Driving lessons redux

Today I learned to drive again. I’ve had my full G licence for a while now, but today I felt like I was starting over again when I learned to drive a standard.

I’ve only been out twice before. The first time I didn’t really understand how the gears worked, so I really just followed instructions about when to do what. The second time was during a snow/ice storm without ABS and in evening traffic. Luckily that time the lights were in my favour and I only had to stop twice before handing the keys back.

Today I went out with a very brave Will Spaetzel and finally drove for real!

Once I got the hang of getting started, my biggest problem was overshooting the gears. As scary as this was when the car screamed in pain when I tried to downshift from 5th to 4th and ended up in 2nd, it’s a manageable problem – much more than not knowing what to do at all.

Some things I learned:

• Trying to start from 3rd makes starting from 1st easy
• Driving with the parking brake on makes driving with it off easy
• Shifting into 1st while moving makes a very scary sound as does shifting into 2nd at 70km/h
• Going up a hill at 50km/hr in 5th is not a good idea

Things to work on:

• Finding that sweet spot so I can start quickly
• Transitioning from 1st to 2nd
• Starting on a hill
• Parking
• Dealing with un-ideal weather conditions
• Downshifting for hills/passing

Some of those things I’ll be able to work on myself, others I’ll wait until I can get someone more experienced in the car (particularly the hill start). But I think as long as I make sure I’m careful not to accidentally end up in an area above my skill level, I should be able to practice on my own.

Huge thanks to Will Spaetzel who I now owe plenty of beer as soon as I can drive myself to #KWSMM

Inertia is a property of Karolijn

Just finished my last day of my coop term! Now I have a week off and then am back to school. What will I do with myself for a whole week?

Thinking about a project I’ve totally dropped the ball on twice now. I may take this week to do it. Even if it’s of no value now, I feel like I need to do it to get it off my conscience.

This was my very first real development job after switching from Communications to Programming. I’ve been affirmed that I’ve made the right choice.

A lot of the time I felt like I was in over my head. But I’m confident that none of it is out my reach, just out of my current experience. It’s a good feeling.

I look at things I can’t do much differently now that I know what I want to be able to do.

This summer is going to be strange. In school but living on my own for a lot of the time since moving to London. It will be good for me, but a little scary. Hoping to develop some newborn friendships, and maybe create a few more.

It’s so easy to just let inertia let me do nothing. It’s hard to convince myself to get out of the house, but I never regret it when I do. Must remember that.

Podcamp London!

Podcamp London was this weekend.

I’ve been looking forward to this event for a while. It was the first of its type in London and it was a fantastic opportunity meet people, talk with people I already knew, and think about ideas and stuff.

I also got a wordpress temporary tattoo…things that make you go wtf?

One session in particular that resonated with me was Rewiring the Homosapiens with James Shelley

Once the whirlwind of the weekend is over I hope to take some time to write a real post about some of the questions I think came out of that discussion.

There was also a lot of discussion about Twitter and I came to the conclusion that I love Twitter for the same reasons I’ve always had a soft spot for LiveJournal. Despite their drastically different images, the fundamental way users connect and interact is strikingly similar. I might explore that later too…

The day went a bit long I think – after telling 3 people they sucked for leaving early, I went into a session only to come out 15 minutes later to learn the suck was contageous. There was a mass exodus in those 15 minutes and the thunderstom was rolling in. What a sudden change in atmosphere inside and out.

A number of people ended up coming back for the afterparty which was great. Spent a long time talking to Will Spaetzel of Castroller.com about potential future events in London and I’m excited to see what might become of that. I’d love to help out with bringing another event with the same spirit to London.

I Still feel like I’m still in way over my head with people that are so much more experienced and knowledgable about this stuff. But I’d rather be the least experienced/skilled person in the room than the most.

Here are some pictures taken by Jason Fredin who was nice enough to respect my aversion to the camera and got a decent shot anyway.

The rest on Flickr