I have returned from my second year at Burning Man. It was a much needed escape for me considering how many things I have going on right now. Recap and pictures to come!

via FreelanceSwitch by N.C. Winters

I have a lot of things going on right now so I thought it might be a good time to get it all out in writing, for my own sake as well as to share it with all of you.

Now that I’ve graduated, here are the different areas of my world:

Twelve Horses

I’m still working on Salesforce.com projects at Twelve Horses and taking on a few projects with a project management role.

Social Network Project

I can’t name names right now but I have been hired by a social network startup in San Francisco as a contractor to do two things. The first is to take their existing website and social network framework, originally built on Ruby on Rails, and move it to WordPress MU with BuddyPress. The second is to implement a full redesign that they have already had commissioned by another designer.

Their current site is far from being user friendly so I’m excited to be working on the project as it mixes information architecture, interaction design, and my platform of choice, WordPress. Their goal is to be a content provider with many of the elements you would find on a social network. In fact, because of this, instead of competing with other social networks like Facebook, users will actually be able to sign up for a profile using their existing Facebook profile using the Facebook Connect technology.

Random Projects

I just got done acting as a technical editor for a book on developing with the Force.com platform. It was pretty cool to offer insights and feedback on the author’s manuscript as well as providing validation on the concepts and code examples that were covered.

Reno Collective

My biggest endeavor for the last year has been Reno Collective. If you don’t already know what it is, check the website. There have been a few ups and downs and we have certainly learned alot. Ed and I went and visited quite a few coworking spaces when were were in California during the San Francisco WordCamp. Jeremy over at NextSpace in Santa Cruz hooked us up with the inside perspective.

The LLC is in place and everything is on track to open. Our efforts are now being poured into finding a building that fits all of our magic numbers to make the space work and thrive as the community grows. We have a benefit show down at The Amendment 21, featuring a hip-hop and burlesque show that we’ve called Beauties & Beats.

Events to bring people together

In the process of promoting Reno Collective, we started to see a need for social (and yes, often geeky) events in Reno. From this need spawned Ignite Reno, Reno-Tahoe WordCamp and what will soon be a Reno WordPress User Group. WordCamp turned out great and we will definitely be putting on another one next year. The first Ignite Reno was also great success and the second Ignite Reno is quickly approaching this month on July 16th.

Future events that we have in the works are FreelanceCamp Reno and LaidOff Camp Reno. Dates, locations and more details are still being worked out but these events will focus on bringing freelancers together to learn from one another and helping locals who have been laid off from their jobs to get back into the job market by working smarter instead of harder, essentially hacking the job process.

My ‘Infinite’ Amount of Spare Time

Yes, there is and will always be, spare time. I like to work hard and play hard. I just completed the Tour De Nez as my first century bike ride. I’m prepping for Burning Man at the end of the summer with the camp that Ed is putting together, The Black Rock Center for Unlearning. I am still not 100% sure I will be going out to the playa this year as I also have my eye on heading over the England and Switzerland for the first time but I am pitching in where I can to help prepare. Now that it is summer time, I also look forward to many visits up to Lake Tahoe (geocaching, perhaps?), rafting down the Truckee River and getting in hundreds (thousands?) of miles on the road bike.

It’s easy to have a lot of meetings without any thought to money and the cost associated with that time. This was a link shared by Lance Ennen in an O’Reilly Webinar, “Radical Career Success in a Down Economy.”

Meeting Cost Ticker

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

- Douglas Adams

Everyone wants to love and be loved. That special person breaks us out of our day-to-day routine, makes each day brighter and the very thought of them brings a smile to our face.

“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the senses.”
- Lao Tzu

[via SwissMiss]

I was curious to take a look at my Twitter usage over time and found TweetStats, which provides graphs on usage by month, day, time of day, popular keywords, etc. Clearly, my usage (or addiction) of Twitter has steadily grown over time. I’d be curious to see how this has grown in relation to the number of followers and individuals I’m following. I’m pretty sure I’d see a fairly positive correlation between the two. Click on the graph below to see more stats.

Compiled and graphed by TweetStats

My Most Popular Tags

Created using Wordle

Audi: “Your move, BMW”

BMW: “Checkmate”

Original source unknown. Found via @dschach on Twitter

“You take the blue pill and the story ends.
You wake in your bed and you believe
whatever you want to believe.

You take the red pill and you stay
in Wonderland, and I show you how
deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

- Morpheus