New Epoch, New Exploits 😈

In other words, here are my big plans for this year.

epoch

noun |ˈepək|

• a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics: the Victorian epoch.

exploit

noun |ˈekˌsploit|

• a bold or daring feat: the most heroic and secretive exploits of the war. In other words, here are my big plans for this year.

  • Attend more conferences. - Attend more hackathons. - Graduate.

1. Attend more conferences.

It’s always hard trying to find out which conferences I can really afford to go to time or money-wise, but I realize every time I’ve gone to one, they’ve been just ridiculously helpful in terms of personal growth. So, naturally, I need to go to a lot more. I’m going to register for the big names this year like Google I/O and Apple’s WWDC.Also making sure to attend more Meetups would be ideal too. Which brings me back to the thought that it would be really handy if Meetup.com featured how many Meetups you’ve attended in a similar style to how GitHub tells you how many commits you’ve done over the past 12 months.

2. Attend more hackathons.

Okay, this is actually super easy. MLH has a ridiculously awesome site, so that I’m attacked by an army of possible hackathons to attend every time I visit. Also, the fact that I got accepted to TreeHacks was a big ego booster.

3. Graduate

**I MUST MOVE ON!!!***To a Master’s?*Well, that’s the plan anyways. As much as I’d like to just get to work right after I get my Bachelor’s, it’s not going to kill me to spend one or two more years trying to formally learn some more before I stop formally learning for a while. Also, there’s that tiny little problem, knowing myself, where I would never go back to get a Master’s probably if I went straight to work. Speaking of school, I’m also hoping to get the local college clubs more involved with hackathons/meetups and the like.

Short Term Plans

• Tomorrow**- resume work for 80|20 (yay!) - Jan 18**- talk about JS Coding Bootcamps as a speaker for the NorfolkJS Meetup group - Jan 29 to 31- HoyaHacks at Georgetown University - Feb 4 to 5- mentor for DE Hackathon at you guessed it, DE - Feb 5 to 7- HopHacks at John Hopkins (maybe) - Feb 12 to 14- TreeHacks at Stanford (omgg) - Feb 15 to 17- volunteer at DeveloperWeek in San Francisco - Feb 22 to 23- attend React.js Conf in San Francisco - April 9- attend inNOVAtion hackathon as a speaker in Virginia - Apr 11- VSGC Research Conference in Hampton - Apr 15 to 29- finals - May 8- graduation commencement (finally!) - May 13- volunteer with RevolutionConf in Virginia - June 6- start internship for Accenture at their San Jose Tech Labs - Sept 14 to 17- attend the TAPIA conference in Austin (hopefully)

Long Term Plans

• Figure out what I want to specialize in - Contribute to the 80|20 team in a big way Cause it’s my job and it’s pretty awesome. No, but seriously, it’s my first real job so I’m trying to set some high expectations for myself here.

• Get over my long term obsession with Maurice Moss