coworking noe valley/mission?

Ever since the Start conference, I've been having this mental itch to collaborate in some way with all these talented folks I know. A brain trust kind of thing, or a supportive community to bounce concepts off of, and to be the same for others.

For a while I've been seeing tweets from my San Antonio friends about "coworking" days they hold monthly at my friend Susan's Firecat Studio - you can get . It sounded intriguing; a way for people who have struck out on their own to keep a community. They have a space where anyone who wants to can come and work - either on their own stuff but getting human contact, or to work with each other, answer questions, help each other work through some particularly knotty concepts.

Despite the fact that I'm not an independent or startup person, I'm craving that kind of interaction. There are some places in SF that offer space like that for indies, but I'm thinking of something more personal, a closer group of talent; more salon-like.

Anyone else out there feeling that urge? Want to get together monthly for something like this? It can be something as easy as a WFSF day at a local coffee shop (for my fellow googlers), or an evening thing at someone's house or a bar. Noe Valley/Mission area generally - could involve beer at the end...

You can share, or not; be there just to have company while you work, or to collaborate and tap the brain trust. I'm just throwing it out there. Let me know what you think.

word of the day: zombiance

zombiance (noun)
pronunciation: ˈzäm-bē-än(t)s

: particular mood or atmosphere of an environment obviously ripe for a zombie attack.

As in:

"Umm... I don't see another living soul. You know, with the shadowy lighting and creepy fog, this place has a definite zombiance. I think we should leav... Arrggghhhh!!! OH GOD!!! They're eating me alive! Oh the humanity! Run!!! Save yoursel... *gurgle* *gurgle*..."

can of worms, opened

I seem to have ruffled some feathers with my last post, overtwitterers. I should write controversial posts more often! ;)

I was responding to the comments and my response got so long that it really turned into a new post. So here it is:

geekgal: i applaud your efforts at taking a look at your twittering and creating separate accounts for separate audiences. that's a great idea.

joe: i too love alanna's tweets. my day is truly better knowing that her neighbor's dog should get a record contract.

anna: thanks! i have a few more ideas for twitter that i may be posting soon.

juleed: eek! the first rule of twitter should be "don't follow a teen twitterer."

jr: swaggle is great. to clue others in to how we use it, we have a local neighborhood group that we started so we weren't always twittering non-locals with our neighborhood dinner/drink invites. we're learning etiquette there as we go too. for example - only respond if it's affirmative. 12 people all replying "can't make it" gets aggravating and adds up. also - don't accidentally SMS the neighborhood list asking where you can buy, say, pot. as a completely fictional example.

anyhoo...

just to clarify - this post was NOT about anyone in particular. it was about a number of twitterers i follow or used to follow, all rolled into one.

people have different styles of twittering, and some of those styles just don't match up; i get that. it's just disappointing to me personally because I would love to know what's going on in these people's lives, but the way they twitter makes it really difficult.

i'm not saying i'm a twitter saint; i have my days, especially when i'm at events, when i twitter a lot, but on the whole, i don't have time to twitter more than 2, *maybe* 3 times a day. i try to think about my audience; i only @reply when i know that half of my followers know or follow the person i'm replying to. otherwise, i take it to a direct message.

i'll be writing another post on this topic (and possible solutions) in the near future. stay tuned.

btw - i did not twitter about JR's gorgeous locks. he hijacked my iPhone and forged a tweet. i have to keep my eye on that one. :)

overtwitterers

Maggie Mason wrote an excellent article for The Morning News: Writing My Twitter Etiquette Article: 14 Ways to Use Twitter Politely. I highly recommend it. I started to comment on it on her blog post twitter etiquette, but I realized I had so much more to say about it than was appropriate for a comment. Plus, it really is a "bugs me", so it's better this way.

Here's the start of my comment:

I'm most bothered by a derivation of the don't-pause-between-tweets set — the sunrise-to-sunset twitterers. I'm talking play-by-play running commentary from "Good morning twitter!" to "Good night twitter!". I've had to unfollow people that I really do like in real life because of that. Come on! No one on earth is *that* interesting! If you were truly that interesting, you wouldn't have that much time to twitter.

Let's be honest. If you were that interesting, you'd be me. I'm kidding! I am fully self aware that I am not that interesting.

But here's a full, true-ish-to-life example, in case you don't know what I'm talking about (or are one of these people, in which case, I'm so sorry, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you're crushing my will to live, a lil' bit. It's not that I don't love you. I just need some room to breathe.):

"Good morning, twitter!"
"Fixing cereal for breakfast"
"Heading to work"
"Stuck in traffic"
"I'm at work now. Ho hum."
"Going for Chinese food for lunch"
"Can't decide: general tso's chicken, or general tso's pork..."
"Mmmm. Lunch was delicious. I got the chicken"
"Back at work. Now I feel like a nap"
"I'm already hungry again!"
"Getting afternoon coffee"
"Work is over, finally!"
"Driving home"
"Stopping at grocery store"
"Fixing green beans for dinner"
"Dinner was good. Gonna watch Mannequin 2 now"
"Getting ready for bed"
"Goodnight, twitter. Sweet dreams!"
"I can't fall asleep"
"Fixing myself some warm milk"
"For real this time. Good night, twitter"

Seriously?!? Every day?!? Do you really think anyone out there cares that you are currently, say, clipping your toenails? That the universe is waiting with bated breath to find out that you are... sitting down... picking up your fork... chewing... swallowing... digesting... taking a breath? I don't need to read every mundane second of your life. I have my own life for that.

I want to hear funny things you overhear, bizarre/hilarious things you see, that ridiculously clumsy embarrassing thing you just did, where you are that would make me jealous, funny things you have to say, snarky commentary, or "join me for dinner/drinks at [wherever]."

Unless you are inviting all of twitter over for dinner, or into your bed, keep it to yourself! Unless the dinner you're cooking caught your kitchen on fire and a fire truck came, not interested! Here's a good rule of thumb: If you are twittering more than 10 times a day every day, you better be funny or insightful or the Dalai Lama. Scratch that; you better be Joel McHale. If 20 times a day, you might want to get a hobby. Consider journaling.

If more than that (dear god - more than 20 times a day?!? should someone even have to tell you this?) think hard if your tweets are truly of interest to anyone other than A) yourself, B) your spouse, or C) your parents. Are you using twitter as a record of your life? That's not what twitter is for. The question on twitter should be: "What are you doing that's interesting?"

As a matter of fact, I don't think it should be a question at all. It should be:

If you only have one take-away from this excessively long and self-indulgent blog post, let it be this:

MODERATION IN ALL THINGS. ESPECIALLY TWITTER.

completely unrelated

A vivid memory just came back to me from Oscar & Bugsy Night. I can't believe I forgot to post about it till now.

This pug, Bugsy, can sit himself up and lean back in such a way that he can scratch his own penis/balls with one of his front paws. Did you know that was possible??? Is it just pugs, or small dogs in general?

He literally looks like a big ol' plumber who's plopped down on the couch to watch TV and stuck his hand down his pants, idly scratching his balls once in a while. I could totally imagine the beer in his other paw.

And whew!!! Those two little dogs were stink-y! Silent and deadly. Like, "OMG I've gotta get above the fart layer" stinky. It was relentless. Thank god Winston isn't a fart machine like that.

sick as a dog

I hate this. Every couple of months I get miserably ill with a wicked sinus infection, sore throat, cough, earache and headache. I've been sick since I went to bed on Sunday night. I have done the neti pot thing twice, and both times gotten huge green gobs of ick flowing out of my nose. And I *hate* the neti pot. This morning I was so stopped up that I could hardly even get it to work.

I have this weird feeling of panic when I'm eating or drinking since I can't breathe through my nose. Like I'm going to choke to death or something. I couldn't sleep last night, despite taking sleeping pills, and today I'm exhausted but I still can't sleep. And I can't do much of anything else either - my body just goes, "Whoa! What do you think you're doing? Putting away dishes? I don't think so. A little light-headedness should get you right back on the couch where you belong. There now. Isn't that better for all of us?"

I just need someone to drill a hole into my sinus cavities and suck it all out. What sweet relief that would be. (How bad a day is it when you're fantasizing about someone taking a power drill to your face???)

busy weekend!

What a weekend! Thursday was the conference, then afterwards JR & I hung out with our friends Mandi & Mike who came in for the conference from San Antonio. The four of us went to Swatdee right around the corner to have Thai for dinner. After dropping M&M off at the place they were staying, we drove out to the airport to pick up Colleen & Jeff, JR's sister and brother-in-law, at about 10:30pm.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at Tartine. I had the always delicious bread pudding.



The whole day was essentially a slow photowalk; down 24th and Dolores, up and down Valencia for a while, taking photos and shopping. It's great to just ake your time to notice what's around you.



After having lunch at Papalote, we came back up to the house and I took a loooooong nap. We left at 6pm to head downtown for the Giants vs. Dodgers game. It was great (albeit freezing cold)! We got to have totally bad for you ballpark food, because that's the law, you know.

Saturday morning we went down to Kookez and had a delicious breakfast, which includes enjoying the company of Shy & Deano. We loaded up on carbs to be fully fueled for our visit to Muir Woods. It was beautiful as always. Got to see an otter, and several chipmunks. We continued on to Muir Beach, and then Stinson Beach where we had a late, late lunch that was pretty meh. Unfortunately, I was messing around with the settings on my camera, and came out with hardly any decent shots. Colleen's photoset of this weekend kicks my photoset's ass. Check hers out.



Everyone started working on photos and blogging and doing computer work, and it was nearly 9pm when we realized we needed to get some dinner, and most places around here close at 9:30. We almost ordered in Chinese, but decided to drive up to a little place we know. We were afraid they were about to close, but imagine our surprise when we open the door and hear karaoke streaming from the bar. We had a great meal and a number of alcoholic beverages before we moseyed on over to the bar area to watch the karaoke.

My favorite singer of the night was a middle-aged Chinese man in a Metallica t-shirt who only sang heavy metal. I'm talking 'Feed My Frankenstein' & the like. And his wife was dressed in full San Antonio style headbanger getup, complete with teased up hair and mini-skirt. Very entertaining.

I was literally pushed into doing a song, which I promptly slaughtered: Sweet Caroline, by Neil Diamond. Apparently the number of Tsing Tao beers you drink is not equivalent to the same number of Mai Tais everyone else is drinking which make them bulletproof on stage. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Fun times.

On Sunday, we split up; Colleen & Jeff went down to the wharf, while JR & I ran a ton of errands in an effort to be ready for the party we're throwing this coming Saturday to launch "Backyard 2.0", which we've finally finished. It's awesome. Still much party prep to do though, and since I woke up pretty damn sick Monday morning, I haven't been much help. The turnout is going to be frighteningly good - I'm not sure where all these people are going to fit!

Back to coughing and moaning and generally feeling sorry for myself. And pizza - pizza is on the way has arrived, which makes everything better.

i'm at startcon08 today

Today a whole bunch of us are at the start conference, hosted by Jeff Veen and Bryan Mason. Mandi and Mike are here from San Antonio, plus J, A, S, B, D, B, D, J, C. (I don't know who's here stealthily or publicly.)

So far: Mena Trott (Six Apart) was great, so was Merlin Mann (43folders & 5ives). Got to see the founders of Ritual Roasters and Rare Device. Matt Haughey (a whole lotta nothing) is on stage right now. I love him too. Glad to get the chance to see him in person. He's got something new out called FUELLY. Not running yet, but looks like it's pretty cool.

Lessons Learned:

1. Never EVER wear new, bright red, patent leather shoes to a conference. No matter how amazingly snazzy they are. Not only will they rub wicked blisters into your feet before you even get there, you also won't be sure if you're actually bleeding to death through your feet or just stained.
   
2. ALWAYS take flip-flops in your purse if you're dumb enough to ignore tip #1.