My wonderful friend Bluegrass Mama is a finalist in a fun contest, to write a fairy tale, beginning with “Once upon a time…” and ending in “…happily ever after”, using only 50 words. Please go take a look and maybe help with a vote :).
Monthly Archives: September 2007
PodCamp Philly!
A few highlights of my weekend at PodCamp Philly, as a new PodCamper, podcast fan, and potential podcaster:
Rooming with Kathryn Jones. I met Kathryn on Twitter and we’ve worked together on the site for her production company, Synchronis.TV, so we decided to share the cost of a hotel room. She’s producing (and acting in) the first LIVE scripted show on the internet, “35,” which is set to debut next week. What fun it was to spend time with her! She’s such an inspiration and I saw a lot of parallels between what she’s doing and what I see myself doing as time goes on. Nice that there are women like her blazing that trail. Kathryn also introduced me to people I probably would have been too shy to approach on my own, and I benefited from every one of those conversations.
Hanging with BucketJen, BucketCorey, Andycaster, and Rob Usdin.
I listen to Bucket regularly and had fun meeting the people behind it. 
They did a live recording of their show and let me make my podcasting debut. Coming soon to an mp3 player near you! Andy joined Kathryn and I on our trek down to Triumph for the Saturday night party, only briefly leading us in the wrong direction ;). Rumor has it he’ll have some new content up at Andycast soon! Rob produces the podcast Jersey Jamcast which features homegrown Jersey artists, We know there’s something in the water here that makes for damn good music, it’s great that he’s showcasing it.
Enjoying lunch from a truck under a tree with the best and the brightest in podcasting. 
Two lunch trucks were parked nearby and a huge group of us sat in the grass and talked over our cheese steaks and sandwiches.
Catching a ride in the Twitter Van! Imagine this. PodCamp Philly organizer Whitney Hoffman offered to drive us back to the hotel from Triumph before heading home. Problem was, she had a 7 seater minivan and 8 people and a huge chunk of the PodCamp birthday cake to cram into it. But no worries. 
Mark Blevis, CC Chapman and Kathryn Jones sat in the back. Lynette Young and Whitney of course were up front. Chris Penn and Steve Garfield sat in the middle row bucket seats and then there was me, balancing between the bucket seats with the cake on my lap. And also my cellphone with which we recorded a message for Twitter. Now, that was fun.
Hanging at the hotel with Kathryn Jones, Christopher Penn, and Steve Garfield. We were all staying at the hotel, still a little wired, and definitely hungry, so the four of us grabbed a bite at WaWa and sat in the hotel lobby for oh, at least an hour or so. Steve and I talked a bit about the cult of personality, and internet celebrity (he thinks it’s funny that when people email him and he responds, sometimes they seem surprised that he would.) Chris brought up the topic of how the internet has given us Superpowers. I won’t even try to explain it (he does a much better job) but if you think about it, he’s absolutely right!
Casual conversations with interesting people. Had great convos with people like Norm Huelsman, who helped organize PodCamp Pittsburgh, Chris Parandian of MobileDiner.com who graciously took
and emailed a photo of me wearing Brian Conley’s mask, and Brian himself, who is producing the amazing podcasts Alive in Baghdad and Alive in Mexico. Also Twitter friends theLunatic and MisterBoh, and how could I forget the Blog King himself!
The sessions. Chris Penn on Social Networking. It’s the PEOPLE! He really gets it. Rand Bradbury on how to choose and use microphones and mixers (I learned so much!) Mike Wolk from Apple on how to use Garage Band. That session had the brain cells firing, I’m trying to make the time to get into the software and play! Brian Conley’s session on producing Alive in Baghdad, and how all you really need to do a project like his is the passion, was inspiring.
Even though I left at lunch time on Sunday I still was able to score myself an original piece of art :).
I want to thank the great team who put Podcamp Philly together, and I look forward to meeting more people at PodCamps future and whatever else may come along.
September 12, 2007 – 4:28 pm
Strength
I feel almost obligated to post something about 9/11 today. I think I’ve said all I could possibly say before, particularly in this post I wrote 4 years ago.
Nick is taking it hard. Two years ago he was eight. It wasn’t the loss of life that struck him as much as the loss of those buildings. But he was really affected by that. He built from paper, tape and markers twin towers of his own that he put by his bed.
I was re-reading it today and as I got to the very end something hit me, powerfully. I close that post with prayerful lyrics from Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising”.
If I were to write that today, I wouldn’t include those lyrics. I guess some would call what I’ve gone through in the past 6 years a crisis of faith, and maybe it was, but I feel like I’ve come out the other side now, feeling more free than I ever have. I don’t have the worries, the guilt, the self-consciousness I once had. Now it’s Carpe Diem, face my fears head on and shove them aside. Religion isn’t really a part of my life now, although faith in… something… is. And I’m surprised by that, but content with it. I’m not looking outside of myself for strength. I’ve realized that strength is inside of me and has been all along, I was just too full of worries and fears to use it. Some might say those prayers I posted were answered, and that’s why I feel stronger now. Could be. I certainly don’t want to start a religious debate or discussion. All I know is- I’m definitely not feeling the need for those prayers now.
On Twitter this morning the memories are flowing. We can’t help but talk about where we were, what we saw, who we lost or or who we’re thankful we didn’t lose. It’s something that has continued to pull strangers together once a year and I hope that will continue. Remembering honors those who died.
I didn’t want to talk or write about 9/11 today. But I guess I can’t help myself. And I guess I hope the day doesn’t come when I can.
September 11, 2007 – 9:39 am
My Twitter Upgrade
Twitter was offline most of the day. We’ve been told upgrades were happening, although I don’t see any- hopefully they were increasing under-the-hood stuff. It does seem to be working quite quickly now.
People still look at me cross-eyed when I mention Twitter. Even I sometimes wonder why I hang around, with all the technical issues, and the fact that, to be honest, Jaiku and Pownce offer more features and are probably more useful overall (Jaiku in particular has become my “lifestream”, the place where almost everything I put out there on the internet comes together.)
So what keeps me at Twitter? People. Ah, yes, a cliché. But lets look at some examples of how the people I’ve met on Twitter have upgraded my life.
They’ve increased my awareness.
I now know more about:
- new media marketing
- podcasting
- Second Life
- knitting
- US soldiers in
KuwaitAfganistan (oops, dumb American!) - the inner workings at NBC news
and more.
They’ve provided comic relief.
There are some very funny people on my friends list, including, but certainly not limited to, a stand up comedian and a writer for David Letterman.
They’ve become clients!
Three of my Twitter friends have become clients. More have expressed interest, soon hopefully I’ll be able to work with them as well. Yet the only marketing I’ve done on Twitter is listing my business site in my profile, and answering requests for help other people have sent out.
They’ve solved problems.
Quite a few times I’ve hit a technical issue and tweeted out a help request. Just yesterday I needed someone to take a look at a site in IE6, and 4 people responded within minutes offering to help. Thanks to them I figured out the issue and fixed it.
This weekend I’m heading to Drexel University for PodCamp Philly. I’m not a podcaster, though I have an idea or two that I might act on one of these days. But learning more about podcasting is only one reason I’m attending. Looking at the list of attendees I see a bunch of people I’ve met online via Twitter, and I’m excited to meet them in person. It’s fun to be around people who share the kind of passion I feel for things most people I know either don’t get or just find a little too geeky. I know I tend to be obsessive (to put it mildly!), and I can’t and don’t expect friends to share those obsessions with me. But I do love meeting new people that do!
September 6, 2007 – 5:21 pm
Now all I need is unlimited SMS
I’m playing with a service for IM called IMified that will let me post from AIM or gTalk to my blog, my tumblog, my gCalendar, Twitter- it’s a neat little tool. I’m using it on my desktop now but the real convenience would be if I could use it from my cellphone, but it would be costly because I pay per message now. I’m debating whether to add an SMS package for texting, and things like this bring me closer and closer. If I left the house more often, I guess that would help, too!
September 1, 2007 – 5:08 pm
