A Rather Effective Day

Random bits from the day that I might try to tie together, or might leave out there for any random readers to draw their own conclusions.

A while back I had the opportunity to interview with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for an Information Systems Manager position. There were roughly 50 applicants for the position. I made it to the final three, and then to the final two. In the end they chose the other person. I’m one of those people that believes things happen for a reason, it helps keep me sane I guess – more importantly, it allows me to stay optimistic. While my job search continues, good things have happened since not getting that job.

Michelle Knapik, Program Director for The Dodge Foundation’s environmental work, was kind enough to introduce me to Lynn Schnarr, Development Director for Mouse.Org with the possibility that Mouse might have a volunteer opportunity for me. Over the past couple of days I have had the pleasure of talking with Lynn and Susan Scwartz, Communications Manager. We’ll be looking at ways to let more people know about Mouse.org, and hopefully collecitng micro-donations through various blogs and social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. I’ll write more about my contribution as it develops. All I see right now are endless possibilities.

Later that day…

This evening I decided to attend a PHP Meetup I spotted on Meetup.com. I’ve got a Spanish speaking group that I attend, and Ashley and I went to a figure drawing one, and now I’ve joined this PHP one – I’m turning into a Meetup junkie. Here’s the cool thing – everyone shows up to these meetings knowing what they subject is, so there’s no ice to break. I am a serious advocate of Meetup and don’t mind using a little bit of space here to endorse them.

Tonight’s PHP meeting was great. I met some sharp folks. I learned about what goes on behind the scenes at BobDylan.com (holy cow it’s built on Drupal). I had the opportunity to teach a couple of guys about WordPress and I learned about some really neat applications (e.g. http://www.jingproject.com/). I felt like I was in my element, except I don’t think you’ll ever catch me playing World of Warcraft. I look forward to the next meeting.

So, this post was a bit random maybe – not exactly well-crafted, but I’m going to start using this as an accountability tool and talk about what I’m doing. Oh, and thanks to Rick’s tip on the very cool WP plugin Zemanta, this post has more links in it than any I’ve ever posted.