Britt's

This is a bit late to be written, by I'd like to take a minute to talk about this year's Libre Application Summit, that took place this past September in Denver, CO. I was part of the planning and organizing team for LAS, though to be fully transparent my work leading up to the actual event was fairly minimal due to my Ph.D. qualifying exams happening right around the same time. For that I feel a bit neglectful, but the rest of the team did an awesome job putting everything together. This event was Caroline's first real experience with the GNOME/FOSS community, and she did a tremendous amount of work for this event. She handled all the promotional materials, website graphics, and she even stayed up late the night before leaving to Denver cutting out custom printed name-tags for each person attending. To be quite honest, I was worried about the experience she would have at LAS. While I've been in and around FOSS for a long time, long enough to understand the quirks o...

GUADEC 2018 has come and gone, and with this being my first FOSS event I have a number of thoughts about what I was expecting and what I'm coming away feeling. This is part 1 of a multiple episode recount of my GUADEC 2018 experience. Before GUADEC How exactly did I get here? The lead up to GUADEC was fast-paced enough to give someone whiplash. Up until a few short weeks prior to GUADEC's commencement I was just a simple GNOME user. A month or so before GUADEC, the timing being totally coincidental, I tweeted Nuritzi, a person whose name I had just learned after seeing the GitLab + GNOME announcement video, asking her if she would be willing to speak on her perspectives in tech at my University. Being the President of the GNOME Foundation board of directors, I wasn't really expecting an answer to be honest. However, not only did she answer my tweet, she and I had a short phone call later the next day, and the next thing I knew I was on the GNOME Engagement Telegram t...

The work-life balancing act isn't easy for me. It gets even harder when "life" involves a bunch of side work and projects not related at all to my "work". I'm constantly battling with the need to "work", my want to relax and have fun with friends, and my obsession with all my side projects. Now, this isn't a post meant to give anyone advice. On the contrary, if anything I'm actually seeking  advice on how any of you deal with this dilemma. Right now things are a hot mess, and I don't think I'm reaching my full potential in any aspect right now. How so? Well, I end up yearning to work on my side projects the entire time I am at work, though when I get home to actually work on my side projects I get distracted into social interactions (or binge watching Arrested Development on Netflix). Hence progress isn't being made on my hobbies, nor am I really impassioned about my "work", and the whole time I'm trying to rel...

Blogs. This format is still very foreign to me. Let's see how this goes. I was never one to write down my thoughts growing up. I had one journal that I can remember - a Harry Potter Quidditch journal, no less - but it always felt forced for me to write in it. I just remember jotting down a couple of random factoids about my day and I ended every entry with "I hope I get my Hogwart's letter soon!" It would have been adorable if I had been in pre-school, not 5th grade, but the superfan runs deep in my blood it seems. But jumping forward, here I am in my office, age 26 and in my 21st year of school (soon to be 22nd), writing my first real journal entry of my life. I'm a late bloomer it seems. On the horizon I have my second round of qualifying exams looming over me. The prep work for the exam has mostly been completed. I know ~mostly~ of what I will be proposing to my committee. I have the committee members cherry-picked to fit all the many facets of my proje...