Firewallender // Cassie Wallender

Anthony Stevens did a great job liveblogging the MindCamp experience.  If you’re confused about what being at an “unconference” is like, I’d highly recommend giving it a read through for the play by play.  This was my first unconference myself, and I had no clue what to expect.  I suspected awesomeness.  I was totally right.  This is what I’ve gathered: true to the bar-camp, foo-camp, word-camp, Word-Ignite-Bar-Camp-Camp-Camp-Camp-Palooza-PDX (no, really) format, all unconferences hold to the idea that a conference would probably be just as useful if the speakers were randomly selected from the group going to the conference.  It’s an intriguing model: get space, get food, get interesting people together, and see what happens.  These are motivated folk.  A lot happens.

MindCamp is a 24 hour event (no sleep for the elite), and a good chunk of that is scheduled out by the participants suggesting session ideas and then everyone voting on which sessions we wanted.  Every hour, a new 45 minute session would start, and there were generally about six to choose from.  The schedule looked like this:

It was difficult to choose, to say the least.  I usually had about two or three I wanted to hit.  I only skipped one hour of sessions to take a break and upload photos.  Many of the sessions I did go to can only be described as fascinating brain candy, a few memorable ones were “How to be a Flickr Ninja” (lead by Stewtopia, who took the photo below), “Nerdcraft” (lead by Beth Goza), “Human Tribes and Social Media” (by the Brian Dorsey), “Portals: Making your Life an Adventure Game” (lead by Leif Hanson), a group brainstorming session on “Location Based Services” and “Political Activism and Social Media” (lead by Kathy Gill).

I also went to a session lead by Mónica Guzmán and Jason Preston in which we decided to make a “Viral Video”.  Now, I realize one cannot create a viral video, you create a video and it either goes viral or not, but we tried to make a video that had aspects which might make it popular: short, funny, something people could identify with, etc.  I wish we could have made the sound a little better in parts, but Jason did an amazing job with editing what we had.  We brainstormed the ideas and shot all the scenes in about 45 minutes, so I’m pretty happy with what came out of it:

It was a really fun and informative use of 24 hours, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone with a geeky streak. I met a lot of kindred spirits, and got to spend some time with good friends as well. A big thank you to Synapse who hosted us in their amazing office space in downtown Seattle, and Andru Edwards for organizing.

Well, it’s the last ten minutes of my youth.  So long, youth.  :-)

Tomorrow I turn the page on a new quarter-century of life.  When I put it that way, it’s sort of serious sounding, but really it’s like any other tomorrow: the first day of the rest of my life.

The last twenty five years have been quite an interesting journey.  I’m thankful for all I’ve learned and everyone I’ve gotten to know along the way, and how you’ve each impacted my life.  The nice thing about the years passing by is that good friends only become more cherished with age, like a fine wine.  There is a bouquet of history that slowly and sweetly blossoms as the memories compile and mature.  I’ve found nothing more precious in life than to have positive and caring friends - I am so very lucky.

One nice thing about getting old with friends is knowing that no matter how crinkly we’ll all look in another 25 years, we’ll probably be still silly and joyful on the inside.  And at 75, we’ll probably all be cyborgs.  ;-)

I’d like to take a moment to celebrate a much more ridiculous milestone in my life: my recent travels have put me well over 10,000 photos on Flickr.  When I realized this day was coming up, I thought to myself, Self, you should do something special for that 10,000th photo and whoever is in it. So here’s the photo:

Not a particularly handsome shot of either of us, quite silly and sun burnt, but I think it does convey a lot of the fun I have with Megan, so it makes me smile inside and seems an apropos 10,000th picture.  Megan, what should we do to celebrate?  This calls for an excuse to have some adventure.

Sadly, 26 is the end of my highly-discounted subscriptions to the ACT theatre.  If you’re 25 or under (which, looking at the clock, I see now that I am not anymore) check out the many theatre discounts Seattle offers you while you can.  My other advice for you young’uns?  Well, I’m glad you asked, since I’m a little older (and therefore wiser) than I was at the beginning of this post, here’s 25 nuggets of wisdom I’ve unearthed over my many, many years:

1. Don’t turn the heat on in the house until you think you might freeze despite all the extra clothes you’re wearing.  You’ll acclimate to the climate, and end up saving a ton. You might however drive your roommate bonkers.
2. Speaking of which, save a ton.  Use compound interest to your advantage.  Buy only if you have cash on hand, unless a mortgage or education is involved.  Hiding hundreds in cash in a pencil case and forgetting it was there for several months is also an effective savings plan.
3. Ninjas > Pirates.
4. Only bother going to the theatre for movies that have big explosions, and when you do go, go to The Cinerama.  The rest can wait for watching at home.
5. Don’t bother with television, you really won’t be missing anything.
6. If you really want something, wait.  If it’s that great, you’ll still want it later.  If you forget it, no harm done.
7. Always assume that you can, and figure it out as you go.  Accept challenges as opportunities. Attitude defines your perception, which defines your reality.
8. Don’t bother keeping up with the Jonses.  Especially in the area of electronics or cars.
9. Start running if your little sister wants you to, even if you hate it at first.
10. Have a zombie escape plan… just in case.
11. Make time for family.
12. Even text messages deserve some consideration of proper grammar.
13. Keep a calendar.  Fill it up but don’t double book, it causes stress and hurt feelings.
14. Volunteer, and not always in the area of politics.
15. Set goals and learn to say no to other things.  Every moment has an opportunity cost.
16. Make sure you have a little fluffy pet companion to love you no matter how you’ve messed up that day.
17. Remember that a vodka soda with lime is only 75 calories.
18. Blog if you must, but for gosh sake, not about anything too personal.  The internet is forever.
19. Don’t put ghastly pictures of your friends online.  It’s just not nice.  And again, the internet is forever.
20. Don’t hit lawyers on bicycles with your roommate’s car.  It’s just a bad idea.
21. Having brawls with a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin in a river or a whole hive of bees in an old shack can make for excellent stories.  Most scary experiences do.
22. Surround yourself with positive people.  Preferably those who enjoy terrible puns and cheesy jokes.
23. Enjoy the rain.  There’s beauty in most everything if you look for it.
24. When crossing tracks while riding a bicycle, cross at exactly 90 degrees to the tracks.  Not 70.  Not 110. Exactly 90 degrees. Absolutely perpendicular.
25. Wear sunscreen (this piece of advice is for those outside of Seattle).

I’m sure I could think of more (as an officially old person) but now that I’m elderly I’ve obviously become long winded and I need to go to bed!

Goodnight, world, you crazy bunch of kids.  (Get off my lawn!)

Love,
Cassie

P.S.  It seems sort of quaint to sign one’s own blog, as if you did not know who wrote this, despite that my name is in the URL.  However, we sign email just the same, even though it’s obvious who the email is from.  I feel it’s somewhat endearing.

I realized how comically ridiculous I am tonight when I found myself having a hard time getting around to leveling-up my D&D character for various reasons, but mostly because my Version 4.0 Players’ Handbook is completely in PDF and my MacBook Pro battery died, and I’d stayed out too late to see John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton at Town Hall Seattle and find myself sleepy because I’m still living on UTC-6 time.  This is normal, right?  Normal people procrastinate in leveling up their Half-Elf Paladin because they’re too busy meeting the “I’m a PC” guy… right?

Sigh… I think I may have shifted from geek chic to just plain nerd.

I’m a PC.