My tenure at PayPal was a great learning experience; I’ll never forget my time there, nor the good friends I made. I also managed to learn a few things while “catching up on life” in the few weeks between gigs. Here are some questions folks have been asking me, with answers:

Q: Are you moving back to the east coast?

A: Nope, I’m still based in the Pacific Northwest, but I will likely be out Boston-way somewhat more often. As for other appearances, you’ll definitely be able to find me at Forrester’s IT Forum 2011 in May, and I’ll be figuring out the situation with other events shortly.

Q: Will you continue to blog here?

A: Yes, though the mix of topics will likely change, as I’ll be contributing industry-related posts to the Forrester blog. I’ll post pointers to those here, and my hope is to step up my writing activity on other topics of interest at Pushing String. And I hope you’ll continue to follow my doings at @xmlgrrl (where the #forrester tag will likely make lots of appearances).

Q: What about User-Managed Access and other innovation-oriented work?

A: The plan is for me to continue in my role as “chief UMAnitarian” and to participate in certain other tech leadership activities as time allows. In the last couple of months we’ve gotten a big influx of active UMA contributors, and we’ve had a burst of progress in the last few weeks on defining how to loosely couple “user-centric” policy enforcement points and policy decision points. So I think we’re well on our way to meeting the goals and timing stated in our charter.

Q: So what did you do on your winter vacation?

A: One of my goals was to “learn one big thing”, so I started learning how to play guitar, under the tutelage of my dear old friend Rich. My original use cases were around communicating better with my Mud Junket bandmates who are actual guitarists, but Rich doesn’t fool around: I have to learn good technique and not take any shortcuts. Luckily, the fret-hand callus crop has finally started to come in.

I also read a great book called The Talent Code, which describes what goes on neurologically in people who seem like once-in-a-lifetime geniuses, and discusses how any skill (like guitar-playing!) can be honed more rapidly through “deep practice” that stimulates myelin growth.

With all this plus a healthy dose of R&R, it feels like I’m learning how to learn all over again.

This year I’ve got a great chance to fix the situation. I met Chris Pirillo and his lovely wife Ponzi through Eli, and after a couple of fun evenings where I blabbed excitedly about Vendor Relationship Management and he blabbed excitedly about a project that was soon to become his WicketPixie social-media WordPress theme (it would be interesting to “VRM-enable” this theme, yes??), they were kind enough to invite me to speak this year. I’m looking forward to introducing VRM concepts to this audience and getting some discussion going on how to improve the customer-vendor nexus.

If you can be in Seattle August 21-23, I hope you’ll register and join the fun.

So yeah, it’s spam. And they’re not going to get a ticket sale out of me anyway. But cool poster, huh?

I had seen the Space Invaders project video before, but only came across the others today. Back in the day, I played Tetris so much that I could close my eyes and play whole simulated games behind my eyelids. (Actually, I had no choice — it would happen unbidden.) I had an original Tengen version on my beloved NES and can still hum the Russian-y theme songs annoyingly on command.

And when my band indulges in some 12-bar blues jamming, I’ve been known to slip in the Moon Patrol theme. Ahem. Maybe that was TMI. But if you happen to be in Seattle on March 22nd and come see us play, feel free to request it…

Even though I was running on fumes when we did the recording (I give a hint as to why in the final minute or two…), I think we managed to put together some good, easily digestible information about standards that complements the new Government Computer News SAML cover story pretty well. If you found me here at Pushing String by reading that article and hunting for more info, I definitely recommend the podcast to you.

And now, here’s my chance to attempt the blog equivalent of a triple gainer: In the podcast I talk a tiny bit about my band. Recently we headed into the studio to record a demo CD (a blast and a half, and something that helped out a good cause). And what did I do while hanging out in the control room between takes? Domino knitting. Oh, yeah.

Fearless leader John in the studio’s control room (see related Flickr set here)

We got to talking about CD purchases and why you’d want to buy a CD nowadays, and the one I recommended was Eva Cassidy’s Eva by Heart; don’t miss it, or her Live at Blues Alley either, if you’re into female vocals that range from blues to jazz to folk to pop. She was truly amazing.

To learn about my main contribution to the festivities, click to enlarge this all-important “Venn of identity parodies” diagram. (Who do I think I am — Paul Madsen?)

Here are the lyrics to the related ditty I performed, with apologies to Maria Muldaur (and the fine folks at OASIS!).

Midnight at the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
(original lyrics here)

Midnight at OASIS
Send your SAML to bed
Touching all of the bases
Graces schedules up ahead
Madsen‘s working the website
Formatting’s gone bust
Let’s just separate MAY, SHOULD,
SHALL NOT, RECOMMEND, and MUST

Come on, Kavi is our friend
It’ll upload the spec
Come on till the ballot ends
Till the ballot ends
You don’t have to answer
You can just abstain
Mary‘s tally keeper
Deeper, to get us through the week

Gerry Beuchelt has already blogged another tune he and I warbled.

One last goodie: Click on the slide below to see a “singing presentation” that Gerry, Paul Bryan, and I prepared, with apologies to Dick Hardt…

Tag: iiw2007

Dave Kearns wrote this week about a great Rainbow Connection parody by Wook Lee, setting the tone nicely for IIW hijinks. If anyone would like to perform this work at the un-talent show, you’ll find a very receptive audience (and probably a lot of recording devices).

Don’t forget that going to live music performances also has an anti-aging medicinal effect. If you’re in the Seattle area next weekend, come on down for a draught or two…

In this movie Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé Knowles both rise to the rank of Goddess. Do not miss it.