June 13, 2013
post-trip

As people who read dw_news (or who were with me) know, I spent last week in Austin for YAPC::NA and lots of crazy DW hacking. Overall the trip was great - the weather was kind of hellish, and the day I spent seeing the contents of my stomach way more than I wanted was not fun in the slightest, but Austin is a lovely, quirky city, and the other DW staff and volunteers are amazing, quirky people. There were some great talks at the conference, though I would have to dig through my notes for specifics because it was sort of a whirlwind of STUFF HAPPENING. But it was a good week, and I think at least some of that was being around people and a project that appreciates me for my intellect and skills. My last few jobs have appreciated me, but that's because I can competantly follow instructions, and suffice to say, that is not using my skills to their fullest.

I also had a bit of insight on what I'd like to learn more about, CS-wise - which is UI design. I love design in general, but I realized that usability is what makes me really love a design or hate it. Good UI is a thing I want to rub my brain all over (hello there, Ravelry). So I think I'm going to do some more reading into that little slice of things, and maybe actually finally try learning Javascript?