before now, I decided to go ahead and share it. I can't post the video due to copyrights, but if you're a friend, you're welcome to ask to see it.

Learning to Share Accomplishments: Part 2 - Sharing My Accomplishments

(Mar 16th, 2020)
This is the second part of a two-part post. For part 2 of this post, I want to actually talk about those accomplishments. I think it's helpful for me to get out there and while it may not be as interesting or relevant for you, maybe in looking it over you can see some ways you can talk about your own accomplishments as well.

Learning to Share Accomplishments: Part 1 - How to Share Accomplishments

(Mar 16th, 2020)
In my last post, I talked about my last round of job hunting. More specifically, I mention one of the pieces of feedback was on how I come off as a bit more of an "individual contributor" (someone who just takes tasks and does them) as opposed to someone who actually designs or engineers solutions (someone who takes a vague thing and maps how it will work, breaks it apart into smaller tasks, then can work on some of those).

2019

Reflections on the Latest Round of Job Hunting

(Sep 2nd, 2019)
Back in February, my employer let my whole team go after getting rid of the project we had been working on. It threw me back into the world of job hunting. While there some similarities to my last job hunting experience, this one just felt a bit different in many ways.

Behind the Scenes of My New Website

(Sep 1st, 2019)
I did it! It took about two years to finally get myself to sit down and do it, but I converted two Wordpress sites on three domains into one static site! I did a few cool things with it, so I wanted to talk about what I did.

Year in Review: Part 2 – 2019 Goals

(May 19th, 2019)
In Part 1 of my Year in Review post, I wrote about what happened in the past year (or two) in my life, both good things that happened as well as some things that could be improved. In this part, I hope to put into words what I really want to figure out and work on in this year.

Year in Review: Part 1 – 2018 Retrospective (with some bits from 2017 too)

(Jan 4th, 2019)
I started trying to write a year in review/retrospective every year since 2015. I think it's good to reflect on accomplishments and the good things that have happened in my life, but maybe also on some things that could have gone better too.

2018

Recap: Self.Conference 2018

(Oct 9th, 2018)
Back in mid-August, I got the opportunity to speak at Self.Conference for my third year in a row. While a few things had changed this year, it still remains probably my favorite conference I've ever been to.

Last (Few) Months

(Aug 6th, 2018)
Geez, SO much has happened since my last "Last [Week/Month]" type post in January. I definitely can't cover it all, but I'll try to hit the highlights.

Nevertheless, Sarah Withee Coded (2018 Edition)

(Mar 8th, 2018)
Happy International Women's Day! This is my annual 'Nevertheless, She Coded' post!

A Post About My New Job (and the Ones I Didn't Get)

(Feb 5th, 2018)
This post is a part of a series on job hunting and job interviewing.

Last Month

(Jan 2nd, 2018)
Decembers tend to be my worst month of the year because a particular series of events happen and a certain set of memories come back each year. However, some amazing things have also developed this month, and so it deserves to be talked about.

2017

The Three Questions I’m Asking at Every Interview

(Nov 20th, 2017)
This post is a part of a series on job hunting and job interviewing.

Last Month (or Three)

(Nov 7th, 2017)
A super gloomy Austin during Hurricane Harvey

Last Month

(Aug 6th, 2017)
Otis (the cat) and I hanging out

What I Learned from (Co-)Starting #SpeakerConfessions

(Jul 28th, 2017)
tl;dr: Jump to the end to see specific trends I saw from the thousands of tweets. Or read on for the full background and statistics.

Why I Stopped Submitting Talks to Conferences This Year

(Jul 27th, 2017)
I feel like mental health is an incredibly important topic to discuss, especially in tech. And most of this post will revolve around my experiences in the past year.

Organizing Your Twitter Timeline with Tweetdeck

(Jul 5th, 2017)

Last Week

(Jun 27th, 2017)
My friend Abbey and I at the women-only Wonder Woman screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Kansas City. They had this backdrop with props, so we posed.

Last Week

(May 30th, 2017)
I took this picture from the plane on my way home from Detroit. I’ve seen the Gateway Arch from the ground, and been inside, but not seen it from the air before.

Last Month(ish)

(May 15th, 2017)
“Last Week” should probably be “Last Month” at this point or “Last Couple of Months”, but I’m working on this anyway.

Productivity and Mental Health

(Mar 31st, 2017)
When I was asked if I would write a blog post about productivity, I thought “Sure! It can’t be that hard.” But the only thing that just kept coming to mind over the past few days was “I just feel soooo unproductive lately!” My list of things I needed to do at home was piling up. The tasks at work aren’t getting done as fast as I want. My side projects are all on hold because other things are taking up my time. And to top it all off, I just haven’t had much energy for months to do things.

Nevertheless, Sarah Withee Coded (2017 Edition)

(Mar 8th, 2017)
Happy International Women's Day! This is my annual 'Nevertheless, She Coded' post!

Last Week

(Feb 26th, 2017)
Life

Last Week

(Feb 5th, 2017)
Otis, my friend Sunshine’s cat, hangs out on my lap.

Last Week

(Jan 30th, 2017)
My stuffed dinosaur Harold. I discovered him after digging through some things and took this picture to show a friend.

Last Week

(Jan 23rd, 2017)
Salacia, the new computer I built in the past week

Last Week

(Jan 16th, 2017)
This was a picture I took from work one night. I thought it just looked pretty!

Last Week

(Jan 9th, 2017)
I went to a New Years Eve party meetup that was in an art studio, featuring great art, a professional photographer and backdrop, games, drinks and food, and music from those the artists lost this year.

Year in Review: Part 2 – 2017 Goals

(Jan 9th, 2017)
In Part 1 of my Year in Review post, I wrote about what happened in the past year in my life, both good things that happened as well as some things that could be improved. In part 2, I want to talk about things I’ve started on or intend to start on, and the direction I plan to go with those.

Year in Review: Part 1 – 2016 Retrospective

(Jan 3rd, 2017)
2016 has been a weird year for many people I know and many I don’t. My Twitter timeline is guaranteed at least a few “this year sucks” posts every time I look at it. (Heck, I’ve retweeted several of the more amusing ones.) But a “year” is just a time frame, and really is relative. Sometimes things suck, and sometimes things go well. And really, a year is just one rotation around the sun, so it can start and stop anywhere. And for this particular year, I want to recap some of the things that went well for me, and maybe reflect on some of them that didn’t. (I won’t cover things that don’t really have a direct influence on me, like celebrity deaths.)

2016

2015 Accomplishments

(Nov 30th, 2016)
I wrote this around Christmas in 2015, but never published it in blog form. I’m publishing it now for me to be able to look back on. The stats listed were correct at the end of 2015.

Why Self Care Is Hard for Me

(Sep 5th, 2016)
This was originally posted on Medium.

My Adventures of My First Year of Conference Speaking

(Mar 6th, 2016)
This post was originally written on Medium.

2015

My Friend Waldo

(Nov 26th, 2015)
This is a post I originally wrote on Medium.

A Tale of Two Men

(Nov 4th, 2015)
One of the men held me back. One of them gave me an opportunity to shine.

Why I Decided to Do the Scariest Thing I’ve Ever Done

(Oct 16th, 2015)
I felt if I didn’t come out soon, the world would do it for me. So I came out by Medium post. But I didn’t expect my story to go viral.

Life, Gender, and the Pursuit of Happiness

(Sep 28th, 2015)
This is a post I wrote originally on Medium.

2014

Programming a Robot Arm

(Jan 23rd, 2014)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

2013

Busyness and MINK WIC

(Oct 25th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

Women in Technology Events of the Past Week

(Jul 27th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

Hacking away…

(Jun 15th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

Why I Deleted My Facebook Account

(Jun 9th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

End of Spring Semester and My First Day of My Internship

(Jun 3rd, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

A Month of Updates

(May 4th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

Using Twilio for a Text-Based Voting System

(Mar 23rd, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

Why I Take Paper Notes

(Mar 8th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

School, Snow Days, and My Sanity

(Feb 26th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

My First Week of the New Semester

(Jan 27th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

Experiences As a C++ Lab Instructor

(Jan 8th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

More Fluffy Clouds Than I Know What to Do With

(Jan 8th, 2013)
This post was originally from the blog site Binary Girls that my friends Abbey, Sarah, and I started. I’m saving it here for archival reasons.

2024

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012