Entries in Life

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! This year, we gave our kids their major gifts early: a Wii and a TV after spending most of the year without one. And, other than those two items, we told them this would be a Chrstmas of hand-made gifts. And this year, since I had been out of work since the beginning of November, it made a lot of sense. I didn’t know what to expect for Christmas morning. The kids dragged me out of bed, we read Luke’s narrative of the Nativity, sang a couple of Christmas carols and then headed to the tree to open the gifts our children had given. Like I said I didn’t know what to expect: I had pretty much forgotten that we had told the kids they would be making their own gifts. And, as I found out later, Alexis didn’t remind them of their responsibilities. So it gave me a great deal of pride to see the gifts and their response. Our oldest daughter had knitted a cap for the youngest. The other daughter wrapped up some sugar cookies she had made earlier in the week. My wife wrapped up some Ferrero chocolates that we had bought. I remember how I would have reacted had this been my Christmas as a child. Barely any gifts under the tree — you could still see the treestand, after all — I think the disappointment would have been only too visible on my face. So when my son was overjoyed with the chocolates, when my daughter demonstrated the knit cap, I was almost bursting with pride. My children were happy with, even thankful for, practically nothing. (Sure, they had a new Wii and we had a new TV, but these were not the focus of their Christmas morning.) When I see my children showing more maturity and thankfulness than I remember posessing when I was young, it makes me think that at least this one thing is right.

Last night, I signed up for a three month contract with the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), set to begin in January. I’ll be working offsite with Tim Starling as my mentor. My primary duties will be to “Support MediaWiki Code Review and Release Management process”, something I feel especially well suited for. The WMF has been working to formalize the process (see, for example Special:Code/MediaWiki) and I’ll be helping with take it further. I have plenty of ideas, but my first task will be integrating myself into the environment. I’m pretty excited to have a full-time position on such a high profile piece of Free Software. Last night, I started reading “Shop Class as Soulcraft” and, while my work is not anywhere as tactile as the work Matthew Crawford talks about in his book, I’ve found that working on Open Source software provides me with a similar sense of accomplishment. It gives me something I can point to and say “I did that” or “I fixed that”. And, with MediaWiki, the thing I can point to becomes something that much more recognisable to others. “You know Wikipedia?” I’ll ask, “That’s what I work on.” (Oh, and if you want, you can throw a few in the pot to help pay the rent for the WMF.)

So, the non-profit (which shall henceforth remain anonymous) that had me all excited called today and let me know that they had hired someone local. Oh well. I’ll just have to work on my consulting.

I’m still waiting to hear from them: Do I or do I not get the job? Pins and needles!

I’m in San Francisco for the day. Last night I had a great time with danlyke of Flutterby fame. Since right now is the the Advent Fast, he took me to Café Gratitude, a raw Vegan restaurant where every one of their dishes is an affirmation. I couldn’t help but giggle when they handed me my coconut curry soup as they said the mantra “You are Thankful!” I would imagine that The Secret has done better here than in Lancaster County. “But, Mark,” I can hear you not asking, “What the heck are you doing in San Francisco?” About a month ago, a non-profit here contacted me about a position they’re trying to fill. They need an open-source person to be, essentially, their community liaison for code contributions to their open source project. At the time, I was still working for IntraHealth, so I told them I wasn’t interested. But the following Monday, I found out I was not going to be working at IntraHealth any longer. A new (but smaller) round of funding came through and they just didn’t have room for me in the budget any more. With this new-found freedom from obligations, I called the HR person back and told him, “Guess what? I am interested after all!” In the meantime, this has been one of the more productive periods of transition I’ve ever had. Friends of mine who freelance have tossed a couple of gigs my way and I’ve spent a little more time with my kids. Only once have I glimpsed into abyss of fear and self-doubt that the recently jobless can end up in — the rest of the time I’ve been excited about the opportunities. So, here I am in a San Francisco hotel room early in the morning. My body is still on Eastern time and I can hear the city slowly coming to life around me. I plan on scoping out Berkeley this morning and then, after my interview (during which, in my fantasy, they offer me the job on the spot) I’ll go see how far CalTrain will take me.