The Canberra Ruby Crew and getting involved

Last Friday night we ran the inaugural CRC (Canberra Ruby Crew) meeting. It was a good time; we ate, wrote some code, debugged some code and played some Guitar Hero. There were just three of us in attendance, but there should be at least five for the next month’s meeting.

I’ve been to a couple of Rails nights in Adelaide before I moved here, but this meet left my truly inspired. I put this down firstly to the setting that allowed us to dig our heels into some code, and also the news, energy and wider perspective of the Rails scene that Matt brought from his involvement in the large and active Sydney community. I’ll be definitely visiting their next gathering.

This brings me to my plans for 2008. I’ve been meaning to write for some time about what I plan to achieve this year, and I will start with a themeword, a notion I picked up in a post from Chris Messina.

My themeword for 2008 is involvement. I wrote in my notebook recently that I want to:

Give myself fully to what I am doing at any time, without worrying or getting distracted by the other components of my life.

So this year I plan to get involved in a number of ways: dive fully into my hacking, web projects and Tagalog study, and allow myself to completely unwind when I take myself away from these.

I will also get involved in the community in a way I have never done before. Until now, I haven’t fully engaged in local web and tech communities, forsaking this involvement largely to pursue volleyball ambitions. This year, however, I want to involve myself in and contribute to these communities. Last week’s CRC meeting has already shown me how rewarding this activity is. I’m looking forward to a fruitful and productive year!

Oh, and I must also buy Guitar Hero.