I turned my Drupal-based project over to a new team member. It was in great shape: the new branch passed all my old regression tests, the deployment script still worked, and the module that I'd partially implemented was well-documented with my notes. I was so glad that I'd invested the time in writing tests, tools, and documentation. I was also glad I insisted on using doxygen for low-level documentation instead of (gack!) Microsoft Word, as doxygen gave us call graphs and caller graphs for free. I checked on the team members today to see if there was anything else they needed in order to work effectively, and it looks like everyone's happy.

I started a new Drupal-based project on Tuesday, and I brought the habits and tools I picked up during the previous project. The features I've been working on now have nice little tests. I've automated more of the install and testing process. I also spent some time scrubbing my old deployment scripts, and I sent them to the person who just started as the release engineer for the project. Things are going well. =)

I still haven't met another Linux-based Drupal developer within IBM, though. =| No matter - maybe I'll eventually inspire people to give it a try!

I helped Aaron Kim and Bernie Michalik out with a workshop for a major insurance company. I seem to be their go-to idea-generator, which is awesome fun. I love coming up with a range of ideas based on what I've seen, what I'd like to see, what technology makes possible, and so on. I think Aaron exaggerated when he said I come up with hundreds of ideas, but it _is_ a lot of fun for me. I get to play with all sorts of combinations of interesting things. I attended part of the workshop, too, and I shared a couple of stories.

I also found myself gathering resources this week. I handled a number of requests for information on new employees, Gen Y, social networking research, and other topics, and people were very happy with the information and people I pointed them to. I get a lot of questions because people know I'm interested in these things, and I love handling those questions because each question gives me an opportunity to organize more information in a coherent way. I get to build on top of other things I've done before! =)

So that was this week: I turned over my old project (in a way that made me happy), hit the ground running (in a way that also made me happy), helped generate lots of ideas (and that made me happy too), and answered lots of questions (happy happy happy). Oh, and I sewed a pajama top out of red fleece. (Happy _and_ warm!) =)

Next week: More Drupal work, a Government 2.0 panel, a dinner party with some family friends, and maybe the pajama bottoms…

Here's how I fixed it (as root):

echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling

I love you, Ubuntu forums.

• It was my last week on the Transition2 project, and there weas a big change that I needed to make to the source code internals in order to prepare things for future features. I didn't know how much I'd complete, but I told the project manager I'd give it my best try. I made surprisingly good progress, and I think that was partly due to a new habit of waking up really early in the morning to do that coding. The unit tests also made it easier for me to verify that things still worked. I managed to get all of my tests working today - hooray! It still needs a lot of tweaking before then, and I (or the next developer) still need to figure out localization, but it's in pretty good shape.
• I gave a speech on blogging at Concordia University in Montreal. The weather was poor, so only fifteen or so people came, but I think I helped a number of people gain confidence. People liked the stick figures. =) I learned a lot while preparing and delivering that presentation. I blogged about how I mindmapped and storyboarded the presentation, and with that as my preparation, I found it easy to change the presentation a bit in order to accommodate the mix of people I met there. I had originally planned to talk to a younger crowd because the talk was part of the Backpack to Briefcase series, but a number of people were interested in professional uses of it, so I mixed a little of that in. I also used a webcam to record my presentation. That was a good idea.
• I stayed a couple of extra days with Michael McGuffin and Alice Servera, which was a fantastic idea. It's so much better staying with friends than staying at a hotel, and it was also a good idea to stay over a bit instead of going back right away. I convinced Michael to cook something for us, and the pineapple fried rice he made was wonderful. I told them stories about my life in Toronto, and we chatted with my mom over the computer. =) I also enjoyed playing with their kids and meeting Alice's extended family, who were all warm and friendly.

Next week:

• I'm looking forward to starting on a new Drupal-based project. I'm joining an existing team, so I'll get to learn from the ways they're currently doing things. =)
• I need to put together some paperwork: invoices, permanent residency application, passport renewal, etc.
• I'd like to start sewing that 3/4 sleeve pajama top out of red fleece. =)

Today I arrived at work at 7:00. The lights were still dim. I don't think anyone else was in the IBM office. I got a lot done. I remembered to leave work early, too, and I got a lot done at home as well. I remember blogging about early starts a number of times, and I like it when I can get into the rhythm of it. W- and I will make sure we keep in sync, too.

Preparing a few things the night before makes things so much more convenient. After dinner, I pack my lunch, leave a pot of oatmeal to soak on the stove, and set out all my clothes in the order that I need to put them on. The rest of the time is mine to spend, and then it's another great morning.

I'm getting the hang of the little things, too. The subway ride is the best time for Japanese flashcard practice, because I'm sitting down. The Pimsleur language lessons are best for dish-washing time, because I need my hands to be free. I'm working my way through French, and I hope I'll be able to practice understanding conversation when I'm in Montreal.

There's still a lot of room for improvement. Depending on need, I may make early mornings my personal project time. Right now, I'm relaxed, but not feeling very creatve. There are a number of things I still need to follow up on, including possible tea party plans. (I'm a month late with my tea parties!) But things are good. =)

• Got ready for the second release of my Drupal-based project. Things are going well!
• Attended the Women in IBM Networking Group's executive mentoring session. Realized I don't want to become an executive considering the compromises people make.
• Not only survived the videotaping of my Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools GBS Consultants Should Try session, but gave the guy a few tips on video production. Played around with Camtasia Studio for making picture-in-picture shows.
• Attended the HR.com/SelectMinds corporate social networking teleconference session on new hire onboarding. No surprises, although picked up a few good stories about Southwest and other companies.
• Booked my flight to Montreal.
• Dropped by hacklab.to. Ran into Jed. Good conversation about job-hunting, social networking, Emacs, etc.
• Played around with CiviCRM for personal contact relationship management.
• Helped out with a talk on mentoring by telling my story about blogs.
• Mindmapped and storyboarded Montreal talk.
• Printed out necessary forms for permanent residency application.
• Tweeted much more than before, thanks to iPod Touch.

Next week:

• Push release-2 to production server.
• Document release procedure so that other people can do it in the future (and so that I can take it with me to future projects).
• Finish whatever enhancements I have time to do.
• Deliver session in Montreal on students and Web 2.0 at work.
• Meet up with lots of interesting Montreal-basedpeople, including friends I haven't seen in a while.
• Fill in one of my permanent residency forms.
• Finish black skirt.
• Mail package to Randell.

I like learning different languages. It's like building with blocks: you collect different kinds of pieces, and the more pieces you collect, the more ways you can combine them and make sense.

W- and I have been watching Heroes. Yes, we're very much behind the times. My favorite segments are when Masi Oka shows up as Hiro and speaks in Japanese. I miss the rush of semi-understood syllables, the alien familiarity of a learned skill.

Maybe I should take that up again. I probably won't be able to make much time for conversation practice, but it would be interesting to be able to read foreign blog posts and make occasional comments.

So I've bought Japanese Flip for the new iPod Touch (thank you, Slideshare) and I'll be playing with it on the subway ride. =) I'll also see about getting back to learning French…

I was going to do the paperwork for the Schengen visa so that I could help with another customer workshop in Brussels. I was nervous about the time and I didn't want to cancel my participation at the last minute, as I know from first-hand experience that it can be pretty difficult for people taking up the sudden slack. So I recommended a number of people in Europe to the workshop organizers, and I hope they find a good fit.

During this mad two-week stint of travel, I realized a couple of things:

• Consulting is a scary thing. You're always wondering if the client will feel that you've provided enough value. Programming or making things seems a little more clear-cut in that respect.
• I love connecting the dots, and I seem to have passed some threshold that makes the network effects scale well. Because people know I like connecting the dots, they tell me about what they can offer and what they're looking for.
• A few days of working at home helps me settle down and relax after unusual stints of overtime. Otherwise, things feel pretty raw.

I finished the red jacket I was working on, and I've also completed a purple skirt. I'm very happy with the way the red jacket turned out, and the notions I picked up during Fabricland's sale have helped me me save time and make my purple skirt neater. My next project (already halfway done) is a black skirt following the same pattern as the purple skirt. After that, I'll probably make two reversible four-color shells to make business-trip packing even easier.

I'd been thinking about the personality differences between people who start things and people who finish things. I'm very much a starter. I can see the possibilities of starting things, I'm good at figuring out who I need to talk to in order to make something happen, and I can be excited and get other people excited too. On the other hand, after a while, I can lose interest and move on to other things, which is probably why my Emacs book is languishing in the doldrums.

That's one of the reasons why sewing interests me. Small, quick projects that give me tangible results when I finish them… Maybe this a good way to develop more persistence and attention to detail. =)

Next week, I'll be focusing on the Drupal-based project. We're coming up on our second release date, and I think we're in pretty good shape despite all my travel. I also need to get the details ironed out for my talk in Concordia University: the student's guide to Web 2.0 at work, and for an upcoming panel on government, Web 2.0 and youth. On Thursday, SelectMinds has a virtual corporate social networking conference. I'm looking forward to attending the session on onboarding with social networking tools (1:45 ET - 2:45 ET). We'll be recording videos of our other presentations on Thursday, so I might not be able to make it to the rest of the interesting sessions. It'll be a very busy week, but I hope to make time to get my permanent residency application together and to follow up on the interesting conversations I had over the past two weeks.

What I did last week:

• Facilitated a session on Gen Y during the IBM Innovation Discovery workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Met up with lots of people from IBM Research. Learned a lot, connected lots of dots.
• Blogged about what I learned.
• Got assigned the Social Networking segment of the IBM Innovation Discovery workshop in Tel Aviv. Crammed madly for it.
• Flew to Tel Aviv for the IBM Innovation Discovery workshop.

Plans for Oct 27 to Nov 2:

• Survive the rest of the IBM Innovation Discovery workshop in Tel Aviv (Done!)
• Survive CASCON despite jetlag (Done!)
• Attend a real opera - Canadian Opera Company (Done!)
• Braindump what I'd learned
• Follow up on all the great conversations I had during those trips and CASCON
• Get back to work on my Drupal project
• Finish my red jacket
• Send off the paperwork for my visa
• Send off the paperwork for my permanent residency application
• Recover from back-to-back business trips

It's been a crazy two weeks, so I've been blogging very little. From Sunday to Wednesday last week, I was in Boston. I returned to Toronto, then I flew to Tel Aviv on Friday and I got back on Tuesday. Tuesday was also when I'd promised to talk about social networking business models at CASCON, so I did, jet-lagged and all. Before all of these Innovation Discovery workshops turned up on my calendar, I'd bought myself a ticket to the opera (Don Giovanni). It was a beautiful production (great lighting and set design!), and the singing was, of course, amazing.

So the long and short of it is, this is the first time I've been able to sit down and write! <laugh>

Time for the usual reflections. What worked well:

• W- was absolutely wonderful. He helped me pull myself together for the trip. Little things reminded me of him, made me smile, and kept me going. And he picked me up from the airport and helped me get through that crazy day yesterday, too. Just so you know and there aren't any surprises: if I ever had to choose between IBM and him, he would win. No doubt about it. So let's not ever let things get to the point where I would have to make that choice, mmkay?
• I prepared for my session on very short notice, but I pulled through thanks to the help of Andy Schirmer, Mahmood Ashek, Stuart McRae, and the wonderful thing that is Cattail. Julia Bartlett and Jade Nguyen-Strattner helped me make changes on the fly. One of the great things about getting to know lots of people and finding out what their passions are is that I can pull the right names out of my head. Funny, but none of them show up on the first page of a SmallBlue search for mobile social networking… =)
• Social networking was clearly a big topic for the client, and they'd spent a while thinking about mobile social networking and what services they could build around it. They presented their plans and ideas first, which allowed us to adjust our presentation based on what they already knew and what they might be interested in.
• The personas that I quickly developed helped people anchor the discussions and brainstorming on a clear end-user. One of the groups eventually decided to go with a different persona, but everyone found the idea to be useful.
• One of the other topics was emerging markets, and the fact that I'm from the Philippines helped because I could give a different perspective and anecdotally validate some of the trends that they had been seeing.
• Despite my jet lag, I still got compliments on my energy and spirit. I also got through my CASCON presentation all right, even though I was also jet-lagged and fuzzy. Stephen Perelgut suspects that this is a good way to make me more understandable at conferences - tire me out with jet lag first, then put me in front of people.
• Trips are a great opportunity for me to meet up with people I've kinda gotten to know online. I chatted with Ido Guy from the Haifa research lab. It was great to finally meet him! He'd like to learn more about promoting the cool things that the Haifa research lab is working on. He's also interested in measuring the business value of social networking, and we might be able to get something going. Joan DiMicco is curious about the same thing when it comes to new hires, so that sounds like a good area to explore.
• The maps I printed out helped me orient myself and reduced my anxiety when I was taking cabs. Also, knowing a little about the local culture helped me avoid getting ripped off by fixed pricing for cabs. It was impossible to convince cabs to use the meter when I was with George and Neil, but I got the other cabs to use the meter when I was travelling alone. It's the principle of the thing: I'd rather encourage honest taxi drivers than go with taxi drivers who take advantage of tourists, because I've seen how taxi drivers can go from taking advantage of tourists to taking advantage of pretty much everyone. You should try getting a cab from the malls in downtown Manila at night…
• I spent a few hours learning Hebrew while sewing and while doing the dishes, and that helped make the place feel less alien. It probably helped me build some more rapport with the local folks, too!
• The sock-shoes in the amenities kit on the Air Canada flight to Tel Aviv were pretty comfortable. I should make some for myself for future business trips.

What to do better next time:

• I regretted not being able to wander around and see more of the place. Some people took extra days off. The two trips I took to the Philippines took up all my vacation time, and I also enjoy spending time at home, but maybe I can save up overtime so that I can have a free day.
• Jade Nguyen Strattner and George Rudnicki facilitated very well, keeping the conversation flowing. I liked the introduction structure that George used, asking people to tell a story about something they innovated. I'll try using that the next time I'm in charge of introductions. Maybe during my tea parties?
• Neil Marquardt took individual pictures of everyone and put them into the capture document. People liked this a lot. Maybe I can do that at the Innovation Discovery workshop in Brussels. I can bring my camera and a flash, and maybe even a background if I can fit it into my suitcase. An umbrella and a light stand might be overkill, though.
• I can put together a travel kit with a mask, a travel pillow, an extra pillow for lumbar support, sock-shoes, and a wide-necked water bottle that I can ask the flight attendants to fill. I can also make sure I always get an aisle seat, so I don't worry about disturbing others if I'm getting out of my seat too often.

Now back to my regular work!

I'll be heading to Tel Aviv tomorrow for another client workshop. I've suddenly been made in charge of the social networking session, so we're going to see if I can pull another rabbit out of the hat and get everything sorted out before my session on Monday. Right after that, I fly back and run to my session on social networking business models at CASCON 2009.

I'm not entirely sure I'm going to get through it all without going crazy, but hey, it's worth a try. And it's a good thing W- and Leia will be there for me no matter what.

I can panic after all of this is over. =)

• Play computer games in the airport. In particular, I play Nethack, a really old text-based adventure game. I don't know how I started associating Nethack with airports and travel, but it works for me. Maybe it's Pavlovian reconditioning - I don't like the hassle of flying, but Nethack makes it bearable.
• Sing. Softer when other people are around–just enough for me to hear the song in my head. Stronger when I'm walking by myself. Even stronger when the subway's coming in and the screech of the rails can drown me out. =) I think I've gotten better at singing, too - I've just suddenly figured out how to do the middle notes I used to have such a problem with before…
• Take a cab. Or at least I will, on the way back. I took public transit from the airport to the hotel today, and while it wasn't an ordeal, it wasn't fun, either.

I wonder what W- is doing with his kitchen pass… =)

• gracefully handled whatever Murphy's Law wanted to throw at me during a presentation to a client VP
• prepared a pretty presentation and ran through it during the prep session, whereupon the account team gave so many suggestions that we essentially replanned the entire session
• made travel arrangements for Tel Aviv and started learning a little Hebrew
• even managed to work on some code and solve some of my teammates' Drupal and Linux problems!

Next week, it's all about:

• the Innovation Discovery workshop in Boston
• possibly the Innovation Discovery workshop in Tel Aviv
• more Drupal code
• getting my papers ready for the Canadian Experience Class permanent residency application