Entries Tagged 'geek' ↓

Well, I think I’ve come a long way over the last few years.

Here’s a clip from last month’s Social Media 101 panel.

Is there anything more embarrassing than sitting while someone reads your bio out to an audience? Squirm, squirm, squirm. Half-hearted smile, small wave. Torture.

That said, I was very happy with the turnout for last night’s first breakout event. Social Media Club Charleston is very new and fairly informal. We have a goal of a speaker or panel once a quarter with social gatherings in between. In the near future I’ll create a calendar and blog at www.SMCCharleston.org to share events and commentary from events. This will be in addition to the Facebook Group.

It was so nice to see new faces. Granted, I love all of the usual suspects, but I don’t want to have a clique. The point of this group is to be inclusive and I hope those who came out felt welcome.

Sometimes I wish more of my time could be spent immersed in geektalk and company.

Last night’s four panelists: Dan Conover, Janet Edens, Andy Owens, and Ken Hawkins shared perspectives on the changing landscape of media. Each of the panelists had worked (or currently works) for the Post and Courier. Ken Hawkins left to create and launch The Digitel, which is doing well for the work of a naive dreamer [tic].  Andy Owens now works for the Charleston Regional Business Journal and covered his experience working for a smaller company with less overhead. Janet Edens still works for the P&C and has a unique perspective as the paper struggles to remain viable. Conover took a buyout last summer and covered a transition from traditional newspaper employee to a freelancer utilizing new media to secure income.

It’s exciting talk, as no one knows exactly where media will end up. While the outcome is still hazy, that doesn’t mean we can’t use current events like the Iran election to discern the course and discuss potential advantages and deficiencies. There’s an interesting mix of hope, trepidition, and enough big words to help me remember that my world isn’t only comprised of the kids.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting: Joey Benton, Christopher Donahue, Joel Green (and the two guys with Joel Green whose names have completely slipped my mind), Noah Everett, and of course Michael Carnell.

It was also nice to see people I haven’t seen in a while like Francis Shepherd and Simon Ashton.

Head over to Xark where you too can be a certified social media expert.

Many thanks to Jeff Webster, Nick Tompkins, Lynn Mettler, Chad Norman, and Jared Smith who helped pull this together.

Whether it’s a simple blogger meet up over a burger and a meal or a conference, I always have high hopes of coming home and shutting myself away for a few moments to explain the impact these moments have on my life. The funny thing is, that those moments are all I get. I’m in the middle of the busy years and someday I may be able to recap things, but right now to steal any more time away has a cost I’m not willing to pay. At this moment I have a few moments before the Benadryl kicks in (thank you springtime) and the kids are in bed. These years are finite and I’m aware that I should be greatful for the the freedoms I do have. As an introvert, these events are fulfilling, but exhausting. As a parent, I’m required to play an extrovert, even on those days I have the urge to spend tucked away in solitude.

I want to explain why I love hanging out with Tee Morris, but really all I’ll be able to say is a total fangirl “SQUEE!” Today I met authors and got a realistic look into what to expect if I ever go forward with my hopes of being published. I don’t have aspirations of being famous, but I would like to be validated. I met a lady whose books I will buy the next time I can justify a splurge at Barnes and Noble or on Amazon. I think I have a new author, Tiffany Trent, I can share with my stepdauther 

Today, I spent time in geek heaven. There was talk of memes, cultural revolutions, trending, early adopters, and social media douchebags: all of these are key words, words that let me know I don’t have to explain every obscure reference that may come out of  my mouth. I was able to get excited and talk about things that matter to me, transparency, online presence, honesty and authority and no one gave a verbal headpat.

I’m greedy because I want more. 

I hope what I take from today is the encouragement that comes from mingling with peers and use it to define and make progress toward a goal, whatever it is.

Before I turn in, I want to thank all of those who took the time to drive up to Myrtle Beach to be a part of CREATE South, but I would especially like to thank Greg Pittman, Chris Gallagher, Dan Tennant, Jared Smith, Chuck Boyd, and Raymond Owens for participating in the Community track of the conference.

Twitter has recently become the topic of many conversations.  I’ve been using it for a few months; at first I enjoyed the novelty of the concept.   Now I enjoy it because once your flock is large enough, there is always someone out there whose brain I can pick.  Maybe it is akin to training wheels and I’ll outgrow the usefulness, but for now I enjoy having company whether I’m working at five in the morning or eleven at night.

Dear Media,

It is time to officially strike the sentence “It looks like a war zone” from the lexicon.

Kthxbai!

I wonder if Google’s promises are currently outstripping its resources.  My mail is slow, my feed reader is about to get tossed out, and even Google’s homepage is only working intermittently.

I’m working on a new project for Home Ec 101. I spent hours fiddling with a joomla template yesterday, finally had everything fixed exactly how I wanted, except for one text thing, but I was ready to just let that go and live with dark grey vs black.

Then I asked my husband to load the page on his computer so I could verify that the grey text was tolerable. You see, my husband is one of those strange creatures that actually likes Internet Explorer. Here I was excited that I had been very productive with the day’s programming and in the five seconds it took to load all my little hopes were crushed. IE hates my page. The objects are all over the page and I’m furious.

Why is it I can tell Firefox and Safari that a cell should be 20 pixels wide and they will listen, but not Internet Explorer. Oh no, apparently telling IE that a cell should be 20 pixels wide is the same as saying it should be 50 or 100.

Today I’m going to unload all I’ve done and reload from scratch. Thankfully I don’t have to remake all of the objects.

I think this is why I didn’t major in computer programming.

I’d like to thank Jared for letting me pester him with the occasional question.

I’m sitting her minding my own business.  The husband is playing WoW and eavesdropping on his “guild members” who are using a voice chat.

They are bickering over pronunciation of in game locations.

Unfortunately, I think can get worse.