Firewallender // Cassie Wallender

While I realize one cannot both be an honest person and act happy all the time, I do strive to see the silver lining around even the very dark and stormiest clouds that enter our skies.

The truth is, 2008 was my toughest year yet for personal reasons. But that also means it was a year of great opportunity to learn and to try to be a better person for it. This is not a time to get jaded, it’s a time to count the blessings and strive to find joy in what you have, even the memories of things now lost.

So in my own Pollyanna-like way, I’ve decided to list some highlights of my worst year ever. I want to look back on this year and think of these things. And if a personal blog is for anything, it’s for reminding oneself of what’s good in life. Without further ado…

Happy Highlights from the Worst Year Ever

Volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters

I have a really awesome little friend, she’s seven years old, about to be eight, and I just started hanging out with her this year. Being a part of a child’s life is a significant commitment, but it’s a blessing too - her friendship really warms my heart and she always cracks me up. We do a lot of activities together like bike riding and swimming. In motivating me to try to be a good example for her, I think maybe she’d done me more good than vice versa. :-)

She’s a bit of a ham (okay, a huge ham), and loves playing with my computer, so we made a video the other day:

I think it’s pretty easy to see how special being a Big is to me; I hope we’re always friends and someday when she’s taller than me we can celebrate 2008 as the year we met.

Becoming a Part of the Seattle Startup Community

It’s hard to imagine that is was only January 25th, 2008 when Seattle Startup Weekend was held at the Adobe headquarters just a stone’s throw from my house. That weekend was really the beginning of something much more for me though, it introduced me to so many amazing people. More than just networking, I’m happy to count them as friends, and have had such a blast spending time with them.

Startup Weekend truly was the toppling of that first domino that led to my attending so many other tech events in Seattle like Gnomedex, nPost events, MindCamp, Lunch 2.0 and Hops and Chops, and of course Startup Drinks, and making further friends and acquaintances. It’s funny this all happened this year, because it really feels like some of these people have been in my life for much longer than that. We’re like one big geeky family, and I am grateful for 2008 because of it.

Being a Best “Man”

I got to be in my best friend’s wedding. Definitely a highlight, even if I did sound shaky and nervous during the toast, it was such an honor to be in the wedding party, and spending time in Kansas City with so many friends was a blast.

Traveling my Little Heart Out

I went to the Caribbean this year! I went to Leavenworth and Hood Canal! I went to Phoenix to see Connie! It was all a blast.

Seeing Last Year’s Resolutions Through

Guys, I did it. I really quit biting my nails. Really and finally.  Other minor but happy accomplishments include doing my longest run yet, putting chains on my tires all alone, and doing a lot of helpful introspection (something I’ve never been very great at before).  This is the first year I’ve really paid attention to fitness and taking care of my body and made it a priority, and I think that’s an important milestone since it’s been a huge attitude adjustment for me. I’m pretty sure I can do just about anything I set my mind to now. Watch out, 2009!  You’re going to be the best year ever.

A Few Goals for 2009 (trite, but good):
Spend more quality time with close friends & my family
Work on being more focused and efficient with time
Continue to deepen healthy eating habits started in ‘08

A Few Goals for 2009 (less trite and also good):
Visit people in Washington, D.C., St. Paul, & Phoenix
Run another 5k or two at least, stay on fitness targets
Jump off that abandoned part of the 520 bridge
Sneak into that members-only goth club just for fun
Try seeing the opera once more before you give up entirely
More dancing, canoeing, hiking and climbing this year
Read “Atlas Shrugged” by March 18th

Mr. Watson, come here. I need you.

Step 1: Pick a domain and check if it’s free. Try to make it something easy to remember, that you don’t have to spell out to people.

Step 2: Buy a hosting package.  I use 1&1 to host, and so far, they’ve been swell.  All you’ll probably need is the beginners Linux hosting package, it comes with a domain, 10 MySQL databases, and 10 gigs of space.  It’s $3.99 a month (but there’s always specials to be had).  You can host elsewhere, just so long as you have a MySQL database and FTP access.

Step 3: Profit!  Just kidding.  Download the latest from WordPress.org.  There’s a bunch of steps here, but rather than just plagiarize, I’m just going to point you in this direction for the general directions, and to here for directions using 1&1 hosting.

Step 4: Time to customize!  You can find easy to install themes to make your blog look more “you”. I believe in crossposting, because not everyone is going to put your blog in their RSS Reader, or even use one.  Here’s a handy MySpace Crossposter and a Live Journal Cross Poster. I also import my blog’s feed into my Facebook.  You probably want to use something like Disqus or IntenseDebate to turn your comments into conversations.  If you make pages such as the ever popular “resume” or “about me” pages, you may want to checkout this post on removing the comments section from the bottom of a post.  If you see any customization on my blog that you’re curious how I’ve done, let me know.

I’ll try to expand on this as I learn more myself, but for now this should definaely get you on the right track.  Happy blogging!

Please don’t take this too seriously or personally - as you all know New Year’s Resolutions rarely involve much “resolve” and are more likely to be a general direction one would like to head in than any hard and fast rules.  That being said, I humbly present for your critique my brainstorm on potential 2009 microblogging resolutions:

1. I will not #unnecessarily #hashtag nearly every #other word.  Not even for #ironic effect.
2. I will not post vague and mysterious emo crud, nor vague and mysterious emo lyrics.
3. I will not post and mention someone just to namedrop. Really. I will search my heart first.
4. I will not attempt to make ten consecutive 140 character posts instead of one 1400 character blog post.
5. I will not post a link to every blog post I make, but rather sparingly link to the ones that are pertinent to a conversation at hand.  Twitter is not my RSS feed.
6. I will use direct messages whenever appropriate, and make “quality over quantity” my mantra for posting publicly.  No daily “Good morning/night, Twitterverse!” posts.
7. I will try to filter Twitter lingo from showing up in my Facebook status, so as to be kind to n00bs.
8. I will not take Quitter personally, everyone follows and unfollows people for different reasons.
9. I will make connections offline, and use microblogging as a tool for rather than a substitute for real life. I will use it as a tool to rally friends for impromptu face time.  :-)
10. I will not overshare or post while consuming alcohol… which generally results in oversharing.
11. I will not be bullied into adding anyone on LinkedIn just because we randomly follow each other, I will retain my LinkedIn network as a list of people that I know that I would recommend professionally.
12. I will strictly limit my forays into the following topics: every cute thing my cat/dog/baby/significant other does, every slightly notable quote by every speaker at every conference I’m at, every food or drink item I’ve consumed all day, every address I’ve arrived at, and every change in the local weather… even if it is SNOPOCOLYPSE 2009 because Seattle got 2mm of snow.
13. I will remember that just because I’m bored at the airport, doesn’t mean that I should inflict that boredom upon everyone else.
14. I will never post a lone URL without some other text to describe why you should follow the link, unless the link is quite self-explanatory.
15. And for all that is good and holy in the world, I will stop rickrolling people already.  Even if I am Wil fraking Wheaton.  It’s 2009 already after all… we need to let it go.

In a nutshell: noise < signal.

Any suggestions for additions to this list?

I have the coolest friends ever, which means I end up with the coolest weekends ever. Really, you guys spoil me. Last weekend was spent with a small group celebrating Micah’s birthday in a beautiful riverside cabin on Hood Canal.

And this weekend? I’m hanging out with my lindy hopping crew. A group of twenty two (TWENTY TWO!!?) of us are renting out a huge log cabin in Leavenworth.

Ah, December. Full of rain and snow and win.

Leavenworth, WA during the holidays (picture from Leavenworth.org)

First, a definition, as the backdrop to my story and subsequent experiment on you, gentle reader:

From Wikipedia: “The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon occurs when a person, after having learned some (usually obscure) fact, word, phrase, or other item for the first time, encounters that item again, perhaps several times, shortly after having learned it. This is a specialised version of the effect of serendipity.”

There are several theories about the psychological explanation of the phenomenon, including a popular one that cites its primary cause as being the recency effect, in which the human brain has a bias that lends increased prominence to new or recently acquired information.”

Now, a specific example pertinent to my own personal life.  Browsing Etsy for Christmas gifts, I noticed this design on several pendants:

I didn’t pay it much attention aside from thinking it was a nice sentiment, until I noticed it was on a few designs from multiple sellers.  Surely, I thought, this must mean something.  The design haunted me a bit.  Perhaps “haunted” is too serious a word, but as a member of the microwave generation, which has grown up with information at our fingertips, the fact that I knew it meant something but didn’t know what that something was began to very subtly annoy me.

I had more pressing things to attend to, so ignored this subtle annoyance, but the next morning got an email from my favourite online tshirt store only to be slapped in the face with a reminder of my annoyance:

An obvious play on the original.  I had to know: what the heck was this from? What did it mean?  What was it’s significance, and why was it so influential that my favourite tshirt site was satirizing it?  I did the obvious Google search and found the history of the design, an interesting little story.  My curiosity appeased, I was now a happily satiated information junkie.

At lunch I noticed a poster directly outside my building, which convinced me once and for all that this slogan was now following me about.  Hours later after dinner, I found it again outside Hops and Chops at Linda’s, waiting for me without any hint of shame.  I took a photo on my trusty iPhone:

Now, the funny thing about this slogan and design is that now I know about it, I am keen to notice it everywhere.  That’s the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon at work.  It is like buying a Dodge Neon, and then suddenly noticing Dodge Neons everywhere.

And of course, it’s sort of a Catch-22.  Now that I know about the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, I’ve been noticing examples of it in my own life, like my little story above.  My “Keep Calm and Carry On” instance happened only a week or two after I’d discovered Baader-Meinhof.  And I’d already been meaning to write about the phenomenon because I’m curious to see if once people are informed of it, it starts popping up into their lives as well.   So if you read this, I’m somewhat sorry, it’s like opening one of those vile chain letters that say you’ll now have to forward this to six people to kiss someone at midnight, et cetera… because the way the brain works, now that it has a label for it your brain will start to look for these Baader-Meinhof patterns whether you like it or not. I know mine certainly did. I’d like to hear about it if yours does too. 

The brain is an amazing machine.

(For even more info on the origin of the phrase: See Damn Interesting: The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon)

Anthony Stevens did a great job liveblogging the MindCamp experience.  If you’re confused about what being at an “unconference” is like, I’d highly recommend giving it a read through for the play by play.  This was my first unconference myself, and I had no clue what to expect.  I suspected awesomeness.  I was totally right.  This is what I’ve gathered: true to the bar-camp, foo-camp, word-camp, Word-Ignite-Bar-Camp-Camp-Camp-Camp-Palooza-PDX (no, really) format, all unconferences hold to the idea that a conference would probably be just as useful if the speakers were randomly selected from the group going to the conference.  It’s an intriguing model: get space, get food, get interesting people together, and see what happens.  These are motivated folk.  A lot happens.

MindCamp is a 24 hour event (no sleep for the elite), and a good chunk of that is scheduled out by the participants suggesting session ideas and then everyone voting on which sessions we wanted.  Every hour, a new 45 minute session would start, and there were generally about six to choose from.  The schedule looked like this:

It was difficult to choose, to say the least.  I usually had about two or three I wanted to hit.  I only skipped one hour of sessions to take a break and upload photos.  Many of the sessions I did go to can only be described as fascinating brain candy, a few memorable ones were “How to be a Flickr Ninja” (lead by Stewtopia, who took the photo below), “Nerdcraft” (lead by Beth Goza), “Human Tribes and Social Media” (by the Brian Dorsey), “Portals: Making your Life an Adventure Game” (lead by Leif Hanson), a group brainstorming session on “Location Based Services” and “Political Activism and Social Media” (lead by Kathy Gill).

I also went to a session lead by Mónica Guzmán and Jason Preston in which we decided to make a “Viral Video”.  Now, I realize one cannot create a viral video, you create a video and it either goes viral or not, but we tried to make a video that had aspects which might make it popular: short, funny, something people could identify with, etc.  I wish we could have made the sound a little better in parts, but Jason did an amazing job with editing what we had.  We brainstormed the ideas and shot all the scenes in about 45 minutes, so I’m pretty happy with what came out of it:

It was a really fun and informative use of 24 hours, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone with a geeky streak. I met a lot of kindred spirits, and got to spend some time with good friends as well. A big thank you to Synapse who hosted us in their amazing office space in downtown Seattle, and Andru Edwards for organizing.

Well, it’s the last ten minutes of my youth.  So long, youth.  :-)

Tomorrow I turn the page on a new quarter-century of life.  When I put it that way, it’s sort of serious sounding, but really it’s like any other tomorrow: the first day of the rest of my life.

The last twenty five years have been quite an interesting journey.  I’m thankful for all I’ve learned and everyone I’ve gotten to know along the way, and how you’ve each impacted my life.  The nice thing about the years passing by is that good friends only become more cherished with age, like a fine wine.  There is a bouquet of history that slowly and sweetly blossoms as the memories compile and mature.  I’ve found nothing more precious in life than to have positive and caring friends - I am so very lucky.

One nice thing about getting old with friends is knowing that no matter how crinkly we’ll all look in another 25 years, we’ll probably be still silly and joyful on the inside.  And at 75, we’ll probably all be cyborgs.  ;-)

I’d like to take a moment to celebrate a much more ridiculous milestone in my life: my recent travels have put me well over 10,000 photos on Flickr.  When I realized this day was coming up, I thought to myself, Self, you should do something special for that 10,000th photo and whoever is in it. So here’s the photo:

Not a particularly handsome shot of either of us, quite silly and sun burnt, but I think it does convey a lot of the fun I have with Megan, so it makes me smile inside and seems an apropos 10,000th picture.  Megan, what should we do to celebrate?  This calls for an excuse to have some adventure.

Sadly, 26 is the end of my highly-discounted subscriptions to the ACT theatre.  If you’re 25 or under (which, looking at the clock, I see now that I am not anymore) check out the many theatre discounts Seattle offers you while you can.  My other advice for you young’uns?  Well, I’m glad you asked, since I’m a little older (and therefore wiser) than I was at the beginning of this post, here’s 25 nuggets of wisdom I’ve unearthed over my many, many years:

1. Don’t turn the heat on in the house until you think you might freeze despite all the extra clothes you’re wearing.  You’ll acclimate to the climate, and end up saving a ton. You might however drive your roommate bonkers.
2. Speaking of which, save a ton.  Use compound interest to your advantage.  Buy only if you have cash on hand, unless a mortgage or education is involved.  Hiding hundreds in cash in a pencil case and forgetting it was there for several months is also an effective savings plan.
3. Ninjas > Pirates.
4. Only bother going to the theatre for movies that have big explosions, and when you do go, go to The Cinerama.  The rest can wait for watching at home.
5. Don’t bother with television, you really won’t be missing anything.
6. If you really want something, wait.  If it’s that great, you’ll still want it later.  If you forget it, no harm done.
7. Always assume that you can, and figure it out as you go.  Accept challenges as opportunities. Attitude defines your perception, which defines your reality.
8. Don’t bother keeping up with the Jonses.  Especially in the area of electronics or cars.
9. Start running if your little sister wants you to, even if you hate it at first.
10. Have a zombie escape plan… just in case.
11. Make time for family.
12. Even text messages deserve some consideration of proper grammar.
13. Keep a calendar.  Fill it up but don’t double book, it causes stress and hurt feelings.
14. Volunteer, and not always in the area of politics.
15. Set goals and learn to say no to other things.  Every moment has an opportunity cost.
16. Make sure you have a little fluffy pet companion to love you no matter how you’ve messed up that day.
17. Remember that a vodka soda with lime is only 75 calories.
18. Blog if you must, but for gosh sake, not about anything too personal.  The internet is forever.
19. Don’t put ghastly pictures of your friends online.  It’s just not nice.  And again, the internet is forever.
20. Don’t hit lawyers on bicycles with your roommate’s car.  It’s just a bad idea.
21. Having brawls with a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin in a river or a whole hive of bees in an old shack can make for excellent stories.  Most scary experiences do.
22. Surround yourself with positive people.  Preferably those who enjoy terrible puns and cheesy jokes.
23. Enjoy the rain.  There’s beauty in most everything if you look for it.
24. When crossing tracks while riding a bicycle, cross at exactly 90 degrees to the tracks.  Not 70.  Not 110. Exactly 90 degrees. Absolutely perpendicular.
25. Wear sunscreen (this piece of advice is for those outside of Seattle).

I’m sure I could think of more (as an officially old person) but now that I’m elderly I’ve obviously become long winded and I need to go to bed!

Goodnight, world, you crazy bunch of kids.  (Get off my lawn!)

Love,
Cassie

P.S.  It seems sort of quaint to sign one’s own blog, as if you did not know who wrote this, despite that my name is in the URL.  However, we sign email just the same, even though it’s obvious who the email is from.  I feel it’s somewhat endearing.

I realized how comically ridiculous I am tonight when I found myself having a hard time getting around to leveling-up my D&D character for various reasons, but mostly because my Version 4.0 Players’ Handbook is completely in PDF and my MacBook Pro battery died, and I’d stayed out too late to see John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton at Town Hall Seattle and find myself sleepy because I’m still living on UTC-6 time.  This is normal, right?  Normal people procrastinate in leveling up their Half-Elf Paladin because they’re too busy meeting the “I’m a PC” guy… right?

Sigh… I think I may have shifted from geek chic to just plain nerd.

I’m a PC.