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.

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.

maybe a frequent flier program?

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 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.

however, i’m stuck at the moment in a quandary that is entertaining for me.

if i am the partner that is responsible for and a technical contributor to our MySQL practice will i be the principal (as i was taught over-simplistically in elementary school  – the principal is your pal.  it’s a noun.) or the principle (a law or precept -again simplistic).

i don’t tend to think of myself as a law unto myself or the primary source, so spelling it principle doesn’t seem right. and the definition of principal of most important, consequential, or influential  is closer.  but, i’ve gotten feedback from clients that each is wrong. i can’t have it both ways or in this case, neither way.

i’m stumped.  i assume there is a right answer, but i’m going to have to defer to greater minds.

mirriam webster says –

Although nearly every handbook and many dictionaries warn against confusing principle and principal, many people still do. Principle is only a noun; principal is both adjective and noun. If you are unsure which noun you want, read the definitions in this dictionary.

yeah, that didn’t really help, but thanks!

is there a definitive answer?

i have a day job.  i wanted to participate, but not too much. i generally protect my weekends pretty tightly and don’t schedule much, so the idea of committing 54 hours to the rollercoaster that is startup mentality was a bit daunting.

i signed up anyway.

i love the strange bonds that intense shared experiences form between people – it’s one of the things that is so appealing about the startups for me.   this group intentionally or not took steps to leverage socialmedia in a perfect way to foster and extend that shared experience.

the week before the event, i was seeing updates from rob eickmann, and suggestions to start talking on pathable all generated excitement and anticipation for the event. thanks! it was really fun to enter a community where i had already met and interacted even bantered with several participants.

friday nite the pitches were inspiring! i went home to sleep trying to decide whether or not i would join a team. on saturday i almost did (sorry patrick). but, i still didn’t want to commit to a bunch of work (i was avoiding plenty back at my office). i didn’t want to risk adding one more thing to the already long list of – have to; should do; boy wouldn’t it be great if i could; omg i have to; or even boy, i want tos.

so, i meekly offered that i would do a little blogging to help nathan kaiser of npost out on seattle2.startupweekend.com. it gave me an excuse to not get involved (too much), but also poke my nose in and talk to a lot of people. my first try at live blogging an event. it was fun for about 6 hours. (sorry nathan!)

anyway there is a small point i’m making and then a great bigger one.

the small one.

i had such a great time, that i want to participate even more next year. the excitement of everyone talking about ideas and thinking about ideas and generally creating was incredibly infectious (so was the cold that i either brought to or away from the weekend).

I haven’t stopped talking about it for the last 3 days!  I’ve been watching twitter closely for #ssw2 tags.  i love that this group is local.  there are amazing resources at my fingertips and i just need to remember to get out into the community and say “hi!”

now, that leads me directly into my great big point.

everyone in this community has earned his or her geek merit badge this weekend.  through rolling brown-outs and and wifi mania everyone was geeking away– creatively connecting, moving around or throwing down old school with analog devices.  aaand, the excitement and enterprise didn’t flag.

you are amazing leaders.  i want to learn from you and revel in the infectious excitement that has fueled me this week (even as that cold catches up with me). thank you for the opportunity to join you.  i’ll be back next year chipping in anything i know but…. i still won’t stay up all night for it.  just saying.  i want to sleep.  i look forward to the next opportunity.

and, in the mean time i will – OBEY the decider.

yeah, it lacks the luster that tom music gave it when he was speaking….  guess i can’t help that.

oooh, and thanks to anthony stevens for sharing his ssw1 experience and encouraging me with a tale of geek transformation and blossoming.

sarah novotny is blue gecko’s vice president and a principal in blue gecko’s mysql practice.

before becoming a partner at blue gecko, i had a varied career as a systems and network administrator during the hey days of the dot com era at amazon.com and the ill fated ads.com. my tenure at amazon included the deployment of server infrastructure for the first satellite distribution facility in fernley nv, and the first international customer service facility in hague, netherlands. at ads.com, i was responsible for the systems and network architecture to support a concept product that warehoused information related to television advertisements and campaigns.

in a previous life, i sought a phd in physics at the university of north carolina at chapel hill.  before being lured into the world of computer science and administration i was researching nuclear scattering at tunl (triangle universities nuclear laboratory).