Just got home after a lovely trip to Amsterdam with my co-workers at Automattic. I was not able to snap as many photos as I wanted. One night, I left my camera’s battery back at the hotel. Still, here are some of my favorite photos. Enjoy!
Dan, a co-worker from Automattic wrote this in a p2 post today:
Measure, then act. Almost every major decision we made was in response to real-world data. Often we would be surprised and have our expectations challenged, both in terms of what was NOT possible, but also what WAS possible.
It reminds me of the old saying, “Measure twice, cut once”, and in software development, the more we measure, the more we discover.
Back in February, I met with my team from Automattic in Lima, Peru. I’m excited to finally share some photos and videos with y’all. Warning: this post contains tons of media, so proceed with caution if you are limiting your bandwidth.
I was sorry that I wasn’t able to hang at the office with some colleagues this past weekend. Enter the power of Photo Shop and the animated .gif. Props to Joel Desmond for the great portrait.
We are making good progress at the new office. A ping pong table has been long sought after. We’ve got one now, and it’s great way to get on your feet after hours of sitting at a computer. Now we have got to do something about the blank wall. I’m excited at the prospect of painting a mural. I may post a few mock ups in the near future. Please be on the look out!
On my recent trip to San Diego, my co-workers and I participated in something called a Code Retreat. It reminded me of my days in art school, when my professor would instruct me to hold my pencil in odd ways while drawing, which broke my reliance on muscle memory, and forced me to focus more on the process of mark making and see my task in a new light.
Today I traveled to San Diego to meet with my team for the first time. My verbal skills Are not at their peak right now due to some unruly jet lag. I can at least say this: I’m fully thankful to be working with these folks. And I’ll be writing more thoughtful words about them as our time goes on and my exhaustion ceases. At the very least, I’ll write a summary of the meetup and share some photos.
For now I’ll leave you with 2 words to ruminate on: Turkish Delight. Oguz brought us some from his home country and I had never tried it before. It was a pleasant experience. It is similar to what we call fruit snacks here in America. But the flavor is more deeply fruity, and they are coated in a very light powdered sugar. The texture is not like anything I’ve tasted before. Each color is its own flavor.
Here is a photo of the signs for our new Maine office crafted by Tinkering Monkey, and a photo of the office, AKA “The Mill”, at dusk. Though the wind chill probably has us below zero, things are looking hot in Westbrook.
I spent about 2 years developing plugins in the WordPress wilderness. In that time I became proficient in plugin architecture, in how to structure and organize your plugin so that it is optimized for scaling and maintenance. As I enter my sixth month working for Automattic, my fascination with coding architecture and patterns becomes deeper.
Holy smokes, 2014 was the biggest year of my life thus far! When I try to convey the magnitude of this year to my friends and family in everyday conversation, my emotions win out, and I trail off. So why not put all of the events in a nice easy-to-consume list, in chronological order for those of you who have not yet broken the barriers of time.
