I have been putting off writing this post for a while now. Life is a much nicer place to be than the internet lately, so I have been enjoying it, rather than quietly documenting it from the sidelines as I used to.
For those (few) interested, here’s a small recap of the last couple of months.
RailsGirls:
I attended a RailsGirls event in January, and it changed my life. At the same time, I saw a lot of things that could be improved to make the experience as an attendee more enjoyable, which is why, in late August, I attended my very first event as a coach in Bratislava. That weekend also marked my six months at my new job. Really? Six months fighting with Ruby on Rails on an almost daily basis? Nine months ago, who would have thought I would be city-hopping, giving talks about the command line. But there is always a first time and I met some really great and interesting people, learned to speak better in public, and got a lot of free stickers. Most importantly: I always look forward to seeing even one of my “students” get so excited about making stuff, that she will seriously consider pursuing it.
(A side note: Lately there have been some waves around the issue of sexism in the world of tech; I don’t think it can ever be stressed enough that this has actually nothing to do with the Ruby community, with programming in general, or with the tech industry. Sexism, and any other form of discrimination is, unfortunately, a worldwide issue that spreads across all areas. Sadly, I don’t think it helps to think of ourselves (by “ourselves” I mean women) as victims. Maybe all an organisation like RailsGirls does is single out the women who want to be part of the industry and make an even bigger issue out of it than what it actually is; I don’t know, but Rails Girls was one of my first steps towards programming and all I want to do now is give back to the community.)
Meetups:
At the moment, I am a regular attendee of vienna.rb and of the wordpress meet up. It almost feels like having a family get-together, so I suggest that you join us if you are interested in hanging out, learning things, or meeting people. Pyladies, which I co-organise with Floor, is also coming up soon.
750words:
Years ago, when I was in high school, I picked up a creative writing book that advised to write daily, not necessarily well-crafted short essays, or stories; but rather three full pages (the “morning pages”) without thinking too much about the content, the reason being that it would help to loosen one’s fear of the blank page. Some years after that, I took part in Nanowrimo and, successive to that, signed up to a website called 750 Words which, inspired by the morning pages exercise, allows its user to write daily pages, check stats on writing speed and moods, and win badges. As I was in Bratislava, I decided to sign up for the 750 words monthly challenge; I have not stopped writing since then and always manage to find my daily 15-20 minutes to get the writing done. It is somewhat ironic that my blogging has drastically dropped since then, but you can’t be everywhere at once.
And now?
I am reading a lot of non-fiction (Gay Talese and Norman Mailer being some favourites), brushing up again on my typography knowledge, very slowly trying to get my head around Javascript because I am terrible at it, and have a bunch of side projects in the works. I also played GTA for the first time in my adult life last week (I know, unacceptable, but that’s what boyfriends with playstations are for). And though my blogging is sporadic, it still is my first love, so I am hoping to be back soon..
