wordcamp Archives

Posted on April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Graham

According to Douglas Adams, this number has a significance. But it could also mean absolutely nothing. Today I turn 42. I’m an old man : )

I am happy to report that I will be speaking at a WordCamp. Ok, not as happy as I am nervous and anxious to get it behind me. I will be talking about moving from a design role into a developer’s position. I’m working on the slide deck and pretty confident it will work out. Sorta : /

So here’s the deal. I’ll be doing my thing on Saturday, May 5th @ 2pm. WordCamp Atlanta will be at The Loudermilk Center in downtown Atlanta. Yeah, so I will have to come up with a creative way to park my car. Here is a link to the schedule for the three days (come Friday for beginners):

https://2019.atlanta.wordcamp.org/schedule/

So that’s my life for the next month. Then I get ready for the United Kingdom. I’ll be going the first 3 weeks of June to visit with my family and float around on a boat while everyone gets toasted. It will be fun : )

I’m also going to throw out there that I’m really happy with where Outright is going. It is now an LLC with the state of Georgia and I’m tinkering around with Mailchimp to get a process in place for all my clients and you; my audience. All four of ya.

I’ve also started networking again. I’ve met a few people and will probably do business with some of them. I also have made headway outside my bubble and created a website for an accountant in Kansas. You can see it here:

RadicanFamilyServices.com

Thank you for reading and I hope to run into you at WordCamp. Go easy and keep clicking

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Graham

Soooooo. After a long pause on writing and a smidge of censorship, I’ve come back to the keyboard to express myself with an ounce of caution. In February I went on vacation (while working at Woodard) with my (awesome) wife and my (amazing) two boys. We went down to Disney and shared that with our youngest who hasn’t been before. It was exhausting and very hot, even for February in Florida. In all, it was fun and we had a good time.

But this post isn’t about that. No, it’s about being laid off. I could write a book about it or should at least be given an honorary degree or something. The day I came back from my vacation, I was laid off. Without too many details, I was told that the company was filing for chapter 11. I’m aware you would probably prefer to have the details instead but that’s where the wisdom kicks in. Don’t want to shut any doors in my future if I don’t have to.

Up until that point I had no idea. And it was surreal, as you can imagine. With all that, I did what I needed to. And that was that.

The Woodard Company was an interesting experience. I got to go to two conferences. I did a lot for those conferences. I also learned more and more from my studies on my own time about WordPress. Even went to the US WordCamp in Nashville as a volunteer. On that, I would like to restate how much I enjoyed it and how I felt I could make a difference. It was amazing.

I played a role in the Woodard Company no one else could fill. I’m not bragging, it’s just the situation. It would be very hard to find someone with my experience willing to work in-house. So I was laid off with a number of other employees. Good, good people. People I will miss. I’ve moved forward though and ironically I was hired the same week in a web/video/marketing firm. I’ve been working for Social Network MD in Marietta. It’s a good group of folks who I can click with and put up with my corny jokes.

So this story has a happy ending.

Au revoir Woodstock.

Bonjour Marietta.

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Graham

I’m all done with WordCamp US 2017. Saturday was good but I had a rough start. I’ll leave out some details but Air BnB has crossed me twice now. I’m starting to hate that game. The joint I stayed at was full of cool cats that went to WCUS with me but the bed I (sort of) slept in was a wooden rack wrapped in linnen.

So I pulled a 22 hour day. Woke up at 3ish in the morning. My back hurt all day long as I tried to stay awake in session and rubbed elbos with some folks I knew from Atlanta. Brad and Kathy from the Atlanta WordCamp were there – I got to meet a handfull of new peoples also. Really a good time at the conference. WCUS good / AirBnB bad.

I got to help at the Happiness Lounge and met even more people and I would like to give a huge shout out to Jan Dembowski (@jan_dembowski)! Thank you sir!

Matt’s (again, first name basis) presentation was great. The direction is to get Gutenberg (hereby forward will be refered to as G-berg) to core roughly in 4 months. There was some concern overall from just about everyone who asked questions about that decision. There was also a live presentation from Matias Ventura which went over very smoothly so kudos to him and his team.

There was an after-party but I, in my limp and bedraggled state (from the so-called “bed”), couldn’t muster enough umph to get my butt there. I packed up and headed out. The drive home was peaceful. Lynard Skynard on the radio followed by techno in my blue tooth.

There was so much to take away from the conference. I still can’t believe it was only 40 dollars – I feel like a criminal. I can honestly say it was so good it moved me and I’m totally hooked for the next WordCamp. Probably both Atlanta and US.

See you all next year.

And thank you.