When You Think You’re Done, You’re Not

If I had to describe this weekend using only one adjective, I’d get into trouble. Busy? Interesting? Cool? Yeah, all true, but none all-inclusive. Where the heck was I? I was in Munich (of course) at the BarCamp 08, an “Un-conference” where web enthusiasts of all color exchange their views and experiences and everyone (well, nearly everyone) contributes in some manner. The barcamp lasted two days, and when you spend that much time locked up with perfect strangers, you get to meet quite a number of them. That was probably be the best part for me, since I do not work in a web-related profession and don’t see myself getting there, either.

Which doesn’t mean the sessions weren’t interesting! The variety was endless: from monetarizing your blog or website to what makes a successful business plan, from podcasting for beginners to search engine optimization, from Fanboy Apple to bleeper.de to how to run a startup using Sun systems, if you asked for it, it was there, and if it wasn’t, there was probably someone who could offer a session, anyway.

So I came back smarter and hot for more. But I’ve also decided to skip the Microblogging Conference in January, because no matter how much I’d like to have an excuse to go to Hamburg, I just don’t see discussing the fineties of Twitter and Identi.ca for two days. Instead, I have been subtly volunteered to help out at next summer’s Black Forest Barcamp, which I will be happy to do if time allows!

Which now leaves me exactly one day to get caught up on my blogging, sort the rest of the photos and take a short breather until the next webby project, for on October 15th, it’s BlogActionDay and I have promised to contribute! And I think after that is Christmas…

A Romanian Get-Together

I don’t cook for myself, but I do enjoy cooking for company. That, and my love for foreign foods, was the inspiration for the little dinner party at my house tomorrow. Four of my friends are joining me for sarmale (can we all say, cabbage really smells BAD in the fridge) and mamaliga (the cheesy variety, I absolutely loved it in Sibiu) with, of course, sour cream and a salad. If you think that this doesn’t sound too bad, after all, it’s all veggie goodness, wait for dessert: fresh-baked budinca with apples and vanilla icecream!

Considering all the work that goes into cleaning up after a party like this, it might seem odd, but I’m really getting excited about tomorrow!! I’m sure Louie would be, too, if he could actually understand me when I tell him that there’ll be a gaggle of ladies there who’s going to go nuts petting the little guy.

And to all of you, a wonderful weekend!

Kinotag: You Don’t Mess with the Zohan

I really wanted to write this now, before I go to bed, because it’s been a long time since I had a good buzz going on a Saturday night and wasn’t depressed about something or other.

Actually, Anke and I wanted to go see “Mamma Mia!”. That’s what I had reserved tickets for. We got there a bit after seven, the guy told us we had to wait for about ten minutes, and when people were obviously going in the theater, so did we. They were already running commercials, but hey!, no big deal. Then there’s Adam Sandler at the beach, doing some goofy shit, and we’re looking at each other, going ‘is this still previews or what?’ Nope. We had picked the wrong theater! And this was before we had anything to drink!! Flexible gals that we are and both wanting to see “Zohan” anyway, we stayed. It was goofy and sweet and funny and completely obsessed with genital jokes (hey, it is Adam Sandler), full of Ex-SNLivers, featuring Dave Mathews as a redneck terrorist and co-starring John Turturro, whom I am a BIG fan of. So, it all worked out.

We were still laughing about the mixup later, when we took our ticket stubs to the “Eimer” at the Marktplatz for a free tequila. Well, we ended up with four, plus a ‘coffee special’ and a non-alcoholic drink each, teaching some slightly toasted American who was playing darts with friends how to do tequila shots, trading girl stories and having a good time. I am seriously buzzed right now and completely amazed I can type straight, but now it is time for bed. We’re hooking up again at seven in the morning for a long walk…

Very cool day today! I’ll drink to that!

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Last summer, I checked out some of the recommended “meeting sites” online and found that they were largely frequented by insufferable idiots. Those, I can meet on my own. This year, in the spirit of the networking age (which basically means, meet all your same friends on 15 different community platforms) I’ve signed up for some stuff where I hadn’t been before and the primary focus is not on chatroom sex (at least not so far). And what can I say, there are nice, interesting, funny guys out there! I may not be looking for dates, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good conversation. So, here’s to Xing, the lokalisten, MeinVZ, and all those others out there!