Nick and Melody's Blog
One RDU Expert….coming right up
Mar 9th
Other than getting to travel to Australia every few years, I really don’t get to fly anywhere. Melody and I drive to most of our vacations….which are very few and far between.
But in the next 6 months, I’ll become an RDU (Raleigh Durham International Airport) expert. Here’s my schedule:
April 5-7: Google Customer Summit (Mountain View, California)
Flying out of RDU in the morning on the Monday, arriving in San Francisco that afternoon (3 hour time difference). Then getting up the next morning, and spending all day at the Googleplex, talking with the Google Apps for Education team, and getting a tour of their facility. I’ll fly home that night, leaving San Francisco around 10:30pm, and arriving in Raleigh at 10am the next day. Connecting flights in Atlanta both ways will lengthen the trip a little. More on this trip later. I’m really looking forward to it. Scratch that. I’m REALLY looking forward to it.
April 17-22: DrupalCon (San Francisco, California)
Much like the Google trip, I’ll fly out on the Sunday, arriving in enough time to get to the hotel in daylight. I’ll then spend the next 3 days at DrupalCon, flying back on the red eye, and arriving back in Raleigh the next morning. Again…there’ll be a blog post about this conference when the time gets closer. I’m really looking forward to this one too…just not as much as my favorite Google 
Early May: Las Vegas, Nevada
Bachelor party for my friend Thomas who lives in Seattle. We’re all converging on Vegas for a weekend, and then recovering for a few months before heading to…
September 10: Seattle, Washington
….Thomas and Natalie’s wedding. This should be a blast, and I’ll get to see another city I’ve never been before.
So….I’m going to be an RDU expert by the end of this year…maybe for one of the trips I’ll try checking in blindfolded or something, just to break up the monotony.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Where the frick did all this come from!
Mar 8th
This afternoon, I continued to examine and test the tech-equipment I have accumulated over the years. And…yeah……where the frick did all this come from? A lot came from personal purchases that were eventually replaced…and then i didnt get rid of the old stuff. But a lot also came from friends, colleagues, and off-lease equipment that we sold at Lees-McRae. IE: the stuff that we bought from the leasing company at the end of the lease period, and then sold off to faculty and staff for pennies on the dollar.
I guess it’s official ( not like it wasn’t before), but i am a tech-pack-rat. I just can’t seem to let stuff go. It might be broken…it might never be worth keeping, but i’ll keep it “just in case.” I find myself saying that a lot when it comes to getting rid of old technology….i mean…WHAT IF i some day wanted to have 3 machines connected to each other and my television and my alarm clock so they can all play the same song to wake me up? I mean…i probably have the equipment to do that.
I have made the decision though….once this stuff is out of the house, i won’t be letting it happen again. I think it might have something to do with my new iMac being so clean, and the fact that my whole digital life can exist on one iMac and two external hard drives. I don’t need several other networked computers to back the files up to, because i have 3 terabytes of storage sitting on my desk that are doing automated redundant backups for me.
So…..i’m turning over a new leaf. No more old technology, unless i plan on using it within the next month. It will be much like my closet. When i wear clothes, and then wash and return them to the closet, i put them in the middle of the two racks. Then, over time, the clothes that are left on the ends of the racks are explicitly the ones i never wear. This makes it easy to get rid of them when the time comes. I just look at the end, and even if i love the clothes, i know i haven’t worn them in months, so they have to go. I think i might be able to do the same thing with the tech equipment, but on a smaller scale. Once i am down to my main office machine, melody’s yet to be built office machine, and the computers connected to the televisions in the house (2), that will be all.
Still seems like a lot, but compared to what there is now….it’s not. trust me
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Goals Update & New Goals for March 8-14th, 2010
Mar 7th
Goals for March 1st-7th 2010
- Starting Weight = 229.7. End Weight = 226.
- 50 push-ups each morning and night. 100 sit ups at night.
- 2.5 mile (minimum) run on 4 days this week
- Finish two computers for media centers (Boxee)
- Sell Toshiba Laptop
- Decide on another balance transfer card to apply for
- Finish unboxing books & office stuff for the new shelves
Goals for March 2010
- Lose 7-8 pounds and keep it off. End weight = 222 pounds
- 50 push-ups each morning & night. 100 sit ups at night
- 2.5 mile (minimum) run on 4 days every week (10 miles per week minimum)
- Have all spare computers inventoried and ready for sale (and sell some if possible)
- Have all, or as much as possible debt consolidated onto a balance transferred card, so we’re paying lower interest/lower monthly payments starting in April.
—–
This week was a total failure for the list of goals. The only one that was accomplished was selling the Toshiba laptop, and we decided on another card to apply for. We didn’t apply for another card, we just decided on one. The events of early in the week seemed to put me off my game. I got off the pushup regimen, and running took a back seat too. Technology conspired to prevent me from getting the two computers ready, for no apparent reason.
But…the wierdest thing is that i still lost weight. Only 1.4 pounds, but i’m down at 228.4 pounds now. Don’t know how that happened, because i ate out too much for lunch this week (cos we didnt go grocery shopping), and i didnt run as much as i should have. But…at least it’s still a downward trend.
So…this week is going to be interesting. Melody is hosting a baby shower for one of her younger cousins, so the house has to be in pristine condition for that (Saturday). This means there will be a lot of cleaning and rearranging during the afternoons, but mostly i’ll be in charge of getting rid of the extra computers laying around. I currently have 3 laptops being wiped, and another desktop attempting to be installed with fedora to see if i can use it for a media center. For some reason ubuntu does not like my IBM desktop, and likes my wireless adapter even less. No harm…if it doesn’t work, i’ll just sell them all and buy another cheap small form-factor machine some time later.
Goals for March 8th-14th 2010
- Starting Weight = 228.4. End Weight = 225.4
- 50 push-ups each morning and night. 100 sit ups at night.
- 2.5 mile (minimum) run on 4 days this week
- Finish two computers for media centers (Boxee)
- Sell or recycle the 3 extra laptops
- Remind Melody and get her to apply for the new balance transfer card
- Finish unboxing books & office stuff for the new shelves
Goals for March 2010
- Lose 7-8 pounds and keep it off. End weight = 222 pounds
- 50 push-ups each morning & night. 100 sit ups at night
- 2.5 mile (minimum) run on 4 days every week (10 miles per week minimum)
- Have all spare computers inventoried and ready for sale (and sell some if possible)
- Have all, or as much as possible debt consolidated onto a balance transferred card, so we’re paying lower interest/lower monthly payments starting in April.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...TEDxTriangle NC…part two
Mar 6th
Lunch finished, and we were treated to a little Improv comedy from our emcee, and one of his colleagues from DSI. IT was pretty damn funny, completely unscripted, and involved some pretty funny stuff from the actual talks that were given this morning.
Dr Mitchell Krucoff started the afternoon talks with his presentation about the state of our health care system, and it’s lack of acknowledgment of non-typical processes for treating patients. He spoke about his experiences in India where he helped set up a hospital (it may have been two), and that the Indians treat the hospitals as shrines that patients enjoy, rather than are afraid of. He spoke about the need for us to acknowledge the effects of these non-physical effects, like prayer, compassion, love, music etc because he’s seen and studied their positive impact. I was impressed by the content of his talk, but he definitely almost put me to sleep by reading too many of his slides verbatim.
August Turak’s talk was inspirational and informative. He spent time with monks for cryin’ out loud…he knows what he’s talking about. He talked about transformation, and that we need transformational organizations. We dont need to just change our condition (ie: hey look i won the lottery, i should be happy now)….we need to change our being (hey look im happy, if i win the lottery it doesnt have to change my happiness). This is probably one of the talks i’ll go back and watch again when they post them all online. There were a lot of good quotes and lessons to be learned and implemented, but i didnt want to stop to take notes in case i missed hearing something directly.
The TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor was shown as a video on screen for us to watch, and it’s one you should definitely take the time to see. She is a brain surgeon, and she suffered a stroke, which was amaxing because she (as she stated) was able to research a stroke from the inside for the first time. It’s funny, informative, and interesting.
Beth Richardson then talked about B Corporations (Benefit Corporations), and how we can help support them to make positive changes for the country and world. She also had a lot of details that i can’t go into here, but the bottom line is that we should support companies who are local, who do social good, and who actively work to make a positive impact. These can be for-profit companies like Seventh Generation, or Tsdesigns, a North Carolina-based clothing shop who says “dirt to shirt in 100 miles.”
Lyndon Rego is one of the talks i’ll have to watch again. Not because it was good, but because i really had a hard time hearing him. Sorry Lyndon….im sure the talk was great. It as not the accent either, it was the volume.
Next up….the video didnt play as expected, so the DSI guys had someone from the audience get up and join them for a brief 3 minute skit. Pretty funny stuff considering the girl had never done improv before.
The video we watched next was a TED talk from Tim Ferriss.
Pretty cool talk about overcoming fear…ie: what’s the worst that could happen. He spoke about his experience being the only english speaking child in a chinese school, and then of going from a guy who steps on girl’s toes to being a semi-finalist in the world ballroom dancing championships. Very cool talk, that for me, was probably so effective because he seemed like such a regular guy. I think those are the talks that i connect with the most…the ones that are from regular people who have irregular ideas. Of course, the super-high-tech talks are awesome too, and those people are far from regular.
Catherine Gadden’s talk was something that i understood, but didn’t really enjoy as much as the others. She talked about her experiences of reexamining how we connect with each other, and that if we can empathize with our fellow man, then we can begin to help understand each other on a much deeper level. It was a good talk, very passionate, but not one of my favorites.
David Beaver gave what was, for me, the reason for TED talks. It was about the ‘overview effect’ which is something Astronauts experience when they are able to experience seeing the real Earth for the first time rather than the Earth in pictures. This effect has been incorrectly described as a euphoric experience. This is a possible component of the overview effect, but not in all cases, and not the main point. Astronauts and private citizens alike who have experienced this have unanimously opined that they believe it would change the world profoundly if everyone was able to experience it first hand. He also talked about the private space-travel industry, and how it’s coming whether we like it or not. Virgin Galactic will be taking a few hundred people next year, and then they are planning on taking 10,000 by 5 years time, and 100,000 by 10 years from now. That’s a whole lot of people who’ll get a personal experience with looking at the Earth as a whole, rather than a divided world. The first Islamic astronaut said that on their first day in space, they pointed at their own country. Their 2nd day they pointed at their continent. By the 3rd day, they forgot all about borders and countries, and started looking at the Earth as one thing. There’s something about being up in space and seeing that we are literally floating in space, and we are just a tiny blue planet in a vast universe.
This was possibly my favorite talk, because it made you think of “what if.” What if i got to see the Earth from space. What if everyone got to see the Earth from space. What if my grandchildren will consider taking a trip to Mars in the same way that we consider trips to Disneyland. It’s about time some of the most advanced science fiction from the movies started coming true.
Did you know that the guy who runs one of the largest budget hotel chains in the world already has built what is essentially a hotel in space? NASA is considering leasing space form him for their astronauts.
Anyway….that’s it for the talks…..they were all awesome in their own right, but connected with me more than others. I’ll definitely be going to the next TEDx, wherever i can find it.
This was an awesome day. Hopefully my friends can come to the next one and we can all enjoy it too.
Oh yeah..almost forgot……TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design — we learned that at the start of the day, and it’s something i didnt really think about before…i just thought TED….that’s a cool name…probably the guy who started this whole thing
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...My day at TedxTriangleNC (TEDxRTP)… part one
Mar 6th
I’m at TEDxTriangleNC: http://www.tedxtrianglenc.com/
Started off with a really good, inspiring introduction by [guy from RTP headquarters]. Then our funny emcee @ZachWard from the DSI Improv comedy group got things started with a Wave. Not a Google Wave, but an actual wave where people stood up. Pretty funny guy…..i figure that if i could somehow convince him to emcee my daily life, then things would be a whole lot funnier.
First up Christopher Gergen from Duke University’s entrepreneur program gave an awesome presentation about innovation, achieving goals, reaching out into new areas. My take away was “shift your fear of failure to a fear of regret” — their research said that people who were able to do this, were more likely to take action and keep working on their goals. I really enjoyed this presentation, and it was a great one to start the day.
Andy Hunt, one of the presentations I was most looking forward to was really good too, but too short on time. He talked about the value of writing your ideas down, which actually is shown to increase the frequency (and quality?) of the ideas you have. Mindmapping was one of the ideas he spoke about, and I’d have to agree.
Phaedra Boinodiris talked about gaming, but not the way you’re thinking about. Her presentation was about gaming being used for business purposes like technical training, marketing, and leadership skill building. At first i admit that i thought it was a pretty boring idea, or at least ill-conceived. I thought that these “business” people had a random thought one day and were like “hey…we can create a game that people can use to learn Human Resources policies!” — but then she showed us a couple of videos about how their games are being used in universities and real businesses, and my mind was changed. Think about it like it’s a World of Warcraft environment, but for business objectives. Pretty cool stuff, and very interesting. NC State (and other schools) are using their games already, and have been for a while. IBM gives the software away for free to academic institutions.
Quite possibly the most surprising presentation so far, was not a presentation. It was the performance by ‘New Music Raleigh‘ — a violin trio who played for about 10 minutes, and it was awesome. Here’s my tweet about their performance:
What followed were a series of inspirational presentations, and although i was left inspired, it was almost a little too much. I understand why they were grouped together, but you kind of get overwhelmed by them all as a block. Individually they were really good.
Hugh Hollowell from ‘Love Wins Ministries” was very sincere, and very effective at getting his point across, which at it’s root was a simple one: “relationships can solve the world’s problems.” He gave several examples, the one that stuck with me was that the US population throws away 40% of the food they buy from the grocery store, and yet 17,000,000 (yes…17 million) people go hungry each night in the USA. His point flowing from that statistic though, was that if you knew that a relative of yours (someone you have a personal relationship with) was going hungry, you wouldn’t throw away that food. You’d figure out a way to get the food to them, or you’d make sure that person didn’t go hungry. It’s a simple point, but it’s true. You wouldn’t take a homeless person into your home if you had a spare bed, but if that homeless person was your mother/father/sister/brother…you would in an instant. Personal relationships would stop the problem of chronic homelessness. Definintely worth watching when the videos are posted.
Joel Wiggins gave an emotionally charged and very effective presentation about “where have all the men gone.” This was about role models. Real men who’s highest title or accolade would be being a good husband, father, brother, son. I can’t condence his presentation here, but it’s worth a watch if you’re interested in the idea of the positive male influence that’s gone missing for generations of people.
Thelma Horton’s brief talk about love was okay. It was not as impressive as the other presenters, but you got her message, even if it was falling into the “overload” part of your brain as you were coming down from the high of the other talks.
Ilina Ewen was awesome in her presentation about food, and the importance of educating our kids about good food habits and choices. Her story about how she and her husband fondly recall a particular meal they had with tomatoes in Paris 15 years ago hit close to home for me. Melody and I still reminisce about a meal we had at a hole-in-the-wall Nepalese restaurant in Edinburgh 5 years ago. Good food sticks in your memory, even if it’s a simple tomato or a full nepalese feast. Bad food sticks to your hips. Hrmm…maybe i should trademark that thought.
and just when i thought i couldn’t be happier with the first half of the TEDx experience, they serve lunch from Whole foods. AWESOME cannot describe it. Vegan options all around, and it was delicious. I had vegan barbecue, coleslaw and a sweet potato, onion and spinach salad that was unbelieveable. Yes…sweet potato. Me. liking sweet potato. That should tell you all you need to know about how good it was.
And so now im writing this, getting ready for the next half of the TEDx talks. Tonight’s blog will recap that, and then the overall experience…stay tuned.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...TEDxTriangle Preview
Mar 5th
Tomorrow, I’m heading to TEDxTriangleNC, which is a smaller version of the TED talks.
TEDxTriangleNC is…
…organized by a group of independent people who have come together because they believe in helping spread great ideas and they know there is no better place to do this than in the Triangle.
It’s being held at Research Triangle Headquarters, which means it’s only a few minutes from my house. This is too good an opportunity to pass up, and I’m so happy that being on the wait-list for tickets worked out. Unfortunately my buddy from work was not able to make it, and had to give up his ticket as well. There were a bunch of us who were looking forward to going, but i think out of our small circle of friends I’m the only one actually attending. It’s scheduled for 10am-6pm, so it’s going to be a long day, but i’m hoping it’s as rewarding as i envision the TED talks being. All of the presentations can be found on the site linked above under the ‘Speakers’ page. The particular one’s I’m looking forward to are: (all descriptions are from the event website)
Catherine Cadden –
Catherine believes that children who have the opportunity to practice peace in the classroom will effect the change we need to create a peaceful society. As an educator since 1987, she worked in U.S. public schools, Montessori, and Waldorf classrooms, witnessing firsthand the devastating effects of the educational system, both mainstream and ‘alternative’: racism, materialism, class-ism, apathy, alienation, and violence. In 1997, Catherine walked out of the known systems of education. Inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she opened the doors of TEMBA, a K–8 academic school founded on empathy, self-responsibility, and the tenets of nonviolence. To address everyday challenges, she sought advice directly from expert peacemakers: H.H. the Dalai Lama, Jack Kornfield, Marshall Rosenberg, and others. Catherine’s “peaceable revolution” didn’t stop at the classroom. In 2007, she led a grassroots project to bring Nonviolent Communication training and gifts from TEMBA students to sixty-four men, women, and children in Afghanistan. Deeply affected by the grief she witnessed while in Afghanistan and the power of empathy to offer healing, Catherine co-organized the first International Day for Empathic Action on October 2nd, 2009, sparking hundreds of events in eleven countries across six continents, including a twenty-four-hour global empathy hotline in four languages. Today, Catherine is putting the inspiration and practical knowledge for creating a safer, more joyful, and peaceful society into the hands of people worldwide through speaking engagements; workshops; her book, Peaceable Revolution Through Education; and taking people on wilderness initiations into nonviolence through her organization Play in the Wild!©.
Andy Hunt -
Andy Hunt is a programmer turned consultant, author and publisher. He authored the best-selling book “The Pragmatic Programmer” and six others, was one of the 17 founders of the Agile Alliance, and co-founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf, publishing award-winning and critically acclaimed books for software developers.
Sam Krishna –
Sam is the Chief Problem-Solving Officer of SectorMobile, an iPhone, iPad and Macintosh software development company. He has worked with Apple and web technologies for the last 12 years (including a stint at the mothership) and has managed both RTP and Silicon Valley startup engineering teams. He is currently researching the application of personal transformation technologies into the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in such a way that non-linear STEM-based personal learning, research and development breakthroughs can occur rapidly without years of pre-existing formal training. He is continuing his on-going research into Artificial Creativity and Knowledge Dynamics. His passions lie in the areas of technology, psychology, theology, and democracy.
Ilina Ewen –
Ilina is known as Mommy to two sons and a host of sappy nicknames by one husband. She’s an Audrey Hepburn fan, shoe aficionada, blogger, marketer extraordinaire, and food fanatic. She is a seasoned marketer with over 18 years of consumer research, marketing, communications, and advertising experience and has her own consulting business called iFactor. When not tweeting from the carpool line, reading cookbooks, or writing creative briefs, you’ll find Ilina in the kitchen. She has a voracious appetite for all things food related and thrives on finding economical, healthy, sustainable, and tasty ways to feed her family. She believes that food is a teaching tool, an experience, and a passport to other cultures, and the stuff that family memories are made of. Food is so much more than sustenance. Her biggest accomplishment is that her 6 and 4 year old sons ask for Manchego and apples for an after school snack and will choose mussels over meatballs in any Italian restaurant. She blogs at Dirt & Noise, Foodie Mama, Deep South Moms, Triangle Mamas, and WRAL’s Go Ask Mom.
There are other talks I am looking forward to, but these are the ones that pique my interest immediately.
What I’m hoping to get out of these talks are new ideas, or different ways of looking at the same issues. I’m hoping to be inspired to be active, rather than it just being a presentation on inspiration. More than anything, I hope that this regional, smaller-scale TED experience is akin to the TED talks I enjoy watching so much online.
So…that’s it. I hope that by tomorrow night i have a great experience to blog about. I’m hoping they have wifi there too so i can do a little tweeting from my iPod Touch during the day (no iPhone for me….sniff).
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Follow up to Ignite Raleigh
Mar 4th
Well…it’s official. Someone other than my direct (and small) circle of friends and family has read my blog. Possibly two people. I know this because they commented on my comments about Ignite Raleigh.
The first was Chris Moody. Shout out to Chris —- http://twitter.com/cnmoody — http://www.chris-moody.com/blog. He replied to my comments about his talk “Everyone needs a Dumb Guy” and explained:
Great feedback!
The main point of the dumb guy concept happened to fall into the last few slides (which you may or may not have heard thanks to the “that’s what she said slide”). That was poor planning on my part because I assumed that I could still cover material despite having a funny slide. My bad there.
The point is that you need someone dumb enough to listen to customers without proposing solutions. If you don’t get the voice of the customer, you will fail.
When the videos are up, I’ll do a more comprehensive explanation of the concept on my blog, but no it isn’t a pitch to keep my job… I’m doing quite alright in that area.
First….that’s awesome for him to actually be receptive to criticism, and even more awesome that he took the time to explain it to some random guy (me) who blogged about his talk. Kudos. I’m now following Chris on Twitter, and the buzz surrounding Ignite Raleigh is interesting to watch.
Next up was a comment explaining who (as I put it), the “McLewen guy was.”
I wasn’t there, but I presume the “All Media is Social” guy was referring to Marshall McLuhan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan
Again…awesome that someone found the blog, and let me in on the secret about this mysterious supposed expert of things considered social media.
I think a lot of the talks might be better when i watch them again (once they post the videos). There are a couple that, like i said before, really hooked me with the concept, but just didnt keep me engaged during the talk. But…at least they had the guts to stand up there and give a talk.
I’ve been thinking what i would talk about if i gave an Ignite presentation. I came to the conclusion that it would need to be something that was funny. Those were the best ones that kept people engaged and entertained. Then i started thinking that it’s got to be something off the wall…something that people kind of lean their head to the side and go “wha?” So…after barely any deliberation at all, i thought that maybe the Meatless Marvels idea would be a good one to talk about. You know…meatless eating for people who love meat….like me. I’d have to do a lot of prep before hand, but it could be interesting. Eh….who am I kidding….i’d much prefer to watch other people’s presentations about random things like cats who get jobs, and femtroopers making imperial marches on my pants. But it’s a thought…
Anyway…all in all, I’m impressed by the banter surrounding Ignite Raleigh, and I’m glad i was there to experience it first hand.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Ignite Raleigh: I feel both ignited and waterlogged at the same time
Mar 3rd
Tonight was Ignite Raleigh 2 (the first one was last year). I was looking forward to attending, considering the good things my friends had said about it from last year.
I will give my kudos to every speaker, and thank them for providing a great night of entertainment. Having said that….here’s my summation in as few words as possible:
Why companies need dumb guys…
- This one really never got to the point. It was a great concept, but never really finished it out.
- I was left wondering what i had listened to…
- …and realized that I may have just heard a 5 minute pitch for the guy trying to keep his own job.
- I mean…he did say several times that he considered himself a dumb guy.
A weather girl’s daily routine…up and 3am….
- i was very interested in this talk when it began.
- Then i slowly realized that it was quite dumbed down as if it was made for an elementary school presentation
- I am still wondering why a weather person needs to take a nap 3 hours after their day begins. It would be like me needing to take a nap at 9am.
- I mean….i work just as many hours it seemed, but i go to bed at a reasonable hour, so that i dont have to take naps throughout the day. Just a thought.
- I did write down “maybe that’s why their forecasts are always seemingly wrong….they are too tired to get them right!”
Best Slide of the Night…..from the Nerd Girls Unite presentation
- : “Femtroopers: An imperial march….in your pants!”
- seriously…that was the best slide of the night…and we all knew it, even though it was one of the first presentations given.
- This was one of my favorite presentations of the night. She was well prepared, well spoken, funny, the slides matched the tone of the presentation.
- All in all, a great presentation.
Least Prepared Speech
- The “featured” presentation by the blogads CEO.
- Too many cliche self-help Tony Robbins quotes about how people are the real value.
- Heard it all before dude….you did not ignite me. not even a little. NEXT!
Best Use of “Fire It Up!” from the crowd
- this was the theme of the night…and the crowd was encouraged to yell/tweet/blog “fire it up” when they heard something they liked)
- In response to the PleasureMechanics.com presentation, where they said “Anal sex can be a pleasurable part of any healthy sexual experience” ……. someone from the back of the room said, over the soft giggling of the crowd “FIRE IT UP!”
- this was met with raucous laughter. Well played sir. Well played.
Best Prepared and Presented Speech
- Definitely the Mayberry Modernism presentation about modern-style houses.
- It made me want go to out and buy a modern style house right then.
- Well done sir. Really professional. Super presentation.
Biggest gap between my expectation and the presentation’s reality
- “All Media is Social” presentation was disappointing
- I wrote during this presentation: “Frickin’ history lesson. If i wanted a history lesson i’d go read a book. And what the hell is McLewen!”
- Apparantly i missed the part in the presentation where he said who or what mclewen was…..because i was confused at the start of every sentence…. “Mclewen states….McLewen said” blah blah blah…don’t care about McLewen…tell me what you think dude.
- Great concept, poor execution
Most likely to convince me to go out and do something immediately after the presentation
- “$5 is change”
- great concept where you have a party, ask everyone not to bring chips/dip/win, but bring $5 that goes to a microcharity.
- $5 can save 36 lives by providing birthing kits to developing nations. These kits cost 27 cents each, and can increase the survival rate up to 92%.
- I will be doing something like this soon I’m sure. It’s very close to my Kiva microfinancing, which is probably why it interests me.
Most honest comment of the night
- During the “My cat can get a job faster than you” presentation
- The presenter said “I sucked at HR (Human Resources). I sucked really bad. But, I’m such a crazy cat lady, and being in HR, I rank my cats in order of performance. Scrubby is number 1″
- Seriously funny. Seriously awesome.
- One of the funniest presentations of the night.
Overall observances…
- It was funny watching some of the speakers get ahead of their slides, and then forget what was coming next. I felt sorry for them, but it was interesting seeing them guess what was next, and then realizing what was actually coming up next.
So…i enjoyed attending, and will do it again next year. It was hit and miss for some of the presentations, but i’m okay with that. It was a free night of entertainment, and i appreciate everyone who worked to put it on.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Personal & Mental Health Days…underrated
Mar 2nd
Today was my first mental/personal health day I’ve ever taken…..and I’ve come to the conclusion that they are totally underrated.
It was awesome for many reasons. First, i got a full compliment of sleep for the first time in a long time (weekends don’t count because i wake up to watch soccer). Secondly, I did not reply to a single email, because I decided to treat this as a real mental health day. That meant little to no contact with the outside world. Now I’ll admit that i did check twitter and email throughout the day, but did not reply to anything. I did retweet one thing during the day, but that was all. The reason behind today’s mental health day was for Melody and I (yes…Melody took the day off too), to spend a day with each other trying to feel better (Melody was feeling pretty sick for real) after being kicked in the cosmic stomach a few times yesterday. If you’re interested in more personal stuff, check the recent blog entries and you’ll get the idea. Otherwise, trust me, yesterday sucked….big time.
Today started with sleeping in…..and then awakening to Melody having cooked some peanut butter infused French Toast (awesome). Yeah….even though she felt terrible, she cooked breakfast. That’s how awesome she is. Gotta say, the only thing better than being woken up to breakfast in bed is being woken up to breakfast in bed with bacon on top (yeah….even though i’m a vegetarian, bacon still smells freakin awesome!).
We then proceeded to watch some TV….”The Buried Life” was awesome as usual. This one was about their attempt to tell a joke on one of the Late Night television shows (Leno, Letterman, Conan).
We then added significantly to my movie list, by watching a few films. First it was ‘The Taking of Pelham 123,” which was alright….not bad, not great, just average. Then we watched ‘The Box,’ which was quite interesting, but generally wierd. It’s one that might make more sense when I see it again, but I am not rushing for that second viewing to happen any time soon. It was like there was a 30 minute stretch of story that they cut out, and expected you to make the connections yourself. Wierd, interesting, intriguing, but in the end left me kind of annoyed.
Next up was ”Running the Sahara,’ a documentary about 3 guys who ran from the West Coast of Africa to the Red Sea on the East Coast. Something like 7500 kilometers all by foot. Pretty impressive, and quite similar to ‘Long Way Round,’ or ‘Long Way Down.’ The ‘Long Way’ films are much better in my opinion, and even if you’re not interested in motorcycles or documentaries, you will be by the end of those films. Make sure you watch Long Way Round first. That reminds me…i have to watch the other two films with Charlie Boorman: ‘Race to Dakar‘ and ‘By Any Means‘ and ‘By Any Means 2‘
Next up was a little drive-thru Chinese from Panda Express…..great for a vegetarian appetite. Then we watched ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ — the film adaptation of the must-read children’s book. I gave it a 7.5/10 just for being different, but it did not live up to the level I had hyped it to in my head. Nevertheless, it was worth a watch, and I’m glad we did. It only came out on DVD today, so it was like a new release.
After that (yes, by now it was 9:20pm), we watched the new episode of LOST. I won’t spoil anything, so don’t worry about reading ahead if you’re a LOST fan. I will just say that their commercials this week about ‘The time for questions is over. The time for answers is here!” is quite possibly the biggest lie i’ve heard since….well…..ever. If you watch this episode, and don’t have any questions, then i want to meet you, because you can obviously see into the future or have a copy of the LOST scripts.
All in all, this was a great day. I enjoyed spending the day without distractions with Melody, and I think we are better for it. The epic-failure that was yesterday still lingers, but having a day to recover, so-to-speak, was a good choice, and I’m feeling better. I’m sure Melody is a little better too.
My movie list isn’t hurting either:
- 2055 total movies watched
- 161 movies seen in the theater
- 15 movies watched in the last 30 days
- 28 movies watched since January 1st, 2010
- 110 movies seen in the past 365 days
So…onwards and upwards for the second half of this week. I’m looking forward to a couple of things tomorrow and thursday. I’m going to Ignite Raleigh tomorrow night with some friends from work, and then we have our first outdoor soccer game of the Spring season on Thursday night.
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Mar 1st
Keep you chin up….i guess i understand the cliche. I mean….when you’re down, you keep your chin up, and that means you are at least looking ahead, onwards and upwards, so-to-speak. But the flip side of that, is that if you keep your chin up, rather than tucked in, then it’s much easier to hit.
That’s how it feels today. Melody and I got hit a couple of times, and we’ve definitely been keeping our chin up lately. If you’re interested, the more personal blog post about it is here. The bottom line is that we’re a little behind where we wanted to be, in the SpawnWatch adventures.
The other hit we took, is that our application for a balance transfer card was declined. Declined! Melody and I have pretty much perfect credit, but we have too much debt taken on from the house renovations and prior stuff to qualify for another card. It doesn’t matter that we only need the card in order to transfer existing balances (not increase them)….so we’re stuck with what we have. We’ll still apply for another few cards with different vendors, but it looks bleak.
So, to sum up today’s events……we took some hits….but we’re still kicking….this will take a little to get over, but hey…we’ll keep the chin up and look onwards and upwards.
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