I live in Los Angeles and would love to meet someone who I could get advice/motivation from in moving forward career wise. I've been in this business two and a half years but seem to be the only one at my company that gets excited like a kid at learning new programming technologies/concepts. The meetups in my neighborhood that I've attended tend to attract very new programmers so not a lot of learning there (although i really enjoy helping them out). Other than "co-workers" and "meetups" I'm not sure of the best place to search. Thanks!
May I recommend to you UUASC, the Unix Users Association of Southern California, check us out at <a href="http://www.uuasc.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.uuasc.org/</a> We've got a great mailing list, with programmers, sys admins, security types, newbies, greybeards, and really a lot of variety.<p>There are two chapters, LA and Orange County, and it's been around for a over a decade, maybe two. Really great group, I've learned a lot from the mailing list and the monthly meetings.<p>I'm based in Burbank myself if you'd like to meetup for lunch sometime.
Not sure it will help, but the local universities/colleges that have good programming departments might have faculty who could steer you in the right direction?