nerd’s eye view

Blog Day Link Love

You know what I can’t get enough of on the Internet? You. That’s what. You’re awesome. And because of that, I’m going to go ahead and cave to the peer pressure of thousands.

Here are my five Blog Day picks:

Uke Hunt: Just because you shouldn’t say this blog’s name out loud doesn’t mean you should avoid it. It’s chock full of ukulele goodness. I loves me some ukulele goodness.

Common Craft: Even a nerd like me gets flummoxed by the web from time to time. And 2.0? What the hell? Thank you Common Craft for finally explaining Delicious in a way I can understand.

West Seattle Blog: Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I need to know about my new neighborhood is right here. To quote a West Seattle friend, “They’re like my perfect nosy neighbor!”

Cat and Girl: “Are there any good biographies of Marcel Marceau?” “Yeah, but stay away from the audio book.”

Paleo-Future: Yesterday’s future, today! You know how we were all supposed to be living like the Jetsons by now? Where’s my damn jet pack? My rocket car? At Paleo-Future, that’s where!

Enjoy.

[tags]BlogDay 2007[/tags]

Posted in Administrivia | 3 Comments »

Chicago Wrap

Or, Best Blind Dates Ever.

It’s one thing to go in with an agenda, another entirely to stick to it. I was happy to let go of mine, after all, it wasn’t a very clear one to begin with. Letting it all go meant I had time for some off-the-grid activities. They weren’t entirely out of scope - the people I spent time with were bloggers that I’d not met before in 3-D.

What’s better than when your blind date for dinner shows up in the lobby of the hotel carrying a Fish Wednesday ID Badge? Not much, unless you count getting to tag along with that blogger and her groom to be to an old school Italian restaurant. We chowed down on giant plates of pasta at Volare, at the best table in this busy place. Sinatra played over the sound system at the bar. It was great to hang out with Chicago locals and hear about life in the windy city. N, who prefers to blog anonymously, writes Kinetic Loop, a blog about Chicago with lots of interesting links to stories about - um, killer bunnies and photography. I don’t read her enough - the blog is funny and snarky and smart and the links are really interesting. There was much talk about how to avoid the bridal industrial complex, life without cars, what to do in Chicago, blogging, photography, and lots of other stuff. Good company and a fine feed at a place I’d probably not have found on my own. Good luck, you two, and don’t get suckered into registering for crap you don’t need or buying a 4000 dollar dress that you’re only going to wear once in your life. You won’t, I know it.

This morning, I breakfasted with Mr. Virtual Tapas Bar himself. It’s truly serendipitous that he was in Chicago during the brief time I’m here, and he was a great sport and agreed to drive in to the city to meet me at 8 am. We ate at West Egg, as recommended by last night’s dinner hosts but I gotta be honest, I couldn’t tell you what the food was like because I was too busy noodling with Mr. Virtual Tapas Bar’s new ukulele. Plus, we’ve been email pals in the virtual world for a year and half and fellow sufferers of expat life, so we had what I believe would be best called A Lot To Talk About. (Di, Christina, I so wished for you to be with us!) After breakfast we sat in the lower lobby of the hotel and I insisted that Sal play the uke for me. For the record, he sounds pretty good for a self taught guy. Expatapalooza Chicago Lite 2007 rocked the house.

Fortified by what I really like about blogging - that it allows you to connect with likeminded people you’d never otherwise meet - I headed back into the fray. I wandered off track for a while under Chicago’s many elevated roadways through weird intersections made out of rivets and I-beams. Finally, I found my bearings and was back at the conference center. I attended two sessions that I rather enjoyed, one about podcasting, the other about food photography. I fear I was obnoxious in the photography session, throwing up my hand every three minutes because, duh, I had questions. Are glam Fish Wednesday pictures in our future? Here’s hoping.

At the end of the day - and I’d really stuck it out - I went to the keynote address where I was, sadly, disappointed and bored. I’ve heard Elizabeth Edwards speak before, I was excited to see her in person because she struck me as funny and smart. That didn’t shine through in this Q&A session at all. I kept drifting, every now and then I’d see someone get up and walk out, someone would ask a question and Ms. Edwards would take a long walk around the issue at hand… I was relieved when it was over. Then - I was really determined - I went to the after party. I was so grateful when a woman I met wandered by and said this: I hate everything about this. Because while I was enjoying the company of some terrific people, everyone was shouting, the space was packed, it was a chore to be in the space. Hearing her say that made me realize that I didn’t like it much either, so I squeezed my way out into the warm Chicago evening.

Was it worth it? Did I learn anything? Well. Yes and no. I rather enjoyed the conversations I had with the people I met. But I’ll admit that now that I’ve been to BlogHer, I’m still not clear on the value. The focus - women who blog - remains too broad for me to get behind. This was something we discussed at Volare, Kinetic Loop and I. Get two women together, she said, and there’s no guarantee they have anything in common. Women are wildly unalike as a species. Men are a bit more like each other. I’m inclined to agree. Just because you’re a woman with a blog, doesn’t mean we have common ground. I know that makes me sound cranky, but so be it.

Will I attend next year? That depends. One of the things I enjoyed seeing was the panels that were focused on subject matter. Food blogging got some good play. A conference that tracked by subject matter would be wildly appealing to me. I’d love to attend the travelbloggers conference, you know? Bundle workshops that teach writing about travel with workshops about travel photography, pitching your stories to travel publications, and technical issues - your travel kit, what makes a good travel blog, cool plugins for travel sites, that sort of thing… I’m there. If I see a sharper focus in next year’s program, I may jump in again.

I don’t feel like I got any closer to answering the questions I had about the organization, but it was fun. I’m glad I went.

Posted in Administrivia, Op/Ed | 7 Comments »

Crowded House

Have I mentioned that I really don’t like crowds? I might have. Finding myself in a room with over 700 people overwhelms me. Nearly all of the people are women, I’m guessing all of them are bloggers. I head straight for a mostly empty table where one of the lone guys sits. If I understood correctly, he’s at the conference in a professional capacity - he’s there to explore the question of corporate bloggers. Apparently this is the new things - companies think they need a blog, though they’re not sure why. He’s also there to meet Birdie, quite a fine writer. I’m delighted to be able to introduce the two of them when, by happy accident, Birdie sits down at our table.

We’re all strangers; it’s mostly comfortable chatter. After breakfast, we do a round of speed dating style introductions - I find this interesting and fun. I don’t want to talk to people that blog about sex, but I meet a woman who says she blogs about sex and cupcakes. I am for both things, though I am considerably more at ease talking about cupcakes. The cupcake woman knows about Seattle’s Cupcake Royale, though not about the other place that makes cupcakes in my ‘hood. It’s just as well, their cupcakes can’t hold a candle to those at Cupcake Royale.

I meet a woman who’s recently written quite a bit about her travels in Berlin and Israel - I’m keen to read her work. Another woman tells me she has an old time movie and radio podcast and my iPod is loaded with that stuff, so I’m psyched for that. I talk up Soup Swap to the foodies, my travel stuff to others. I don’t know how many people I met, only a few of them leave a lasting impression. That’s fine as I hardly expect to connect with everyone I meet.

After breakfast I try to attend one session - it’s full to bursting. I think about sitting on the floor and do so for about 10 minutes, but then I give up and go to a tech session where there’s lots of room. I give up on this session too because, of all things, it’s simultaneously too technical and not technical enough. At lunch I sit at the travel table and that’s fun, I spend a little time talking to a nice gal from Japan who tells me I need to check out her Japanese culture blog, and to two other women who are well traveled, writers, and, crazily enough, both really interested in military history. Then I head up to another stuffed to bursting session. I give up.

I stuff all my swag in to my pack, take the camera, and promenade. The conference is at the Navy Pier and tour boats are coming and going. The whole place is an outdoor bar, so people are strolling along the seawall with cocktails in hand. There’s a bandstand, a ferris wheel, fun house mirrors, souvenirs… everything I expect to see. Tour boats head out across the turquoise water of the lake. I decide to walk back to the hotel, even though what I should do is brave the crowds again and try to attend another session. Instead, I look in the windows of galleries and restaurants. There’s a Japanese place with minimalist decor, the seating is little white ottomans and Danish style square tables. There’s an Italian place with carnival masks flanking the entry way. A dad is dropping his two little girls off at the movie theater and is instructing them, in exhaustive detail, about what, exactly they are to do when the movie gets out. Across the street from that, a butcher is unpacking plastic shrinkwrapped packages of raw ribs. There’s a lot to see. The city is tall, really tall, and noisy, and here and there are old water towers on the rooftops, a sight that makes no sense to me. Even though it’s 80 degrees and quite muggy, I’m easier wandering the streets than back in the conference hall.

I hear tell that you get out of these things what you put into them. I have rather enjoyed the hallway conversations, the one on ones, the lunch dates. But the too small halls packed to standing room only leave me wishing I was outside, seeing other things. I’m making an effort to talk to people, to find out what they’re doing that’s so interesting, but I’m already so outside of my element in attending this conference at all. When I realize that I’m full, that I need a stroll and a nap, I clear off. Back at the hotel, looking at the women in the lobby with their BlogHer swag, I see I’m not the only one.

Posted in Administrivia, Passport Travels | 3 Comments »

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Posted in Administrivia | 1 Comment »

Ten Seconds of Travel: Blog Me 2007

You know how I feel about memes. Meh. But because I’m off to BlogHer, an introvert in a land of strangers, I’m going to do this one.The idea? Lightning round style introduce yourself. I cover travel for BlogHer; that’s what I’m focusing on here. And honestly, I think it would be interesting to read yours if you choose to pick this up. If you do, drop a link in the comments, k?

• Crazy: Pakistan. We were trying to get to India and it was easier to get a visa in Karachi than it was in Tel Aviv.
• Guilty Pleasure: Hawaii, Viennese bakeries
• Romantic: Meeting my husband for the first time at the Ayers Rock campground at sunset.
• Surreal: Traveler’s hotel in Cairo, hallways full of huge old furniture stacked high with old newspapers.
• Good clean fun: The outrageously long sledding runs in Berguen, Switzerland.
• Lives up to the hype: Venice
• Planning: A trip to Vietnam to find out where my favorite coffee comes from.
• Scheming: Around the World in 80 Blogs (Ask me about this! I’m going to be looking for sponsors and hosts.)
• Never leave home without: Earplugs, patience, humor.
• Always forget: Shower flip-flops, sunscreen
• Travel companion: See above under “romantic”
• Most life changing: India
• Biggest challenge: I’m mostly vegetarian.
• Gave up: New Delhi, India, dysentery, Valdez, Alaska, incompatible travel styles.
• Favorite airport: Singapore - they have an outdoor pool!
• Gear lust: A professional quality SLR, a backpacker’s ukulele
• Destination lust: Angkor Wat, Bhutan, Turkey
• Home: Seattle. There’s no place like it and it truly is home.

[tags]blogme2007[/tags]

Posted in Administrivia, Passport Travels | 5 Comments »

Girl Power?

You know I don’t typically do these things, but it came from Di, who apparently thinks I’m a Rockin’ Girl Blogger, so thanks for that! I’m kind of a nerd so I don’t even really know what it means to be Rockin’ but maybe I would if I was, like, 20 and not so in to twang and more in to, well, I don’t even know. Help me out here, someone, you kids and your crazy music.

Anyhow, in an uncharacteristic moment, I’m going to pick this one up and post links to five swell girl bloggers. And supposedly, in that chain letter sort of way, if I’ve listed you, you should do the same. Grab the button, pick five, etc. amen.

This isn’t my way, you know, and I feel a little sheepish about it coz I don’t divide the world by girls and boys. But I’m going to BlogHer and should try to at least pretend to be a girl power community minded person. No, I am, really, just not in ways you expect.

Here we go, it’s world tour time, kids.

• Melinda June: You’re number one! We used to go to Mindy’s house in practically our pajamas and she’d make these righteous breakfasts and we all watch The Tick on Saturday morning cartoons as though we were 8, but we weren’t we were all in our 30s, pretty much. When I visited Mindy in Milton Keynes, the feeling was exactly the same, as though you could lie around in your jammies watching silly TV and snacking and life did not get better. Her blog sounds just like she does.
• Wild Soda: I don’t even know Alli in 3-D but she got me a job. Alli’s a travel writer, the real deal. Asked about it, she didn’t sugar coat it or say stuff like, “So, you wanna be a travel writer?” She just passed a lead my way and said, “Someone’s gotta do it, it’s in your part of the planet, might as well be you, right?” Alli lives in Australia, sort of, though I think right now she’s stuck in LA.
• Mausi: Another imaginary friend, Christina is from beautiful Vancouver, Canada and lives somewhere in Germany with, oh, some German guy and their two kids. Christina shows a remarkable amount of fortitude for expat life and you don’t hear her complaining about it, no siree, except when you do and then she’s spot on and funny and real. I kinda wanna give Christina some kind of medal for expat life perseverance. Instead, Christina, you get this Rockin’ Girl Blogger button.
• Tuckova: Because honestly, can anyone else write like Anne in the Czech Republic does? I don’t think so. I think I’m pretty handy with the written word (I’m not fishing for compliments, no need) and then I’ll go read some post that Anne has written and I’ll think, well, well, Miss Fancy I Can Write Nerd’s Eye View, back to the keyboard with you. A-hem.Not that that’s the only reaction I have. Sometimes, I just sit there, sort of stunned.
• Sassy Glasses Girl: Susan is right here in Seattle and she has a brand new blog. There’s not much there yet, but Susan is One Funny Girl, I tell you what. I heard Susan read an essay from a book she’s in and okay, it wasn’t a competition, but she was by far the funniest and what’s better than a funny girl? Not much. I’m hoping to see lots of the snappy humor on her blog as it gains speed. No pressure.

If you want to know what else I’m reading, you can check out my blogroll,that’s here. Some of them are girls, if that matters to you. And if you can’t get enough girl bloggers, now’s a good time for me to point you to BlogHer because that’s a real festival of girl bloggers right there.

Posted in Administrivia | 4 Comments »