New Job, Xmas Travel, OPW

Sorry for the lack of updates, lots of travel and other things going on this past few months!

Work

First off, I started a new job in January. Things weren't going the way I wanted with my previous employer on a lot of levels. A new opportunity that is a much better fit for me fell into my lap and that's where I work now! I'm pretty stoked about it and am much happier.

Travel

Went to Germany with Florian to meet his friends and family. His parents were vacationing in a small town near the Baltic Sea. Then we went to Chemnitz to watch streams of the Chaos Communication Conference that was going on in Hamburg and to celebrate New Year's. We also visited his grandparents in Aue and spent the night in Dresden.

I not only got to go back to Germany but I got to visit formerly East Germany! When I was a kid in the 1980's I lived in Nurnburg, West Germany. I remember seeing the wall when I visited West Berlin.

Getting beer at a gas station

Dinner at an Italian restaurant with Florian's parents

Now that's a beer!

A special New Year's tradition involving rum, a sugar cone, and fire!

 Orlando Perl Workshop

I gave a talk this year at OPW! My talk was on hacking conference tshirts. The premise is that it's hard for women to fit into conference tshirts, so I presented a live demo of a simple way to cut the tshirt into a complementary style. I also presented alternative tshirt transformations including a pillow case, an apron, and a tote bag. Finally I made suggestions for transferring the image including making mini buttons and introduced stenciling.

My goal this year is to a) be more active in contributing code to the Perl community and b) speak at conferences. I've submitted talks to a few conferences this year and I'm pretty hopeful about them getting picked up.