hi, i’m sarah

i’m also a word and language geek.  one could say a novice linguist, but that would suggest way to much attention and study. i love homonyms and word games; double entendres and mondegreens;  malapropisms and eggcorns.  my interest in words is purely for entertainment.  the fact that i write a lot is simply happy synergy of this interest with my day job.

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?

so, i want to start by saying i had no idea what to expect from ssw2.

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).