Timewasted

Today is the last day of PyCon 2010 and I am waiting on the next talk to begin.  I’ve learned so much that, at times, I thought my head might just explode.  Sessions run until 5pm, with Open Space sessions often running past 10pm.  There are so many really smart people here and it is easy to get caught up in a conversation with someone you met just moments ago.

I think coming to PyCon may have been one of the best things I have done for myself in some time.  It’s truly and amazing language and coming to a conference like this just lets me know that I am on the right path.  I got the great chance to meet and speak with the folks doing the Jython work and that may be the way for me to do more python at work, considering I work for an almost 100% Java shop.  Most of all, I take away from this that I need to get more involved in the community and do even more than I do. To get hired doing python, it’s probably best to get your name out there and be active. The community is small enough that it really shouldn’t be that hard to get your name known.  So that is my goal for the next year, get my name known. Part of this will be running the Birmingham Users Group, part if it will be maybe helping with documentation and such for Python.org, part will be getting involved and coding on some open source projects.

Serendipitously, it seems PyCon 2011 will be held in Atlanta again next year. I will surely be here, regardless of what it takes to make that happen.

Lessons learned: If you really care about software as more than just your day job, get involved with the open source community in whatever language you have chosen. Take part in your local users groups. Get your name out there and do something to be a part of the community. Attend a conference, especially if it is one that is small enough that you can feel significant. If you are still searching for one, let me suggest the Python community. It really does rock!

I just started work on a new Django app to allow me to define my musical practice goals, then record my sessions and the progress I make. This will eventually find its way into the Out of the Darj website so that all of the students can use it as well. The plan is to include a profile of sorts where you can define your goals and show your progress toward making your goals a reality.

The project is named ‘stanton’ after the great Stanton Moore. You can find the repo here: http://github.com/markfreeman/stanton

Looking back, I have generally been the type of person who lets people dictate to me what it is that I am going to do. I make my desires known, but don’t do anything to make it a point that my desires will be the outcome. Today I took a big step and stood up for myself. After a couple of years of being led to believe that I would finally move into a full time development position, and then being stuck in a designer/analyst position, I laid it all out on the table. I let my boss know that either we start making the move, or I would need to look at other opportunities.

I’m very happy to report that it actually went over well. As I understand, we will be developing a plan to train someone to start stepping into my position as I start stepping into a much more development focused role. It was the perfect time to make the move as I am currently needed and we are about to be in a position that we will be short on developers. I’ll continue to post and update on how things go over the next few weeks. I’m tired of getting stepped on and ready to take my destiny in my own hands.

Only two more weeks left until PyCon! I’m excited to get out and see the greater Python community.

Lesson learned: You don’t get anywhere without taking risk. It was really scary to make a play like I did today, but the outcome may be worth it.