Kiki’s Korner

Went through another ‘Spring Cleaning‘ of the people I follow on Twitter this morning, and at the same time, decided to bump the number from 330 to 400. just for shits and giggles.

I added another 85 folks, then took 15 people off to get me to an even 400. Again, trying to do this systematically by adding every 4th person in my ‘followers’ list and removing every 4th person in the ‘following’ list, so if I happen to have unfollowed you this round - please do not take it personally - it is a little experiment and I am sure I will circle back around again.

As a reminder, the whole point of this ‘experiment’ is to expand and diversify the information flowing in front of me a little bit without overwhelming me in the process, as I am not a ’skimmer’ - I am one of the crazy ones who tries to keep up with a majority of the tweets people post if I can.

The last two months have been nuts. Correction, the last year has been nuts, and my blog has suffered immensely as I fail to find time or the energy to write.

I thought going through the blog update and migration over to Wordpress would ignite my writing, but it hasn’t, and if anything, I stare at my template now and wonder what the heck I was thinking to go with this obnoxious green website. If anything, it has turned me off writing more.

So I am working on it. Again. Not that anyone cares or will be affected by this - but for some reason I thought if someone used the wrong keyword and found themselves on this insanely bright page - I would explain why.

It has been a somewhat long two years, trying to get our labor of love project off the ground and running on its own without requiring full time efforts from Heuer or me. There were times we were able to put love into it, other times our personal and work lives made it impossible to keep up. More times than not, the latter happened.

This makes me forever grateful for the founding folks who believed in the vision of SMC and helped our baby grow from a 14 person kickoff meeting in Silicon Valley on August 16, 2006 to where it is today - a worldwide organization consisting of 200+ paid members, 17 active chapters, another 25+ chapters (today) on the verge of launching, and 1000’s of people who have gotten together to share their knowledge with one another.

/me sheds another tear of pride

While we could simply let people self organize around a wiki, that model doesn’t help our mission to get the local chapters conversing with one another - sharing their knowledge, promoting ethics, working on standards and making sure we ‘lift all boats’.

So today, we put a stake in the ground to show our commitment to the people who believed in us from day one and announced the formation of an interim board to chart strategic direction and advance the goals of SMC.

Now, I know the number of folks on the interim BOD (41, soon to be 42) might seem crazy to some, but there is a large list of things we wish SMC to accomplish, and everyone involved has a ‘day job’ and other responsibilities to tend to, so I think the number makes sense. The problems of the past have always been trying to do too much with too few people involved, and as Heuer mentioned earlier, we will not need consensus on every little item, we will be split into working groups with different responsibilities so I expect us to be successful and able to push projects forward.

I am really looking forward to the next 4-6 months and seeing what this group can do together. Getting the national organization set up correctly and working efficiently is a key focus, as well as making sure the local chapters have what they need to flourish. Other projects on our plate will be shared later, right now…I need some infrastructure in place…like ASAP.

Chris and Kristie, originally uploaded by chrisheuer.

Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that. ~Michael Leunig

It is crazy to think it has only been two weeks since my last day of work at Joyent, and the support and outreach I have received from the community around me can be described by one simple word: Incredible.

Thank you.

The time has flown by; filled with phone calls, emails, text messages and meetings - all focused on opportunities being presented to me from people who respect the work I do, and wish to see me succeed.

Thank you.

The challenge for me now is figuring out what I want to do. It is an important question to ask oneself, and surprisingly, a question I am finding harder to answer than I thought. An easier thing for me to nail down is I know what I do not wish to do, and I know the environment I do not wish to work within so I am sure the what I want to do will come out of that.

So I am taking a little time to breathe, to soak it in, as that will ensure the next role I jump into is the right role…for me. All I know is I am happier than I have been in a long time…and I have the community of people around me to thank for that.

Thank you.

Yes folks, I am back on the market. Start the bidding process now.

I have met some really wonderful people, both online and offline, over the last 15 months at Joyent, and I am happy with the role I played in pushing the company forward to where they are today. It feels good to know I was instrumental in making some needed improvements in many of the customer facing aspects of the business. This included setting processes and guidelines in the Customer Care department, launching new outbound communication programs to better inform our customers, organizing local meetups, managing promotional programs, handling our event sponsorships, representing the voice of the customer in company meetings and most of all - ensuring we did a better job of looking after our customer’s needs.

I am thankful for the offerings of love and support I have received from the community and would like to send a big ‘thank you’ to Adam, Ed, Nick, Mickael, Garrick, Larry, Dustin, Kelly, Andrew, Matt, Linda, Walter, Christopher, Allan, Jacques, Noel, Ken, Michael, Elle, AJ, Mark, Jim, Tom, Trevor, Eugene, Robert, J.J., Tim, Jamie, Elliot, Jim, Tiffany, Kris, Eric, Michael, Jordan, Sid, Arthur, Joe, Tom, Thomas, Jamie, Joel, Ray, Jim, Ngungo, Kjell, Sebastian, Adrian, Philip, David, Jeremy, Robert, Arthur, Tim, someguy, David, Chris, Chuck, pet, MrDale, and Heuer - for your love and support through this, which was both planned and unplanned all at the same time. Thank you folks, you rock.

I would like to extend an even deeper thank you to a handful of my Joyeurs - Matt, Peter, Geoff, Noel, Peat, Eric, and Eugene - for going the extra step and offering up a recommendation for me on LinkedIn. That is awesome - nothing says ‘job well done’ better than your customers giving you some love during a time like this. Thank you thank you thank you.

For the record, I am unemployed. I need a job. What am I looking for? I would love to work for a company that respects and values its customers. My ideal role would enable me to serve as a Customer Advocate, Community Wrangler, Connector, Communicator, Social Media Maven, and/or Event Planner. I like diversity in my daily work, but really need a consistent ability to help people, especially customers.

And to my @joyeurs, my clan. Shall you find yourself in San Francisco, or if I happen to be in your town, I shall look forward to raising a pint with you, so let’s make sure we keep in touch.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

In keeping up with the little experiment I started on April 29th, I went through another cycle today in my Twitter account by following 50 new people, and removing 50 people I had been following.

Only one month in, but so far - I am pleased with the results. I am able to keep my following list at a reasonable (to me) number (330) while constantly being exposed to new folks, ideas, experiences. And like the first round, I tried to keep it as fair as possible by adding every 4th person in the list of people following me, and then removing every 4th person in the list of people I was following.

I think next month I might hit the general timeline and pick a few off there to really mix it up, but the experiment as a whole seems to be working as planned, so for that I am very happy and look forward to reading and learning more about these new folks.

If I ask someone to call me, I should probably make sure the phone is not on ’silent’ mode and stuffed in the bottom of my laptop bag. This will ensure I do not miss their call.

Duly noted.

I just don’t trust her.

I watch her behind the podium. I don’t believe her.

I listen to her promises. I don’t think she can deliver on them.

I watch her husband and her daughter, standing behind her as she gives her speech in Indiana, their body language shows - they don’t believe she can get it done.

I wonder if we were to run a new primary in the states that voted in January and February, if people would change who they voted for, or would vote the same way they did oh so many months ago. Specifically, those Californians who voted for HRC - do you still believe she is the best candidate, representing your needs? Our needs?