Kier Duros

Somehow we got to the halfway point in the year.

It seems to have snuck by without me getting half of what I wanted to done.

Granted, I've been distracted a large number of things--new roommate, getting rid of about a third of my credit card debt (and, sadly due to the stock market tanking, more than half of my portfolio), working, meeting new people, the usual things. But that's no real excuse for not having more done at this point in the year.

A couple of old projects are coming back around, mostly for friends, that will help both with the budget and with strengthening some creative muscles that the day job doesn't touch. It's just a question of eking out an acceptable amount of time to get things done.

I've made it out to a handful of events, some of which I haven't managed to hit before. I even took pictures at some of them (like the May Day Party, Freak Day at the Zoo, the Faith & The Muse show, my trip to DrupalCon in San Francisco, and a fantastic post-Easter party). There were pictures taken by others that I sometimes show up in (like Goth Prom, more Goth Prom, more Freak Day at the Zoo, more Faith & the Muse, and more from May Day).

All those personal projects (I own about 30 domain names now), however, are moving at a glacial pace while I'm out gallivanting with friends.

The only one I've manged to keep running more or less smoothly has been How to Crush Without Being Crushed. And even that's had some rough spots (like the month of May) where updates haven't flowed as regularly as I'd have liked.

Still, there's a second half of a year ahead of me and many adventures to be had. I have an inkling that some of the new people I've met recently will be very inspirational in a number of ways. We'll see what comes of all that... may end up just being another funny story for later. (Gods know I'm still waiting for the punchline for a few things from earlier in the year...)

The really big deal is going to be DragonCon in Atlanta come August. I have yet to work out most of the details, but I'll be there for the premiere of Browncoats: Redemption, the fan film for charity I spent some time helping with last summer. I'm sure that alone will spawn a list of adventures to write about.

Bottom line is, I have to get better at recording and reporting what I've been up to. There are content holes to be filled on a number of sites and I've just been slacking on getting that done.

Onward, to the Summer and beyond!

Another day full of learning and trying to stay awake.

Oh, and fun.

Stayed up a little too late last night, and, for some reason, woke up before my alarm went off, ruining any good solid sleep I would have had.

But, I made it to the first session on time and was surprisingly lively until the afternoon sessions rolled around. Then I couldn't keep my eyes open... my ears were still pulling in the sound, but the head and eyes drooped something fierce.

Today's brain-filling menu included:

• Drupal Distributions on Drupal.org (a kind of new thing that packages Drupal with modules and makes it more of a solution package or product as opposed to a platform to build on from scratch... lots of potential here, even for some things that we're working on at the day job)
• The Magic of Teams: Communications and Collaboration (possibly one of the most entertaining presentations I've ever seen... mostly reaffirming that yes, you do need to communicate clearly and regularly with people you're working with or for. Did get a nice list of tools to look into, though.)
• Efficient Workflow for Design and Development Packages (again, communication is key, but so is planning and keeping track of what's what and where. Another good list of tools to look into... and some ideas on how to revamp what we do at the day job.)
• Open Source in Government Key Note Panel discussion (wow... amazing stuff going on in the hallowed halls of government. Did not know that NYS was using Drupal already. May have to pitch a switch to the home town.)
• Building a Viral Marketing and Customer Rewards E-Commerce Site (It did what it said in the title... really nice implementation of things and some good, almost non-standard uses of module combinations, could come in hand for some clients we have now)
• Beyond Budget and Scope: Managing Client Expectations and Delivering Value (Communication again... but also some nice tips, tricks, and tools to ensure that everyone's on the same page.)

Had to put out a few fires for clients during the day, no big deals, but I did discover that for one reason or another, I can't remote in to my work computer. So something will have to wait until Friday.

The closing presentation threw around some pretty impressive numbers. About $300,000 dollars raised by the con for the Drupal Association, about twice that spent on putting the thing together. Around 3,000 attendees with another 3,000 or so tuning in online to the keynotes and broadcast sessions. Announcements that the next DrupalCon is going on in Copenhagen in August, then the ten year anniversary of Drupal will be celebrated in 2011 with DrupalCon Chicago (really want to do that one... they've got an entire hotel reserved for everything... hopefully, it'll be full of just Drupal people). Everyone left in very high spirits.

A few hours after that, I was on a but down into the Mission District for the final bash of the con. It was distinctly better than last night's shindig. At least as far as I'm concerned. Probably because I was there from right at the beginning, before everyone had gathered into their own groups, maybe because it was the last night and everyone was just in a different state of mind.

Accidentally networked with a handful of people, heard some good stories, met good people, may have some freelance writing work coming my way eventually (not holding my breath on that... and if it does come in, where the heck am I going to fit it into my schedule?).

And now, here I am, up a little too late again, but with plenty of time to sleep on the plane back East. (The first leg is about an hour or two longer than the second leg of the trip out--more or less straight across the map, followed by a short hop north.)

Once I'm back to my own speedy internet connection, I'll get around to uploading the pictures.

Yep, definitely a good trip.