Women in tech for the win!

Something amazing happened December.

Fresh from the excitement of BarCamp Manchester, I met with two lovely ladies, Kelley Muir and Bethany Ross, for coffee at Cafe la Reine to discuss how we can support current and future women in tech right here in Manchester. 

Bethany had already kicked off a group, Future Tech Women, that is mentoring college women at UNH. Kelley and I chatted at BarCamp, as she was interested in fostering interest in younger students and I was hopeful to get a regular meeting for women currently working in technology. 

We decided to join forces (and resources) to work on making it all happen. 

Our working mission statement is that we're aimed at creating and supporting an inclusive community that encourages women and girls in STEM-related fields. Boo-ya! Well, all but that last bit. 

I'm happy to report that the Women in Tech Hangout had its inaugural meeting on Tuesday December 10. Dyn was gracious enough to provide space as approximately 12-15 of us chatted about what technology means to us. 

So, it's official! The Women in Tech Hangout now meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month from 6:30-8pm at Dyn in Manchester, NH. Hope to see you there!


Join us for the January meeting on Tuesday January 29th at 6:30pm. 

Yet another TARDIS

Can one really have too many? Probably not. For those who don't know, my husband built a full-size TARDIS, in front of which we pledged our love.

Then it was smushed by the tree that fell on our house with the Snowicane of 2010. No worries. We'll rebuild one of these days. 

So it should be no surprise that I decided our kitchen needed its own Van Gogh-esque exploding TARDIS painting. I mean really, as a Whovian, how can you not have one? 

So armed with a day off, I created one. As an accent wall. 

The wall was already a pale yellow, so I reversed engineered it to take advantage. I free-handed the outlines onto the wall first using an image in the web as a reference. I did use wall paint by using those nifty wall paint samples you can buy. All told the project was about $20. 

I am not an artist. But I did this and so can you. Start eyeing your own walls and go create your own amazing.

Special thanks to my friend, Bobby, for reminding me that I originally had this idea back in the spring when I was painting the cabinets that beautiful blue. I had completely forgotten I wanted to do this. 

They're here!

Wednesday night, I came home late from day 1 of a two-day off-site work meeting.

I can home with my masterpiece from a fun bonding activity at Muse Paintbar

and this is what I found waiting for me

added bonus from my husband!

A Tech Conference in Manchester? Of course!

• 9:30 am - the board was full of ideas
• 1 pm - the great airplane challenge had found a winner 
• 4 pm - we were full of ideas, a bit tired but wished everyday could be Barcamp 

On Saturday November 9, Barcamp Manchester hosted its 7th annual conference. The folks at Dyn HQ were gracious enough to let the conference use its beatiful space so local technology folks could come and share ideas, unconference-style. 

It was my second Barcamp and feeling more comfortable I chatted with lots of folks: developers, makers, product owners, designers, gamers, etc. I attended sessions on Arduino/Raspberry Pi (for my upcoming Makers in Manchester project), Easter Eggs, Women in Tech (local edition) and Sketchnote. Not surprisingly, I've come away excited about potential projects.

Thanks so much to the Barcamp volunteers, sponsors and attendees for a great conference.

The last word

The Hippo's cover story this week was about the NH comics scene; local artists, local shops, cosplay and the like. While it was being researched, I was contacted as I organize the local women's comic discussion group, the League of Extraordinary Gentlewomen.

Thursday morning, I picked up a copy to check it out. It was great to see Double Midnight Comics sharing their thoughts, along with local featured artists, Jerry Fleming and League member, Emily Drouin.

And yes, not one but two shout-outs for the League monthly meeting. That's the second Thursday of the month for those of you who might be interested.

But the thing that tickled me most? A quote from me ends the story. Silly, I know, but as the mom of a teenager, getting the last word doesn't happen often.

So, be kind and let me revel in it for a teensy bit.

NH Game Jam

Back in May, I decided to make a brand-new game with 2 strangers in 36 hours. Crazy, you say? Just a tad. The inaugural NH Game Jam sounded like a good idea and if not, at least a lot of fun. Even WMUR stopped by for a visit.

I work in software but not a start-up. That means some late nights or early mornings, but I have yet needed to work an all-nighter. And for that, I am very grateful. But even someone who loves sleep can get a bit jealous over tales of Hackathons or a least a bit curious.


So I signed up. 

The first night we were informed of the theme, the number 13. The video game designers can prepared with teams, but the board game folks draw names from a hat to determine with who we would be spending our next 36 hours. That's when I met Tony and Charles and got to work.

Through the night and day and the next night, we crafted what we thought was a quick, fun monster mash-up game. There are several kinds of monsters such as Bogzilla, Giant Ants, Werewolves and Dragons. It was important to us that it be playable by all ages. 

In the end, we wished we had more time and possibly a little more sleep. None of the folks on my team had ever designed a game before and I have to say I'm proud at what we were able to pull off. Also, a sweet touch was that all three of us hand drew the cards for our play-test deck. 

Although it had it's quirks, I think the first NH Game Jam was great. There are a few logistical tweaks, such as a more formal time for everyone to play test each other's games, to work through, but that's just first time event detail work. 

As for me, I'm hoping another one's somewhere on the horizon, now that I've had a chance to catch up on my rest. 

Cosplaying Strong Women Characters

One of my ideas of fun is to challenge myself with costume-making ideas and see how well (or not-so-well) I can execute them. Thankfully, I'm surrounded by creative types, including my Makers in Manchester group. I live in a place that holds events to dress-up for, thanks to my local comic shop Double Midnight Comics. 

Recently for Free Comic Book Day, I dressed as Antonelle "Toni" Chu from an obscure-but-awesome comic called Chew. Toni is a smart, loyal, funny and amazing female character. And she wears normal clothes. No tiny bikinis or princess ballgowns. Just a NASA t-shirt and some capris. 

And quite honestly, it was refreshing. 

Oh don't you worry that this is some judge-y feminist, political, insert-your-activism-here piece. Un uh. No way. Move along, nothing here to see. I've done fitted costumes (love my Wonder Woman so much it's my Twitter pic) and beautiful gowns (see my beautiful Firefly wedding dress) but to be representing a kick-butt female who wears clothes? Somewhat priceless. 

Kinda of neat to live in a world where we can dress up like inspiring real women or those characters who inspire us. 

Dive Out of Your Comfort Zone

Every once in awhile, I push my own boundaries. This time round, I decided to try my hand at writing flash fiction. Oh and read it in front of strangers at the Manchester regional event held by the NH Writer’s Project.

Manchester regional winner Robin Small

I’m not a writer. I’d never written flash fiction. That is unless you count the myriad of tweets I send out into the social media world. Yes, yes, I know, tweets would be micro fiction. 

Reading my piece aloud. At a standing microphone. In front of 30 or so people. Terrifying.

As in hands shaking holding my story in front of me to read.

As in so nervous I didn’t look up from my paper until at least halfway through.

But I survived. 


I did sneak a peek at the audience’s reacting to the details in my story where I wanted them to react. I met wonderful people, writers and first-timers like myself. I got to support a fabulous event in my own backyard. 

For inquiring minds, I may not have won, but I was the runner up.

Manchester is full of stretch-your-comfort zone events, like learning how to fire spin, aerial yoga, creating games hackathon, reading slam poetry and more.

Get out there and dive.  

This past weekend, I attended my second PAX East.

I spent a lot of time trying new tabletop games in the Demo area and hanging out in Indie Games. I have friends with massive game collections so I can try games easier than most, but picking and choosing randomness that even they might not have/want, is priceless.

Shouts out to all the people who played games like Shadowfist, HexHex, Legend of the Cipher, Food Fight, Lords of Waterdeep and that cool magnet game with me.You all helped rock my PAX! None of that girls drool and fake geek girl nonsense here.

I do have to get better on the “let’s play more games” together bit though. Seriously.

Surprise surprise that the support-local-support-small-business girl loved Indie Games. I am especially in love with Color Sheep. I heart Woolson the sheep. He is now one of my desktop backgrounds. Oh and a non-digital indie note, I picked up Freemarket. That game was created for me. I may have thrown my hands in the air and shouted “YES!” as it was described for me. Post-apocalypse, sci-fi, non-killing ‘cause everyone’s mostly immortal RPG? Bring it on! Ridiculously excited about this game. If only I could pull myself away from that damn sheep.  

I didn’t move around the con much this year, no panels, no concerts, no classic console gaming, etc. So on the whole, my experience seemed a little disjointed or maybe unbalanced. I’m still trying to figure it out. But I have a theory and why yes, it does revolve back to that good ole Consumer vs. Producer balance. So glad you noticed.

Maybe I’m spoiled.

PAX isn’t the only convention I attend. Don’t be too jealous, I started my con going late in life. Well late-ish since I was at the tail end of my twenties. I make the rounds to sci-fi conventions, comic-cons and this year, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) which was held in Boston. At those, I always find something that inspires me to create something or explore ideas, such as writing that short story idea I’ve been noodling, reading a new books or trying new costuming elements.

I’m not sure that attending panels or the QAs or more concerts would help this sinking feeling. I could be wrong, and feel free to point it out to me, but those seem to boost and foster that sense of community.  I definitely dig the “people here get me” community that happens at cons. That in and of itself is a big part of why I attend. But it’s not my sole purpose for going.

Of course, again,  I’m might be spoiled.

At home with I have a solid circle of friends is just as geeky and creative as me. Granted it isn’t 24/7, but anytime I want to hold a Grill Friday or attend a Games by PlayDate event or shout out on Twitter, they’re there.

None of this will prevent me from attending more PAXs, on the contrary I’ll keep going, having fun and exploring. I guess this is my own personal Dead Dog party back into the introspection of post-con reality.