Third and Long
I have a little under 12,000 words to go, a turkey to cook, and family in town from Wednesday to Sunday. That’s the bad news, in handy compact form. The good news is that I really feel like I’m hitting a stride. It’s not unthinkable to consider two 3,000+ word nights tonight and tomorrow, and some stolen time during the long weekend, to get over the hump.
I’m also nowhere near done with the book. I’d estimate that I’ll have at least half again as many words before I reach the end. But what’s been so amazing about this process is the regularity of insisting upon owning the unproductive hours. I mean, sure, I’m totally behind on my game-playing, and I miss me some Frisky Dingo, but the practical effect on my schedule has been close to nil, and plus I’m writing a book.
I suspect that this subject may emerge as an Ignite Portland topic. Ignite V happens three days before my birthday, which means that they owe me. Not really, but I do think I’m going to talk about nanowrimo and what to do after you write the book.
Purple Power
Agregado, a WordPress theme created by a team led by Darren Hoyt and posted for free on Smashing Magazine a while back, is the new look and feel of JPV PDX. It goes without saying that I’ve also migrated from Blogger to WordPress, with minimal fuss. There were a couple of little permission jitters to get over but now everything appears to be working. I’ve already got a list of about a jillion widgets that I need to add, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Anywho, just a quick note. Nanowrimo progressing well – a bit behind total-word-count wise, but much closer than I could ever have hoped for at this point.
World of Goo Releases for Mac!
2d Boy has released World of Goo for Mac! Go forth and make tarry snot bridges to DESTINY!
Because I can’t. Because I’m 16,000 words into NaNoWriMo and must continue to beat some words into submission. But in December, just you wait.
The People Have Spoken…
…and the results are here: The PDX Breakfast Tweetup Survey was a tremendous success in terms of response (what? What else would I be talking about?). Twenty-six people laid it on the line and told me what they wanted out of a Breakfast Tweetup. In true “um, DUH!” fashion, I did not answer my own survey. Rawk! My comments are appended to the end of each question.
How Often should the Tweetup Breakfast Occur?
Leaving alone that this question is butterfly-ballot confusing (the proper inquiry is “how far apart should the breakfasts be?” or something), it was also very close – deadlocked, in fact, when I went to bed on Monday. I woke on Election Day with Every Other Week the clear favorite. “Monthly” made a late surge to actually overcome “Weekly.” I expected the “Weekly” voters to be people who also selected “I would probably always attend,” but only 3 of the 7 did so. My feeling is every other week makes sense.
Should Each Breakfast Have a Topic? (multiple answers allowed)
Comments:
1. I think we should set it up as an official Geek Breakfast in the style of geekbreakfast.org. The three rules of Geek Breakfast are: 1. Everyone is invited, attendance is free (excluding food, beverage and gratuity). 2. Pictures, audio and video should be licensed under Creative Commons and tagged using “yourcitynamegeekbreakfast” and “geekbreakfast”. Please add them to the Geek Breakfast Flickr Group. 3. Geek Breakfasts shall never be sponsored. If a company approaches you about sponsorship opportunities recommend they sponsor local unconferences instead, like a barcamp or podcamp. It’s important to note that if the breakfast gets sponsored you’ll wind up with many people turning up for a free meal, rather than being there to contribute to the conversation.
2.Micropresentations are AWESOME! Show, don’t tell!
3.Micro-preso would be cool, but isn’t absolutely necessary. Time to just hang and eat eggs is nice too.
4.breakfast should be delicious, healthy, and quick. lets keep breakfast away from being a camp or a meetup. i think techies benefit from being simply social.
I thought the same as the vast majority of people, that we should suggest a topic but not push it. So far the conversations have been awesome, with no need to resort to canned conversation starters. I definitely want to check out the Geek Breakfast concept, especially as our rules appear to be (mostly) congruent. But I’m not sure it needs to be specifically any kind of thang, so for now it remains unaffiliated.
Assuming that your calendar was free, what are the factors that would convince you to attend a Portland Tweetup Breakfast?
“Other” Responses:
1. not at the crack-*ss of dawn. =) i.e., one week breakfast, two weeks later after work drinks would be my preference, cuz i don’t think i would ever make your breakfast times.
2. Proximity to MAX line or streetcar … if it’s not in SW, I’m gonna have to jump on the train to get there and back.
3. Proximity and time. 8AM=too early 9AM=maybe 10AM=done deal. Hey, I’m an artist and a 45 minute bike ride pre-breakfast + sleep deprived is tough! How about a SE venue?
Not surprisingly, no one wanted this to demolish their entire morning. “Proximity to me” won by a wide margin (bacon was hot on its heels for a while, but cooler heads prevailed). Good argument to continue finding new places on both sides of the river, so that interested folks can get to one.
Comments:
1. I’m happy you made this, Lawduck. It’s totally Sweetopian. I had no idea the Breakfast Tweetup would become a PortlandTechTradition
2. What about moving it later in the day? Portland Tweetup Lunch or Dinner (focused on eating + conversing rather than beer) seem like a natural extension. w00t!
3. Move it around, including, if you dare, different sides of the river!
4. Juniors in the SE. Might be too small though.
5. Restaurant suggestions! Rumpspankers (700 NE Dekum. Okay, it’s down the street from my house and that might be considered cheating…) Tin Shed (1438 NE Alberta) Milo’s City Cafe (1325 NE Broadway)
6. This is great! I’m probably not as techy as most twitterer’s. I love the Stepping Stone. Also like J&M and Bijoux and Genie’s.
7. nice survey, lawduck!
8. i keep forgetting to not eat breakfast w/ the fam that morning!
9. I think they’re wonderful, and *thank you* for organizing them!
10. weekends would be great. many of us have office jobs and leaving mid-morning just isn’t feasable
11. You are my personal hero.
Some good suggestions for places to eat, and thank you all for the accolades – at least two thirds of the credit goes to the Fuller’s crowd that showed up for the first one, and the fertile minds of Amber Case, Bram Pitoyo, and Don Park.
So that’s it. Every other week, suggested topic, roving around the city. The next one will be next Thursday, on the east side (leaning toward Milo’s City Cafe). My suggestion for topic would be preplanning/brainstorming for @neophiliac’s Startup Workout.
Thanks for all the responses. This is how democracy works. I wish there were a more momentous demonstration of the principle that I could point to, but what is more momentous than bacon?
50 ways to lose attorney-client privilege
Inspired by this tweet from Josh Bancroft. I might not really get to fifty…
I think that’ll do for now. 