Wow. What a week. Every week helps me understand a little more about life and what I love to do, and this week’s been a terrific teacher. =)

The quickly-sketched Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0@Work that I put together for a friend caught people’s attention, with over 8,000 views on Slideshare and a mention in ReadWriteWeb’s article on Why Gen Y is Going to Change the Web. Wow. =) That little thing combined many of my passions and resulted in big results. I love helping people connect. I love bridging the gaps between generations and helping people figure out how to make the most of these new tools. I love exercising my creativity. I love communicating and learning more about communication. I love inspiring and being inspired by others. And I love love love love learning from other people. When I can bring all of those things together… Wow!

I want to build on that strength. I’ve checked out books on sketching and visual storytelling because I really like how comics and editorial cartoons express things so concisely and effectively. As in writing, I often find it difficult to figure out what I want to say and how I want to say it. I know I’m going to get it wrong, but that’s okay. I may need to get it wrong a couple of times before I figure out the message. Talking to other people helps me figure out what I have to say, too, and that’s why this blog’s so useful. If you comment on something, I learn from what you’re saying, and I learn about what I’m saying. (Does that make sense? Maybe it will make sense when I figure out how to explain it.) If I practice, I’ll eventually develop the verbal and visual vocabulary to help people understand what I mean, and then I can use that share all these things I’m learning from you and from others. I can’t get there unless I go through the awkward phase of trying to figure out what I mean, so… umm… thanks for your patience. =)

I did a number of other interesting things at work, too. We held a virtual exhibition called Innovation in Action, and I volunteered to help staff the Social Networking booth. It was my first time to try a virtual conference/tradeshow like that! =) I had the first shift, and I had a lot of fun figuring out ways to make the most of the platform. In addition to the simultaneous conversations I had with the people who dropped into our booth and typing up my tips to share with colleagues on my internal blog, I had my hands full. Figuring out good ways to connect with people and sharing those tips with my colleagues was a lot of fun!

I’ve also been doing more development work with Drupal and Javascript, and I’m slowly but steadily making progress. I like the puzzle-solving aspect of it, and I hope I can add more of a people aspect to that kind of work too.

I started on the fifth chapter of my technical book about Emacs, too. I was really anxious about the book before because it was so difficult to write about something that’s always changing, but I’m going to keep writing about it anyway and we’ll just figure out how everything works out. =)

In other news:

W-, J- and I have been bitten by the gardening bug. We’re trying to grow some hot peppers from seed, have a few small hills ready for canteloupes (me) and watermelons (W-), and I’ve planted the forget-me-not seeds we received for free. We also bought sage and rosemary plants, although we’ve been keeping them indoors due to chilly weather.

I have also discovered a rather territorial and ruthless side of me: I won’t tolerate dandelions in the backyard. I know they can be used in salad and tea, and they really are quite pretty, but I won’t have them crowding out my plants (well, my future plants). =)

We watched Prince Caspian today, too. I couldn’t help sobbing during the disastrous castle scene, but the rest of the movie felt great, and Reepicheep stole the show. =) After we watched the movie, we chatted about how the movie differed from the book. (Hehehe… Never miss a learning opportunity!)

Great week!

Plans for next week:

• Make progress on my work projects. (Someday I’ll get the hang of this…)
• Prepare three presentations for two weeks from now. Good opportunity to go over the things I wanted to improve. =)
• Practice sketching stick figures.

Life is great!