hi, i’m sarah

i’m currently learning the price of an unbalanced work/life existence. i love technology and technology work. but, this summer i was unable to kick a sinus infection because i didn’t allowed myself the space to just be sick and recover.

there are more than a few things that lead up to this including many things that were out of my control. but, the result of this was instead of a week off to sleep a ton and get over a basic headcold, i ended up having sinus surgery and taking an enforced 3 weeks off in september.

it was Alyssa Royce’s post naked in the board room this morning that made me resurrect this post  which i’d started it back when i was recovering from the surgery and had a bit of free time.  i was (and still am) unsure about the implications of publishing that i worked myself silly over the summer and worried about the message it gave my clients.  it’s now november; nothing awful happened, no one was terribly upset that i was out for 3 weeks, and i have a better sense that everyone gets sick.  no one expects me to be superhuman and i should just get over trying.

so, taking this to heart  even though i was in portland to participate in open sql camp last weekend, i decided to take the day off on sunday to wander and enjoy powells, powells tech, countermedia, and reading frenzy the city.  i still had a pang of “what am i missing? there is so much more i could be learning!”, but i’d talked to the people i wanted to and seen a few really interesting presentations and  i really wanted to walk around and be somewhere quieter than souk with 130 exuberant geeks abuzz about databases.  walking from bookstore to bookstore, kicking leaves and leafing through books is a great way to spend an afternoon

my point though is  - more balance, more short blog posts about things that interest me, more sticking my neck out, more authenticity.

oooh, and check out the uproariously funny noSQL glossary lightning talk by Brian Aker.

tomorrow is ada lovelace day, and i’ve committed to write about a woman in technology who i find inspiring.

my background isn’t computer science, it’s physics. i was languishing in an phd program at unc when i first got introduced to networking, systems administration and databases. but, i wasn’t sure i wanted to make the switch. ultimately, instead of changing paths in school, i decided to leave and work at amazon.

it took me a long time to not see that diversion as a failing.

all that said, one of the first books i acquired to investigate this computer operations bent was “the red book” by evi nemeth. here was a super smart academic who was interested in and writing about things i was interested in (i’d had my full share of scattering papers).  i was so moved by someone who had achieved success (i.e. academic success) in this field, that i decided to explore more.   i pressed hard to move out of the group that was maintaining tools for amazon’s customer service group and be given an opportunity in infrastructure.

with that single opportunity and the fascination with evi’s book, i laid the foundation for my subsequent career path development. i took a leap into a world of books and computers. 

maslow not withstanding, of course. does anyone need more to sustain them?

“the red book” has been released twice more since i first laid hands on it and it’s now “the purple book” and evi has retired, but i still credit her with being a beacon for me in a fog of indecision as i was trying to understand what to do with a dream (of being a physicist) that hadn’t ever been examined closely.

have to say, i’m excited enough about it to be checking out my whispernet available options.  i saw blogs as an option and immediately wanted to separate my fun blogs into a more pad like reader.  all that said i’m not sure i think that $2/mo is the right pricepoint for my consumption levels…   ouch.

maybe a frequent flier program?

i’ve read the last few VoW titles, and find them incredibly touching and telling about the political, social and cultural climates in the US today.  mcsweeney’s has spun VoW out into it’s on non-profit.  way to go!  and gotta say, big props goto dave eggers and his work with VoW and the 826 sites.

and, thanks to mcsweeney’s for giving a voice to these witnesses.

We want to tell you, as well, about something you may have seen on our website this week—our Voice of Witness series, which now functions as its own noble nonprofit, is steaming toward its fifth title, which’ll be a collection of oral histories from Zimbabwe. But—but—for that book to be the best it can be, VOW is in need of your support. A $25 donation buys a tape recorder; $50 pays for an interviewer’s food and transportation for two days; $100 covers a week’s worth of work by a translator and transcriber. If you’d like to help, their site is the one to steer toward (or to pass along to beneficent friends). And—and—those donations enumerated above will earn you a gift in return: for $100, VOW will send you a set of the series thus far (four books, signed by Dave Eggers and the other editors); for $50, you’ll receive a signed (by Dave Eggers and Craig Walzer) copy of the latest collection, Out of Exile; and for $25, you’ll have a very fine, albeit unsigned, Voice of Witness T-shirt. Not bad, right? Whatever you can do, we thank you.

i already own 2 of the series, but might get the whole series again with sigs to contribute and have spare copies for sharing!

i’m going to be speaking at velocity 2009!

i’m super excited about the opportunity to speak as well as being invited to goto SF tomorrow to brainstorm at the velocity summit.  i’ll write something more after the summit if i don’t have to be too secret squirrel.