What's up with me: the digest version

If you've been following me on Twitter, you know a lot's been going on with me right now. Let me break it down for you.

• I'll be working on a new contract with a company that does monitoring and logistics software for the beer industry. I'm excited - they seem like a dynamic, small company where I can sink my teeth into some serious programming. While they're Java-based, I'm really hoping to introduce them to the power of Ruby, since I think Rails could help them keep their web interface more flexible and help them organize their business logic better.
• I'm helping Jim with a rewrite of CISV's website, focusing initially on integrating PayPal. It's fun to work on something like this where we're both using rSpec from the ground up to drive development.
• I've restarted the threadspinner project I've had for a while, but I'm taking a new tack on it. I've been thinking about this idea for about two years, and I've always found my ideas about implementing it clunky - until now. In the next week or so I should be pushing an initial version to github. The first release will be specifically geared towards replacing Wordpress+Feedwordpress on leftlibertarian.org, just because I'd like some software that can mashup discussions, bookmarking, and blogging more tightly than plugins for a blog platform can.
• Last week I met up with my friend and RLLA partner Brady and Keith Preston of attackthesystem.com, and we had a good time drinking beer and discussing the ways in which local, issue-based coalitions can be formed. There's a lot more to be said about what we discussed, and I hope to write something up soon, if I get the time.
• A week ago I also attended the RVA blogging meeting and met some of my fellow Richmond bloggers. That was cool, although the community seems to be a lot tighter than I expected - it was like everybody knew each other from high school, and then there was me: the wierd radical dude. Which is fine, except I drank on an empty stomach and almost knocked over the table. Style Weekly was there and I talked with them at length about the RLLA, though their article focused less on the serious things we were doing and more on the "aw, shucks - aren't they cute" aspect of blogging.
• Finally, last week I attended refresh:richmond, the web design user group. The meeting was geared towards allowing different area user groups to introduce themselves, and CVREG gave a short presentation. There's a lot going on for geeks in Richmond, and I'm especially interested in the user experience group.

What does the future hold? Who knows. I have some topics that I want to flesh out, most vitally a critique of natural rights philosophy. I also want to focus more on a form of libertarianism that looks inward, rather than outward, for validation. Ideas seem to coalesce into prose on an irregular schedule, though, and right now I'm pretty damn busy with my new work. I'll try to stay on top of things here, though.