Minor earthquake just now. Had to confirm with each other and http://quake.wr.usgs.gov that things really did move a bit, not just our collective imagination or that last glass of wine.
flashback: january
Geary St.
perhaps you've heard
Barry Bonds has had a busy couple of days.
beet/beat
The Fillmore farmer's market is the coolest one we've checked out yet. Live music every week, and the group playing this past weekend was *really* good. The blue thing you see in the guy's hand above - to the right of the starbucks - is a short horn (trumpet?)...
Gratuitous veg pix...
Its a smaller market, but you can find almost anything thats in season here, organic and "regular." Plus bread, flowers, etc. And they accept EBT. But, no dogs, sorry.
date night @ adobe
We spent part of Friday evening at <Flex Camp/>, a series of sessions about Flex (development tool), held at the Adobe office in SOMA.
SF and the bay area is teeming with awesome and often free tech resources. Yeah, I know this is probably obvious, given the proximity to Silicon Valley, but I'm still pretty dazzled by it. If you're interested in a particular application/software/technology, chances are you can find a lecture or conference or some sort of learning session, often led by the inventors/innovators of said technology. Or, you'll find you know someone who knows someone who knows the guy who invented the track-wheel on the ipod. Its pretty cool to learn about Flex from the people who spend their days developing it.
I was also amazed at how many people showed up on a Friday evening and stayed through the pizza and beer and beyond the intro session. As I mentioned to J., these events strike me as a potential swinging singles scene, though the demographics are still skewed favorably for the ladies.
not quite making history
Still a good way to spend part of an afternoon.
Along with many people, I have mixed feelings when hearing/reading about Barry Bonds' getting close to matching/breaking the home run record.
When I had a chance to go to the Giants/Braves game yesterday afternoon, though, I got kind of excited. Who could pass up the chance to witness history being made? Unfortunately, it was not to be. That's ok, I enjoyed my beer and peanuts. (And the rest of the game.)
wordcamp redux
This past weekend I surfed, drank a lot of coffee, and soaked in the wisdom and enthusiasm of presenters and fellow blogging-attendees of WordCamp! (Simultaneously!) WordCamp is a two-day conference for users and developers of the WordPress blogging application, featuring speakers on topics from usability to design to future WordPress developments. I'd been totally wound up and geeked out about this for several weeks.
There's nothing better on the internets than a good blog. I love the infinite potential of writing plus design plus obsession/occupation/expertise/free time. And the possibility that other people will think your finished product is worth their time. So after a spell of blog-envy, I finally set up my own. And immediately realized the amount of work required to make it appear effortless and at least slightly interesting. (I'm sure J is starting to tire of me constantly snapping photos "for the blog"). Lucky for me, W.C. came along at just the right time.
I really enjoyed the fact that everyone at the conference was approachable, 'experts' and 'civilians' alike, and was excited to talk about whatever they had going on. WordCamp confirmed what I'd suspected: people are doing very cool and interesting things. You like funny cat photos?
W.C. presented a ton of information over the two days, and I'll defer to others for an in-depth review. I highly recommend the sessions with John C. Dvorak and Om Malik, Matt Cutts, and Rashmi Sinha. And as it was a *bloggers* conference, I'd say stay tuned for slides/podcast/video to start turning up.
Meanwhile, I'll share with you the running list I kept of Things to Look Into. I tried to keep track of names/ideas that people mentioned during the course of the weekend's conversations, both on- and off-stage. Websites, applications, books, people etc. Will these improve my content/usability/stats? Check back in awhile and see if things are looking better/faster/sparkly-er.
Things To Look Into v1.0:
- Dan Gillmor on "Citizen Journalism" (Center for Citizen Media)
- Liz Strauss, successful blogging (successful-blog.com)
- Tumblelogs - "If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks." (tumblr.com)
- Informit - web development and design resource
- Google webmaster console (Matt Cutts!)
- SlideShare, for hosting and sharing slides and presentations. Definitely worth a look.
- Jamaes Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds
- Duncan Watts, Small World Project
- stumbleupon.com, "channel surf the internet"
- Guy Kawasaki (who didn't mention Guy Kawasaki)
vessel
NextAid.org fundraiser this eve @ Vessel.
Lounge: Beautiful interior, quite posh. Lots of comfy seating and interesting details to check out. WAY too dark in the most inconvenient places (bar/bathroom), causing squintiness and annoyance, remedied by cocktails chock full of bubbles and antioxidants. One bartender snarky, potentially too cool for school.
(Earlier photos removed after I realized they were too dark to make out anything.)
tuesday
holiday
happy 4th.
to google or not
A "leaked" internal email of an interview with a former-Google/current-Microsoft hire, featuring Mr. X's comparison of the company cultures: Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective
It didn't seem like particularly groundbreaking info, but I'm remembering Matt has filled us in on a lot of Google misc. Considering it from a freelancer's viewpoint, being completely "taken care of" certainly is attractive at first glance; obviously there's a downside too. Note to self: must remember "autonomy" was the point of recent career moves...
first sign of summer
Lunch with Bo in the Financial District today.
...70 degrees-ish in the open, low 60's in the shade. We're learning never to leave the house without a) sunglasses and b) a sweater, as temp and weather conditions vary from one extreme to the other depending on what side of the street you're on.
two pm
coffee break
dog happy hour
5-7 pm every day, Alta Vista park
wow, i can't believe it works
welcome to the blog. hopefully this thing will work.