Stephen Witherden’s Website :: Work :: Hard work & Recognition

I’ve been particularly busy lately with a number of projects on the boil. It means I don’t have as much time as I’d like to devote to friends, family or my blog. That said, it also means I am being quite productive. Maybe it has something to do with the free freshly-ground coffee we now have access to at work *jitters*. I guess it’s quite telling that it’s 1am at the moment and I am still thinking of things I’d like to do before going to sleep. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am on the board for my church, which is admittedly not an enormous commitment, but it recognises my ongoing commitment to that community. I am also supervising some final-year students on their projects with industry (INFOSYS.342). This means I have a number of meetings outside of my usual work duties and so I have to make up extra work after hours. That’s going quite well, I have to say. It’s rewarding to see them make such a great improvement in such a short period of time. The picture in this post is of me making a fool of myself for the students’ benefit. I love my life.

I have also enrolled into a course for an organisation called “outline”. Outline and Lifeline are both hotlines that people can call for help with issues in their lives (depression, suicide, stress etc). Outline is targeted at gay people. I am thinking of joining both but I am going to outline training first because it fit in better with my other commitments. I had a weekend’s worth of training on the 12/13 April and this coming weekend (3 & 4 May). I will let you know how that turns out. I am quite excited to be honest.

At work, I have been given the rather auspicious title of “Associate” Senior Software Developer. It’s nothing but a fancy sounding title and the opportunity to buy even more shares, but it certainly is nice to get recognition for a heck of a lot of hard graft, even if it’s just in a word.

Finally, the most unexpected recognition came in the form of a semi-anonymous message sent via Flickr. It turns out that National Geographic Traveler magazine wants to use one of my photos in their magazine (see left), and have offered me what I would consider a substantial amount of money for the privilege. Now, when you’re engaged in a creative pursuit, the mere thought that someone might see your work and like it gives you warm fuzzies. The thought that someone might then pay you for it and distribute it to thousands of other people with your name on it is enough to send you into a catatonic state.