Asymptomatic

Over the weekend, skippy flew in to hang out with me at BarCamp Philly. This was not my first unconference, but it was my first official "BarCamp" experience.

I would like to say up front that the BarCamp Philly organizers did a great job at building this event. Of the many free events I've attended over the past few years, this one was the best run of its style. Kudos to them and thanks for the wonderful effort. I want to spend a little time in this post going over not just what I think they did well, but also where I think all events of this type could stand to improve, either by following their example or doing just a little bit more.

Event Promotion

Interestingly, I think this may be the hardest one for me to judge because I'm not a promoter and I've got enough of a tap on our local community that I hear about events easily in advance of them happening. So instead of trying to see how they got people to attend, let's talk about something slightly askew....

I really want to post my impressions of both BlogOrlando and Ohio LinuxFest, but they're taking a long time to concoct, primarily because there was so much that happened. So for now, I would like to pose a question to all the locals and see if anyone's got some good recommendations for me.

This weekend, three of my wife's sisters and their husbands (plus one 1-year-old nephew of mine) are coming to stay for the weekend. This leads to the inevitable question: What will we do to entertain them?

Everyone coming is from out of town, at least 200 miles away, so they are not familiar with the area. It would be nice to take them to places that they would not normally see around home, to maybe give them a sense of the greatness that we experience living around here every day. There are a few nice hyperlocal spots. ...

I've taken the train only a on a few occasions. I realize that this is strange to some more urban denizens, but out the suburbs the train only really seems to go into the city or away into the hinterlands. Even at that, this week holds some landmarks for me in riding the train.

My prior trips included a jaunt to New York City. This trip consisted of getting on an Amtrak train in Downingtown, and riding it the entire way to Penn Station in New York. I didn't have to transfer, and there was only one stop. No mess at all; hardly a train experience.

I later traveled via train to the airport when I left for Paris. This required one transfer at 30th Street Station in Philly, which was only a bit of a challenge, having never switched trains en rout somewhere before. Paris also yielded many metro transfers, which didn't phase me at the time, but seemed like something different. The interesting bit being that I did not use a car to get anywhere for that entire trip....

A new front in the junk mail war has opened.

I struggle from day to day trying to keep loose trash out of my yard. It's not as bad in the new house as in the old, where the wind swept all of the trash into our lawn to roost, but the other yards in our neighborhood are so immaculate that one piece of rubbish in our lawn looks like a bright red boil on the face of a supermodel. That is why I am a bit concerned about this new Bulletin epidemic.

For a reason I don't know, a small Philadelphia newspaper has started delivering issues to my house and leaving them on my driveway and in my grass. They typically deliver the thing even in the rain, and the slight plastic wrapper that they're ensconced in doesn't do the job of keeping the moisture out, ruining the issue anyway. So I frequently get this soggy mess in my lawn or driveway that I don't even realize is there until half my neighbors drive past it on their way to work. Besides the quality of the materials, there are a couple of odd things about the paper delivery itself. ...