Libby meta reflection

_posts/2014-04-24-libbymeta.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+title: Libby's meta reflection
+author: libbby
+layout: post
+---
+
+# The Posts
+## 1. Wordpress Chapel Hill
+
+Hey all,
+
+I attended “Power Blogging with Word Press” at the Chapel Hill public library tonight. The advertisement I read described the event as being a workshop to learn about running a WP website, doing theme development (which is pretty much coding a series of HTML, CSS, and PHP templates), and using WP plugin software.
+
+The group, Word Press Chapel Hill, was a pretty friendly crew. Most of them were professionals who appeared to be at least in their 40’s.  About half were women, which I thought was great. Most people were seeking to build personal websites, but there were a few business people looking to create e-commerce sites, and there was even one woman whose employer had switched over her workplace’s website to WP without providing any training.
+
+I’ve been working on building a WP site for my web development class, so I went to this meet up thinking it would be helpful for that, because my PHP skills are severely lacking. As it turns out, however, we didn’t spend very much time talking about WP structure, templates, and coding... There were several attendees who got hung up on asking questions about the post editor, and why one should not copy and paste their blog content from a MS Word document directly to the post editor. I didn’t mind too much, but I was hoping to have time to talk about theme development (which is where all the coding is supposed to happen).
+
+I did learn about some cool open source software, however. For example, several attendees recommended PicMonkey for quick editing of images that need to be published for the web (I run GIMP on my Mac for image editing, but it does tend to make my computer slow down.)
+
+The group apparently puts on classes for different skill-level WP users, so I might attend another one to pick up some more useful WP info. It was a positive experience, all in all :)
+
+## 2. Triangle Python Users' Group
+
+I attended the Triangle Python Users Groups Project Night on Wednesday in Carrboro. The meetup was very informal; there were not even introductions (at least in the hour + that I was there).
+
+I was the only woman in the room, which was quite different from my first meetup.  One or two people talked about projects they were working on, but for the most part everybody worked independently on their laptops. I got some coding for my game project done, which was great.
+
+I was not exactly impressed by this group. The atmosphere was very uncomfortable for me, and when I tried to introduce myself to a few people eye contact wasn't really happening. I left after an hour and 15 minutes because I figured I could do the same coding at home, away from the awkward.
+
+The next meetup I'll be going to is a Code& Coffee with Girl Develop It, which I have heard great things about. I am looking forward to something very different from Wednesday night.
+
+## 3. Stacked
+
+Hi all,
+
+My third meetup was Full Steam with Stacked last Wednesday night, and it was in downtown Durham at the American Underground building. (There are two of them, and I went to the wrong one first -- whoops.)
+
+The meetup began with 30-40 minutes of just talking with neighbors and getting to know each other. I met some nice people before the speakers began their presentations, and we bonded over good pizza.
+
+The first speaker talked about the Law of Demeter and why programmers should follow it. The second speaker talked about Javascript build tools, which I didn't know existed. He reviewed three in particular - Grunt, Gulp, and Broccoli. I don't know if I'd ever have much use of build tools, but they certainly seem like a good option for developers that do a lot of repetitive work.
+
+Overall, I really enjoyed this meetup. I would recommend the group to others :)
+
+## My Experience
+I enjoyed Wordpress Chapel Hill and Stacked a lot. There were very friendly and diverse people in both groups. I learned some
+useful stuff in addition to meeting new people. It was worth a little driving to attend both meetups. 
+
+I can't say the same for the Python group, however... As I wrote in my post for that meetup, the group was
+very awkward to be in, and I only got mumbled one word answers from people I tried to talk to. I would not go 
+back for another meeting. I had heard good things about the group, and was pretty disappointed.
+Overall, I'm glad that I put myself out in the hacking community more this semester. It was pretty cool to talk to
+people about projects they are working on, and learn new skills.
+
+As I take more SILS classes in the coming semesters, I may keep an eye open for relevant meetups around the community.
+The Wordpress meetup helped me with my Web Development course (although I didn't think it would at the time, since we never got 
+into PHP (see post)). Also, being able to talk to more experienced people outside of a classroom setting is very useful.
+