Anyway, it was a day filled with WordPress information. It started off with some woman I’ve never heard of calling her self the Diva of WordPress and yet preaching “we don’t care if you have bad spelling or grammar, we just want to hear what you have to say!” Cue immediate disrespectful twittering from many people. Then another all-about-me presenter and more cranky twittering. Then some kid who looked 12 but seemed to know a lot. The morning was filled with more motivational type speakers – all about content. The afternoon leaned more to the technical side, the guy who created WordPress in the first place, and local WordPress magicians Chuck Reynolds and Josh Strebel had a Q&A panel. Another guy got all geeky with step-by-step widget coding that was way over my head. Merlin Mann was highly entertaining, and Brent Spore was great. All-in-all a nice motivational day, but not what I expected.  Props to my friend Chuck for organizing the 500 seat sold-out WordCamp.

Saturday and Sunday were this year’s PodCampAZ, the one I’m involved in planning. I spent most of Saturday working registration with Rachel so I got to meet lots of new people. I helped Evo with his panel (I clicked the slide advance button) and helped set-up and take down. Yesterday I set up registration, but spent more time in actual panels. Brent’s panel on social media almost immediately got intense when the packed room divided between the let’s-keep-it-to-ourselves side and the we-need-to-bring-in-new-people-side.  He wanted to get people talking and it certainly did. Another friend Katie had a panel on social media but it was more what you should and should not put out there. The best panel I went to was a WordPress panel, where Josh skimmed over the best settings and must-have widgets and plugins – which was the information I’d been looking for from WordCamp.

So expect some changes to this site as soon as I’m rested up. I’m still tired as hell and I have a lot of notes to expand on while the information is fresh. We all learned that GeekWeek is toooooo much at one time. Information overload + planning anxiety + RL stress = exhaustion. There were other conferences earlier in the week that some people attended too. Thursday was the Entrepreneurship Conference, there was a design camp somewhere and I think one other thing and some people hit them all. Each event was successful but running them all within a week is too much which is likely why the PodCampAZ ending wasn’t attended by as many people as we expected. Our numbers were much lower than registered though there were a lot of walk-ins.

I was surprised at how many of our speakers failed to show up! When I checked with our speaker coordinator Lawrence, only about half of the n0-shows bothered to contact him with an explanation beforehand. It’s fucking rude as HELL to have a roomful of people waiting for you and not show up.

If you’ve followed me for more than a minute, you’ve seen this information. Just another reminder because it’s coming up. Some specific highlights:

• PodCast AZ – Every year we have live podcasting throughout the entire session. Contact Dani Cutler and Dan and CJ Feierabend at onair@podcampaz.com to get on the airwaves.
• Speakers – We have an awesome speaker lineup already, and are still taking submissions, but only through Saturday. The schedule gets published Monday!
• Volunteers – We need a small army of people to help on event days. We might even have some cool swag for you, like a t-shirt and other unidentified stuff. If you want to march in our army, contact Crystal O’Hara at volunteer@podcampaz.com.
• Tees – We have 600 t-shirts to give to registered attendees, and over 500 people are already registered. If you want in on the goodness, get registered.

The t-shirts are a completely new design this year. Can’t wait for you to see them! If you are an established or aspiring blogger, podcaster, video blogger, or social media advocate and want to meet hundreds of people with the same interests, head over to podcampaz.org to get more information about this exciting event. And above all else, register to attend PodCamp AZ!

I have a ton of stuff to do in November.

• Ignite Phoenix 5 (Tuesday Nov 3 – 6:00pm – 9:00pm)

Tickets, hashtag: #ignitephx
Tempe Center for the Arts – map

• WordCamp Phoenix (Friday Nov 13 – 8:00am – 5:00pm)

Register, hashtag: #wcphx
Arizona Grand Resort – map

• PodCampAz (Sat-Sun Nov 14 – 15)

Register, hashtag: #podcampaz
University of Advancing Technology – map

There’s #evfn every Friday night, recording for Evo @11 every week, Max is due home November 19th at midnight, and Thanksgiving is the 26th. Sometime in there I’m expecting a special guest, too.

(This is a test of the also-sends-to-LJ thing and if it works all is good with the world.)

Why is it I lay awake at night making lists in my head about all the things I’m going to do the following day and then wake up in the morning and do none of them?

Laziness?

I need to move my bed, get out my stepladder and tool box and hang my curtain. Right now it’s clamped to the top of the blinds. Tacky! I borrowed a drill/screwdriver last night so I now have no excuse. I also need to install a magnet bar in the kitchen for my knives. I’ve got to get them out of the drawer that Kira can reach before she takes a finger off. What else… oh yeah, hang the adorable doggie’s ass hanger for his leash.  Thanks IKEA.

I’ve got to go to the grocery store.

I’ve got to go to Tempe Parks office to find out what I need to reserve space for PodCampAZ’s BBQ.

I’ve got to be home before noon because I’m babysitting for the night and I really don’t want to drag her around with me.

I should get started right after I catch up on all my Facebook farming…

If you are an established or aspiring blogger, podcaster, video blogger, or social media advocate and want to meet hundreds of people with the same interests, head over to podcampaz.org to get more information about this exciting event. And above all else, register to attend PodCamp AZ!

_______

Okay, I blogged the quasi-official blurb. On a more personal level, y’all need to come. It’s fun and informative and FREE! I’m one of the planning committee members and I’m planning big things. If you want to speak, register and say so. If you want to sponsor, register and say so. If you think you might want to attend, REGISTER and pencil in the dates on your calendar, November 14-15. PodCampAZ is the final event in Geek Week (actually more than a week) so keep watching for details on other AZ events in that time frame.

If this all looks too good to miss and you’re not in the PHX area, we will soon have hotel deals and some of us are willing to put people up just so they can come.

Seriously, you NEED to come. Conferences, parties, tweet-ups, and more conferences.

Check out this video! Register here. Still not sure? WHY NOT?

My car died. And I keep getting the same lame-ass phone monkeys when I contact Wells Fargo about what to do now. Could I please speak to someone who can actually READ the notes?

My phone died. Again. This time it just won’t charge or turn on. Eventually I get another replacement, but there was a week there when all text messages and voice mails evaporated.

My rent check got lost – which actually turned out OK, but I had a really angsty week worrying about late fees and stuff. With proof the bank screwed up I’m cool with no late fees. I lurve my landlord.

My son left for his second deployment to Iraq.

My support check is late. So I can’t even get another rental car until that shows up. And the car Ginnie borrowed for 5 minutes to pick me up from the rental place ran out of gas.

Daughter just happened to step outside tonight just as the ex was cruising past our place. I wonder how many times he’s done that! And Ginnie’s met the new girlfriend who was with him. Nice date, cruising past his ex’s apartment.

The program I bought to create the Program Directory for PodcampAZ has been giving me fits. It says I can use any Windows acceptable font, and is supposed to save to pdf but every time I try it I ended up with white text on white background. Finally, after hours of searching help pages for both this stupid program and Adobe, I managed to get it to work. But not on an Adobe reader – there are ��� with X in it at the end of every line. Yet if I open the same pdf with another reader those marks aren’t there. I win?

I have the Evo @ 11 recording Wednesday night, possibly Gangplank‘s podcast too. I have a Podcamp workup on Saturday and I have Jury Duty next Monday.

I cannot WAIT for this month to be over.

I got my check today and after paying all my regular bills (except the fucking car payment) I’m left with less than $200. New tire means no birthday present for Kira. New tire means being stuck at home more than I am now. New tire my ass. Car payment will likely be used as a down payment on something else.

Speaking of their father, Ginnie keeps dropping comments that I don’t really want to hear. Only to hope that as long as he’s happier maybe he’ll hate me less and someday we can be in the same room – for the kid’s sakes. She says she wants to ask him for either help getting a car or a new laptop for Christmas. And that he should be able to help her seeing as how his new live-in girlfriend makes big bucks and where could his money possibly be going, etc. I DON’T FRICKING CARE! I don’t ask. It’s none of my business and I don’t want the kids reporting back to him either.

Other than the car, I’ve been having a pretty lucky day. Slept good, great bagel for breakfast, decent sales at the grocery stores, good parking . . . knocking on my wood desk now.

Going to Gangplank tonight to record the Gangplank Podcast and Evo @ 11. I’ve been working on a new intro so we’ll see if Evo likes it. If so, it’ll be on this week’s show. And I’m going hunting for a better word processing/desktop publishing program than MSWorks. Works sucks ass. I’m managing, but I’ve volunteered to do the program for PodcampAZ and I’d like a little more flexibility.

S’all. Mebbe mo laterz.

November 1-2, 2008 at the University of Advancing Technology (UAT)

Here’s the blurb:

Here in Arizona, we take the concept of a podcamp and change it to meet our needs. Hey, it’s hot and we have no water. We’re supposed to bend nature to our will. Podcamp AZ is a free networking media “unconference” dedicated to blogging, video blogging, podcasting, and all other relevant media where you actually participate, not merely attend. We want you to engage in a conversation or even lead one yourself on any relevant media topic: Applications and tools, how to network, education, and how to get started with all of it.

Check out some of these session titles:

• Facebook & Other Social Media for Grownups
• Resident Feminist: Alice in the Wonder of Web 2.0 Technologies
• Old Media, New Media, Red Media, Blue Media
• 5 Reasons Your Podcast Sucks
• Exergaming: Health Outside the XBox
• Podtaint: Fame in the New Media World
• Healing Arts & New Media
• Using Web 2.0 in Education

Last year’s Podcamp was fun, but this year it’s going to be soooo much better! Lots more volunteers for two full days of sessions, better sponsors and many new speakers. Speaking of which, who the heck is iJustine and why are all the guys going ga-ga?

Seriously, if you’re even a little bit interested in podcasting or video blogging or how new media can help you out in your life/work/play, come on down. We’re getting special rates at a local hotel or I have a futon in my living room that’s free. And if you’re local, there just no excuse for not coming. It’s FREE. Of course, you can donate if you want. And there’ll be t-shirts for sale!

I’m working my fingers to the bone on the very informative program directory. You have to come get one of those!

Check out the website, go ahead and register, or get a copy of the media kit and look through that. Heck, even if you know of anyone who might be interested in attending or sponsoring, make them a copy of the media kit.

C’mon, you know you wanna.

Seriously though, there’s no frakking way I can make myself get on any sort of small inter-island hopper plane so if they decide to explore other islands I’m out. Ginnie would love a helicopter trip. Maybe there’s boats? I’m cool with boats. She wants to see the volcano on the big island. I just want to hang at a beach.

It was a nice little waste-some-time movie. If I had to relate to any character, I’d be closer to Samantha. I cannot conceive of being obsessed by designer labels. I own three pair of shoes. I cannot imagine needing a closet larger than my living room. Oh well. If you got it, flaunt it I guess. I just don’t get it. Maybe I’ve always been too cheap. And most Carrie’s clothes were Fugly! The only thing she wore that I liked was a tie-dyed long dress she had on in one scene.

But I kept getting yanked out of the movie by Carrie’s hands. IF you spent your entire existence in thousands of dollars of designer clothes and shoes, wouldn’t you take better care of your fingernails? Seriously! She has the ugliest nails I’ve ever seen in a movie. Not necessarily long and polished as she’s supposed to be a writer, but dayum girl, ever heard of a manicure?

So anyway, nice girlfriend flick.

Yesterday, I went to the Podcamp AZ workup. The thing isn’t until November but we volunteers are trying to make it bigger and better than last year. Right now the focus is on the media kit and website so we have something to show possible sponsors and speakers. We all went to lunch after so I got to just hang with my friends Sheila and Evo, Dani, Dan and CJ for a while.