Volition

A new word to me this year. The first time I heard it used was by the CEO of openyear.com as his company is called Volition Partners. But what does it mean?

Well, I am starting to find out. I received the book, Sic Itur Ad Astra by Galambos, Andrew J as a thoughtful Christmas present. It is basically the theory of volition. I am just at the introductory pages but already I have had a few moments of reading that have matched my own pre thought-thinking. (I want to convey a physical emotion but can not find the words to represent them at present).

It boils down to a quotation used by Galambos in his introductory. It is quoting a person about my age that believes in the theory of volition but finds the 'real world' not conforming. The gist of it is that my own personal experience matches the anecdote to the T. That is an uplifting experience.

A bit like the introductory style chosen by Galambos, I hope the significance of how I feel about this book will come out with time as I further read the book. A couple of posting ago, I took a stab at what the Scottish enlightenment school of the 1700 might be saying today, (here if you want to read it). In short, Volition Science, is/maybe/will/all ready is the new intellectual framework set out to take society forward. Back to the reading.

jumping off the .. ....

I have often heard the phrase, 'you have to push yourself to the edge of the abyss and then have the courage to jump off'. Being an organically driven person, I thought this was just some sort of macho statement. Maybe it is? However, I have never heard too many people talking about the sentence after.

So, what does happen when you through yourself of the abyss? You find the biggest mountain of opportunity. Just climb to realise your vision.

Christmas Frost Aboyne

Christmas Frost Aboyne, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

But now it's all gone today.

Festive Frost

Christmas Eve in Aboyne and the village is looking very festive in its thick velvety covering of frost.

Merry Christmas from Father Jamesmas

comedy tuesday palo alto

Looking for a laugh on a Tuesday evening in the bay area, check out comedian Erikka Innes at Rudy's bar, University Avenue, Palo Alto, from 10pm, .

Introducing the comedians.

1. Richard Kiss

2. Pamela Borhk

3. Bob Johnston

4. Nato Green

5. Erikka Innes (co-host)

6. Michael Magin

7. Julie Myers

8. Al Gonzales (co-host)

9. Jeanette Castanon

10. Veronica P.

11. Xavier Marin

A great night of laughter, a more detailed review soon. Got a bit of time travel ahead of me.


Back on GMT, Christopher welcomed the audience, and I cordially returned the greeting but that invited a focus on me, nothing beats audience participation (it is the era of user generated content?) these days! It was fun and laughter filled the room.

The first act was a bit on the nervous side and that dampened their energy. You could see where the stories were going and with more confidence, we would reach the punch lines in more anticipation.

Bob, up from LA, a great use of his 'Father', making fun of himself/family but in a positive. The tale I liked best was about his father's interventions in helping (not) with his dating.

Nato , An endearing and instantly funny (unique) voice, he uses it well. Once he got into his flow, he ditch the notes, he introduced a series of sexual humour jokes and then there was no stopping him. Very funny.

Erikka, co-host of the evening took to the stage with confident strides. She went easy on us initially and then upped the intensity as the topic of relationships took her fancy. Then she upped the intellectual standard as she magically brought great philosophy observations to us. If only Uni. lectures were so entertaining and funny. Wanting more of this humour, the red light called time. I am looking forward to listening to more of this type of humour.

Julie, on stage for the first time, a bold introductory statement. A well thought out routine, required a bit of thinking but I liked that. I am sure with practice she will take more of the audience along with her.

Al, co-host of the evening. The first and only sit down performance of the evening. But that did not translate to a lack of energy although I did worry about some of his stretches for his pint. Audience participation was fantastic in this set. Stanford students providing good fodder and yours truly helping out again. Luckily Erikka was sitting next to me by this time. A classy turn by Al.

Jeanette performed a short and well thought out set with plenty of energy. I was left wanting more and I am sure she will fill out her material with time.

Veronic was counting down the minutes to her birthday. Full of gusto and volume she told tales. She has an infectious laugh, you can not help but join in.

Last up was Xavier, a nice use of red wine as a prop to suggest how drunk he was but he later he showed how switched on his mind was when we brought home the set to much laughter. A great finish to an evening of original humour.

last MV week for now

A beautiful blue sky day to start off my last week in Mountain View for 2006. I describe Aboyne as a magical place to live and I have been lucky to find its twin in Silicon Valley.

uncle james times two

The best news in the world this morning, a new member of the clan arrived into the world.

Mountain View Winter Picture makes home page

A sunny day in Mountain View makes the home page of www.aboynejames.co.uk . The first none Aboyne photo.

MVM Certificate

Image019, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

healthcamp giving health the barcamp treatment

0612HealthCamp 019, originally uploaded by enochchoi.

The worlds first healthcamp was held on Saturday 2 December in San Francisco. A day of great discussions with great thinkers. Cheers to all the participants who came along to openly share their ideas, knowledge, expertise and passion. This

This was my first time as a co-planner of an un-conference event. BarCampSF was my introduction to barcamp and from there BarCampStanford followed with MashupCamp, StartupCamp, PodCampWest and HealthCamp. Wearing the participants shoes, these all just seem to happen, you turn up, participate and share in the rewards of the experience and learning.

A large part of my motivation to be a co-planner of healthcamp was to bring the unconference format of event to a new group of people. How to start organising an unconference? Well, the advice contained on the guide to running an unconference provides a great start. No.1 share your idea with the world and from there you will find your co-planners. We quickly formed a committed group of co-planners. Next was the hunt for a venue, one was found and the date was set.

Then the first feedback on healthcamp came in. This turned out to be the number one learning experience. That feedback was saying, what will be the agenda for the day?, key speakers lined up? and what tracks will be discussed? I explained the big idea behind an unconference event was that the topics were decided on the day with discussions on the wiki free for all to contribute to on the run up to the event. This ensures, that for those that turn up the topics are the most relevant. For many this still left a lot of uncertainty on what value they would gain from attending. Too such a degree, they were happier to review the feedback from healthcamp to decide on their future participation.

On the day the grass roots healthcamp participants turned up. Most unknown to me and the level of female participation was high. I was greeted by a participant saying, 'I don't normally come to tech events but this is focused on health and that motivated me up to turn up.' The range of participants ranged from physicians, retailers and technologist etc.

Lessons learnt on the day. We could have spent longer introducing the basic rules of an unconference, e.g. the law of two feet, being a bumble bee etc. Giving the session leaders a clear time to broadcast their session ideas to the group. Being more robust on time keeping, building 15mins change over time may have helped.

For all those imperfectalities the event flourished. The topics of prevention, from food to the use of online information, blogging to medical research and to the role self monitoring medical devices. All in the context of putting the consumer at the center of health. With lots of entrepreneurial spirit to create a world of health2.0.

behavioural change afternoon session

Interaction designer

prevention of obesiety.

1. lack exercise
2. poor diet.


Foucus on food. Freshstart.com

two friends, cook together. Voice conferencing between homes when cooking.

End result,

half recipey each.


Interest was. Education, prevention theme.

Factors. Accountability, peer support, Statement of values,

Focus on science today. Need to focus on doing. How to cook rather than, science of nutrition.

Compliance the issue? Co operation to bring into compliance.

How do frineds find the partners. Find friends phyical world or online.

Use mentor model? Grandma to grand child.

Focus on

Which meal.

How practicalities.

Focus women, try new things, aware of issues.

Integrate into myspace.com

Good demo and idea



Need to start earlier

Children, education.


But in a loner society, tuff to implement.


Start at basic level.

Buy apple or Cliff bar?

Cost of fresh food are same as processed? Economy scale.

What are cost of time? Fresh, processed time quicker?

Time barrier of freshstart too hight for the masses? View.

Time, tv vieiwng 2800 hours a year. 10 year of expereince in TV.

Which age group do you start? Educate elders, parents and pass down to children.

Behaviour change??

Emotional impact,

Food has become a form of entertainment.

MacDonalds popular, low cost, soical mixter

Could be real time video via skype.com msn messenger etc.



Boredom, but think of commute time.
Even repetitive expert job, because addictive. Just like drugs.

Build in rooms, to stop trip to vending machine.

Bottom up and small. change focus.

wide thinkers driving

in the past, US at least, driven by Merchants.


Distruptions.

Cancer, heart attack, stroke.

Book, andy kessler review.


If we spend too much time focus on. Go around.

Ethics

Better data mining.

Better , better data, better corrleations. We will know what will happen in the future. Preventive, or patient outcome.

Uneven distribution of people

5% for 40% of healthcare cost.

Will insurance exlude this group in the future.

Some people do cost more. Healthy subsidise ill. Young v old.

Old insurance modeling no longer.

Need not a binary thing, huge grey area,

Self forming communities of help, e.g. neighbours.

Context so broken. For community. Single houses. Co. getting paid for nure to go the home.

Merchant, driven from creation of US states.

Problems with self help neighbours, liabilities.

Used to work for extend families.

Painful to change.


Insurance. Ethics. 23andme.com genome company, informatics. Consumer tool kit. 24 random home, can correlate to whole universe to all human kind.

Insurance. Today works, rate statitic s events, The system works.

In new age, this thinking is broken.

Self insurance plans, within the corporation building the statistics. So, they can say, our employees are healthier than average so give us better deal.

Corporate insurance, do much work to get real statistics. Standard form fill is so basic.

Forget govt and insurance. Focus on self. Info. genetics, food etc. etc.

Let self forming peers. Thus society chooses the pooling.

Insurance just costs alot.

Why does insuarance cost too much. System broken.

Open source healthcare.

80% could be gained from bahaviourial change.

Stanford hopital are starting personlisation.

healthcamp 1.0 Session 11am Room C

Prevention

Real world today,

Focus on helping people already but problem already.


75% of diagnoisis treatment, etc. does not work. Does not want to find an answer.

Personal example, breast cancer. Go back at look a basics biochemistry. food nutrients.
We are all different on the inside like the out side.

We are just find out what the gene, e.g. need to eat XXX

Bacreatia billions, antibioteics wipe them out, how do
Depression, more linked to gut to

Modern thinking. Set mind sets are not looking at right.


Base of medicine of medicine not right.
Education

Need facilities to get educated.
Social availabilty of food. Food purchased on the good.
School, starting. Oakland examples.

Carbohydrates. 25 years ago, fat seen as bad. So, carbohydres increased, refined. but quickly converted to sugar thus, Spikes.

Role for government? Vested interests. Not with indivdual, but for big pharma, etc.

Food industry, bought by tabacco industry.

Social movement,

Media blitz.

Emotional impact on over all wellbeing. Linked to when eat, Works both ways food intake.

What is breakfast? Oats and fruit. Or omellete protien. Brain development. Protein plus complex carbohydrate.

Frost and swimming autumn

Made my first weekday swimming session today and the frost also chose to make it's first appearance of the season. It's was a case of brass monkey's! The water was warm and as long as you keep moving the wind chill on your head was minimal.

How the Scot's .... book review

How the Scot's Invented the Modern World. Author Arthur Herman. I have just finished reading this book. A book that I would have probably never have purchased but given by chance, it was in the room I am renting in Mountain View, I decide to give it a read. And what a read. It may rate as one of my most important reads.

I have never been a fan of history. At school, Aboyne Academy, when we get the choice of subjects to take, History and Geography line up against each other and for me geography always wins. My predisposition is to vision, to looking forward, assuming each day represent a blank canvas to create the day and days ahead. Decades ago, about University days I recall reading or listening to the Winston Churchill quote, 'the further you can look back, the further into the future you can see.' Not an exact quote but words to those effects. This did seem to make some sense but I have invested very little time to history until recently.

Reading this book has allowed me to piece together a whole string of events, thoughts and some new enlightened conclusions from my free and independent thinking.

From my first trip to the United States of America, I have found that the average American I met turns out to be more Scottish than I, well they certainly know the clan or family tree trace back further than I do. Scottish history, battles, fighting with the English, Culloden, Battle of Bannock Burn, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and locally Roy and Gilder Roy. Economics, self interest, capitalism, Adam Smith and entrepreneurship, free trade to Andrew Carnegie. This book raps together all these worlds, with history the name of the story.

With the story being a lot richer than the parts I list. I enjoyed reading about (at least the authors view) to a greater depth the series of events and people that came together at time to be recorded as history. Here is a quick summary of what my mind has selected to stand out. Religion and war. One group of people fighting another. Education, from the Churches to the Scottish School, the Enlightenment Writers, Hume, Smith and Reid. More on them later. Pioneers to new lands opening up trade, tobacco to slaves. Government, taxes to tap into the wealth creation, naval military. The observation from the Enlightenment on both fighting and trade. Overwhelming question the school of philosophers was, What is the purpose of life? Must be a better way than all this death and constant political upheaval and poor living condition for the masses.

Clubs of intellectual discussions key to wider acceptance of the society and social change set out. Not won over night, some still argue the relevance even today, more fighting and environmental events, bad winters, drive Scots to North Ireland, 'fighting for every field', the Scotch-Irish are, ships to the colonies allow escape. At the same time Scotland's chooses Union with England and Scot's rise to take leading political positions and drive the formation of the British Empire. Twice. These forces collide in the American Colonies, Scotch-Irish and some highland Scot's fight against Scot's who side with the Union. The Colonies win and the winning Scot's drive on to reach the west coast. Defeated Scot's head for Canada, a top-down socialist model is formed. The United States, live by the self interest school of enlightenment. Freedom, independence of spirit creates a grass roots created society. 1800's see the industrialist come along and perfect the practices set out by the Scottish School, Andrew Carnegie sets a formula that looks like the Global Corporations we have today. Back in Scotland, devolution has happened, Union with England still the foundation, the start of a new era of change to drive a new enlightenment era?


Further thinking on entrepreneurship. Over the last decade there has been a strong push from Scottish entrepreneurs and politicians to create a strong entrepreneurial culture. I have contributed by giving school talks. Having read this book I have been led to consider that this may not be the best strategy.

The Scottish School, the Enlightenment generation set an intellectual frame work or culture for what being a human and society were/are. They were philosophers. A set of papers that were read by the Andrew Carnegie's, Alexander Bells etc. to guide their entrepreneurial instincts.

If you make this interpretation, then it is not the teaching of entrepreneurship that should be our focus but to create an new intellectual framework that will be consumed by the enterprising.

What should or does this new intellectual framework read like? There seemed to be three main attributes of the Scottish School, The Enlightenment generation that formed the most educated nation on earth at the time. Maybe that says it all?

Hume, brought together the religious thinking with the secular thinking on what life is.

Adam Smith, observations on commerce and how the self interest of the individual and society play out.

Thomas Reid, The mind that brought us, common sense.


I think. If there is still three schools of thought that need to be brought together again they maybe.

Life demands to be lived. The next generation has the right to live too.

Commerce, capitalism has fullfilled it goals, a new 'attention' economy rules to consider e.g. economies of scale being challenged by economies of networks.

Not so much common sense, but 'unique life' that connects all to one earth.


Free and independent thinking. A school we should all belong to.

Autumn Sunshine Sylvan Drive

Autum Sunshine Sylvan Drive, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Just one week left for November and its starting to feel like Autumn. Low single digit temperatures (celsius) but pleasantly warm 16 in the sunshine. The wind is back in the north so there is a general chill in the air. It feels like we are a season behind but the color of the leaves reminds you winter is next.

Scotch Abroad

Scotch Abroad, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The nights are getting colder and the Scottish Whisky barons have a suggestion to heat you up.

DIY should never mean doing it alone

Go to your Peers, Podcasting, videocasting etc.

All peers, listeners to content generators. All the same.

Mike Watt, look up or look down get a kink in the neck. Shoulder to shoulder better.


Group 2

Q should be help people share, grow comminity

Invest time other podcasting learn, is it important?




Sharing what worked, did not work. Try, things to try. Not to be afraid. Throw out crazyness.
All unique, not equal, different perspective.


Movement to force change.

Will equal radio, will that crowd out new people via intimation.

In the long run, better if you build your own brand.

Should we invest our time?
Yes, $10 class, 2 hours, here is what you do. Got exited, got something out.

Self service, learning,
Younger, tech savvie current adopters? Split, techie young v older traditional world consumer tradition media type with their thumbs.

Tech, de socialising email, voice and video now bring people back in, natural senese geared towards.

Idea of roadshow, that spreads the world.

Content producer centric what about listening, getting them to listen. Not everyone wants to share. Need to keep repeating the basics?

Talk to the non podcasters.

How much outreach did camp organisers.

podcasting stream to phone, cell, mobile

Cell 2bn 2m ipods.

Quality not so good on cell but convenience is brought to the market.

www.foneshow.com UI overview.

based on voicemail system. So you can forward podcast to friends vai Cell.

Widgets at source podcast and allows phone number sign up. Do decentralised signup.

Traction in white labelling in corporate training.

Sweet spot expected 5 minutes shows rather than 50 minute.

Ad sales ideas, CPC model for podcasting like google does for web. Why, give advertisers concrete RIO on ad cost? Hmm????

content focus now tech solved

Tim and Ryan 2 1/2 years of videocasting. video blogging


Bored of I am here. Now time to stories.

Distributed productions. Prof.s work in a team.

Baghdad video blog, team from across the world. Daily life of an Iraqi. Brain Connelley, brought cameras to Iraq. Won 7 vloggies. Going to be on CNN.

How do they do/create he show.


WIKI e.g. pbwiki organise project, work flow, story ideas, whole, screen cast every step.
And yahoo groups,
stingexpress file sharing tools and private group to exchange files.

People write comments, and net result is whole lot better than do yourself.

What to effect change? Help that process. Allow to compete with main stream.

Cool. exchange over cultrual (country boundries more mental barriers.).

Business model, donations driven at present.

legal issues

green screen, dvrack demo.


copyright


creative commons Colette Vogele wiki


Gini Corporate law

learn from the 'veterans'

tip and tricks

Michael Gohagen, Pioneer movie buff. real reviews 2004 podcast. Works will disney Book podcasting solutions.

Gigabox media levelaider cool new tool.

Michael, rocknroll geek show. Are you ready to rock?

Robbie 15. the teamcaster pod network.

Vic Podcaster

Marcus vision entertainment. Cool hard rock heavy metal.

JA Donnelly, pod a hollic, main stream TV now podcaster, lot of pod casting.

Panel shares there motivated to get started.


What made it appealing, make it special, get the word out there. Talk to each other initially.
Mix into other communities, e.g. myspace, provide links to make it easy.
Focus outwith, podosphere.
Keep trying new shows, new ideas.

session 2 getting started podcampwest

Sallie

Gerry, broadcast backgroud. Audacity tools

Kevin, podcast, enjoying as a hobby.

Kris Smith, Nov 2004 start, croonst.com 3 times a week and consulting.


Most people still don't know about podcasting. Sallie consumer of content. Still need a ipod? Only this audience 98% know about it. Producer and listening.

Not audio on the web. Brings RSS,
no need to worry about audience, can be large or small. Does matter. Open to all. Nil Cost.
Easy to get feedback. Two way medium. Extend conversation.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ free, and powerful, opensource, easy to learn. Fun
Methodology to create podcast. Committment, repeatable. Limited time.
1. record imput
2 Arrange files cronological order
3 Each file individual, not bits and pieces.
4 musical open and close
5 Segways between items file to file. Be best you can make them
6 Listen to your work. Take notes, brutal with yourself. Keep volumes constant. MP3 file and post.

Then start over.
Learn the short cuts, in the tools. e.g. controlZ

What about head phones from out loud speakers.

podcampwest unconference

live from the Swedish Hall in San Francisco.

podcastwest is a podcasting focused unconference.

Vic get things going with intro and thanks to sponsors.

Sean www.seanoandjefe.com top 5's music, talk etc.

Q. future of new media.


Slow erosion of radio, tradition?

Kris, medium will take care of themselves. Bring new fresh people into traditional industry.

Greg, medium path, user generate content, big media, half way between.

Medical industry interested but not, big pharma may fund.

Creative artist, can afford canvas to paint, very exciting. cost gone from thousands to nil cost as built in ad's. Also getting paid to make certain content. Portable movie studio. This world created in

revver http://one.revver.com/revver/browse/Editor's+Picks

Advertiser are coming to the side. Such is interest. Selling impressions.

Money to be made?
Can you quit your day job. Your knowledge is worth more, sell consultancy time and podcasting gives you the status to do so. E.g. 11 page what you get, charge.
Disagreement, will right $200, smaller business so it can be done.

Consulting, expo, MTV client, then lost them in 6 months. Didn't real him,
300 no money taken in. Real difficult. But provides status to charge consulting.

listening, viewing time is zero sum game, ie only 24 hours in a day.

Tim makes french maid.

Contextual advertiser, tv not very good at. Great radio, e.g. wine better on podcast then e.g. in between tennis on tele. This is big advantage over trad. media. Context.

Focus on your passion. CPM price heading down.

Greg beercasting, sold show within conference, not audio file. Podcast, give platform to build relationship. It's the quality of relationship.

Building an audience. Sceptical comes first and then comes the story. History of film making.

Transitionally period, sceptical, youtube loneygirl brings first story. Was real, not real, That is where are at. Emotionally engaged. Get them to care. Back to your personal passion.

Dealing with human emotions, askaniga has done, it. Comedy, deal with yahoo. Judge for talent show. Early stage, humour good place to start, Also, lust and comedy.

And real life, new puppy, kill the dog. lost people, gained people, just sharing emotion.

Polarise your audience, love and hate people, controversy builds interest.
E.g. on graperadio controversy, young wine maker, belittled them. Battle royale. Got them together on the same show.

Get preprade, podcastbrother.com show on creating a business out. Just ad a sales email on the website.

Just keep trying, no cost to trying. Very few answers found.

Unconference James

CIMG1585, originally uploaded by jaycross.

You even get to write on the tables.

tagging session

Startup camp, tagging, tag beacons.

A good session on who are tagging, how they tag and why. Various mindsets on the reason for tagging. Tags now that broadcast a common tagid for a particular e.g. event web22 for this event.
Missed my train home at 10pm to I arrived home at 2am. Up at 8am and now back in SF.

First session, community.

Flickr commuinty tells story of my life, just like blogging. Photos community not that great for photo storage.

light weight, but deep relationships can/are formed.

unconferencing again web 2point2 SF

There is a $3200.00 conference going on this week in SF. So, what happens, a $34.00 unconference springs up to unite the innovative grass roots.

Blogging live, more as the day progresses.

Get to know everyone, two circles of chairs facing each other. 5 minutes to get to know every second in the room. A little work on the schedule and it lunch time.

Great sessions ahead, main buzz around ABUNDANCE ECONOMY.

More unconference freedom in the afternoon.

Met a person I emailed in 199-7/8 time. That is the power of unconference, meeting people you would like to meet but have put no formal effort in to facilitate the contact except through the act up turning up.

healthcamp 2 December 2006 SF

The first healthcamp unconference is set for Saturday 2 December 2006. If you are a health visionary, entrepreneur, radical free thinker or thought leader in the space, feel free to go to the wiki page and add yourself to the list of attendees.

The idea of having an unconference focused 100% on health is an exciting opportunity. During my time in Silicon Valley I have attended many events that have had health as their focus, baby boomer, life science, blogging, web2.0 and environmental networks but the over lap in people attending all these is very small. There are huge opportunities in health and healthcare right now and for these to be captured will require new thinking. We hope healthcamp will provide a great environment for those ideas to be openly exchanged. I am one of the co-planner of healthcamp. See you there.

shorts and t-shirt November summer

For the first time I find myself in shorts and t-shirt in November. Last week I saw the first rain I have felt in Mountain View since March. So I thought the winter rains were on their way but this weeks see a return of the sun and very warm, hot temperatures in Scottish terms.

speed geeking

mepath.com tokens, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

I entered http://www.mepath.com at the startupcamp unconference speed geeking. This involves pitching your idea, business etc. to the rest of the participants for 2 hours on day one and 1 hour on day two. Your fellow peers than have one token to vote for their favourite pitch. I am pleased to say we scored 5 tokens

health startup discussion

health startup discussion, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

startupcamp, an unconference on startup's was held over the last two days. The unconference format bringing freedom, empowerment and open participation to all who attended.

I led a session on health and healthcare startups. Thank you to all who participated to make it a valuable session.

startupcamp morning

Intro. unconference.

David, gets the enthuiasm flowing.

Use the startupcamp wiki and keep notes.

Including speedgeeking.

Got up and suggest startup in health and health care , opportunities, regulation , demos.


See wiki for all topics

Berry Falls, Big Basin, CA.

Berry Falls, Big Basin, CA., originally uploaded by ecotorch.

I was out and about hiking again this weekend. Berry Falls were at the end of the walk but it all started at the beach, in front of the Pacific Ocean. It was a fair hike, 4 hours or so. The trail was mainly in the shade of the Redwoods and other trees in the forest. A bit like an extend walk version of finding the Burn O Vat back home.

A big thank you to my pals in Mountain View for taking me to these amazing places I would not know about or be able to reach without them. Cheers.

Heroic will and unlimited energy

Words I read recently to describe a Scot that played a part in changing the world. Who?

Answer coming soon.

River Dee Paintings

There are more preview images of Howard Butterworth's River Dee painting on the Butterworth Paintings website. The first being of the Bridge over the River Dee in Aboyne.

A percentage of painting sales are going to the River Dee Trust, so if you are in toon, go see the exhibition.

The power of PtoP prosper.com

Stanford entrepreneurship interview prosper.com, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

I attended an interview of Prosper.com Founder at Stanford this week. Prosper allows individuals to ask for a loan online and for others to buy that loan. The real genius I think is that you can just buy a small portion of the loan e.g. 10k loan, I may just want to buy $100 worth and I also get to set the interest rate e.g. 15% but if some one comes along an offers a rate of 10% then the seller of the loan will understandably be more keen to have a lower interest rate. http://www.prosper.com.

In the end of the day its just cash moving from AtoB, no big deal? It is though, it is a person to person transaction based upon trust. People are not so much buying cash but the story of the loan seller. The story is where the value lies. We are all heading towards the buying and selling of stories. A market place where we can trade our personal lifestyle data, PtoP.

Saturday in San Francisco

SF bay view, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Inspired and lead on by one of our Mountain View Masters swimmers we headed for a day in San Francisco. The enthusiasm for how hot it would be in the City. I wasn't so sure in it being warm in SF, as I have never found it to be so all through the summer, but I was proven wrong big time. The weather was hot, the hottest day I have ever spent in San Francisco, 21 Oct and 28C, was gussed at.

The day started off with lunch at one of the Peir Markets, then the hunt was on for some height. And as the photo shows, we found some. Then we walked north through China town on the pursuit of some chocolate and icecream. Which we found, delicious. Then we headed back into the City Center for a plate of garlic chips and a relaxing beer. A fun day out with friends.

James, Jack and Sam Celebrating Scotland

James, Jack and Sam, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

An email crossed my inbox a couple of days ago inviting bay area Scot's to join First Minister Jack McConnell to Celebrate Scotland.

Terra, San Francisco was the venue chosen to show off pictures of the latest Scottish architecture, music from Royal Scottish Academy of Music and food and drink. I attended as the darkened photo shows.

Jack gave a speech where he listed John Muir as an example of a Scot that had to leave to pursue and realise his vision and passions. Another speaker listed another raft of Scot's from history that had taken the same path. And today, the rules stay the same, or at least that is the path I have chosen to take.

I met people from Aberdeen University Alumni and even Scot's that live a matter of minutes from me in Mountain View. We get around.

Aboyne v Mountain View Weather Autumn

Sunol Regional Park in the East Bay

Sunol Regional Park in the East Bay, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

I joined the Yoga is Youthful walk on Sunday to the East Bay. A cool cloudy day, ideal for the walk. A roughish steep climb started the walk before the medow like pastures higher up, a bit like hitting the moor land back home.

Great view, even saw my first taranchula spider in the wild. Wild turkey too.

mepath.com blog

I'll be blogging along with my co-founders at the mepath.com blog. Here we will share our startup story and conversation with those in the world that want to live in a lifestyle linking world.

Silver City Blues 21st Birthday

President Farquhar birthday words, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

http://www.silvercityblues.org.uk celebrated it's 21st birthday last week. The club put on a ceilidh for past and current members. A whale of a time was had by all as usual.

Mountain View Laddie

8,000km from home and nothing looks unfamiliar. That is a strange feeling. You could argue that Autumn in further on here in Mountain View, the trees that loose their leaves are bright reds and yellows and most of the tree has turned to Autumn colors. Back in Scotland, the mild temperatures have just produce tints of golden colours on the trees.

OK, the sun is shining in Mountain View and back in Aboyne it is grey and raining today. The wildlife is a bit different across here too. I was greeted by 4 racoon's last night before they sunk back in to the road side drain.

Green Autumn, Aboyne

Aboyne Clouds, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

As this photo shows, it a very lush green Autum in Aboyne. There is a hint of rustic gold in some trees but green it still winning. September was a record breaker in terms of highest average temperature, will October follow sutie?

Boat Inn Aboyne

Boat Inn Aboyne, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

If you are looking for a great place to soak up Aboyne life and to enjoy a good meal. Head for the Boat Inn, located next to the bridge over the river dee.

Eve of Part 3

I am heading back to Mountain View tomorrow. I am looking forward to see how far south winter has reached. I know the Colorado Peaks are white, will any in the Sierra's?


2006 is seeing me living the purest spirit of entrepreneurship and life has never been such fun.

From Fitlyke? to Yehaaa!

www.mepath.com

mepath.com is the website we have launched to further our lifestyle linking health startup with. We are looking for individuals to sign up to the service so that we can get your ideas, thoughts and feedback directly into our service development.

We look forward to you joining us.

Bellzer's Stag Stableford

Image010, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Craig Bell shows the way on the golf outing on the eve of his wedding to Siobhan. Aboyne was graced with exceptional weather for late September. The golf was exceptional too, not all birdies and pars but ping pong in the trees and the odd splash created a fun filled round.

Stableford was the chosen competition format and Nolan came out tops with 37 points. Prizes for the longest drive and nearest the pin all added to the fun. The best laughs as always came from the friendly banter exchanged amongst friends.

Cheers to Gary for getting us all organised, nice one.

Autumn Sunshine

AboyneJames moves into Autumn with a couple of updates to the home page. A photo of Aboyne on a beautiful sunny day in September and the last in the Loch Nagar- Loch Muick video walk has been uploaded to the Internet.

healthcamp

During BarCampStanford, I decided to commit to the idea of healthcamp.

The idea in my head was to bring together the various networking groups I participate in while in the US. I don't see a lot of over lap in these networks so I felt it an exciting opportunity to see if an unconference with a health focus could bring them all together?

We are currently looking for a venue so once we get that sorted then things should take shape.

un-education = Accepted

What happens when you open source education, give it the barcamp treatment? Well, the film Accepted.

This movie could easily be just consumed as a 'US teen movie' but I feel and hope it's core messages are taken to heart. I equate our current education systems to a factory. There to manage children's information needs. As the films says, why don't we listen to the children, what do they want to learn? Children are serious about their dreams and ambitions, that is what drives their passion. The benefit to the community is that we all get to share in their successes when they are given the opportunity and freedom to pursue them.

Maybe the next barcamp grid will be a colorful as the one in the movie.

Rain, it's raining

Obviously, I am back in Scotland. Changeable weather to track, analyse and webcam chase across the web.

The rain started mid morning and is still going.

BarcampStanford Sunday

A good night sleep and I am refreshed for another day of barcamp.

Democracy sets the time agenda as we wrestle out the topics and structure for the day. This starts to create frustration but just as you think its going know where, a way forward magically appears.

Two mashup presentions / demo and topics from split up occur.

Co-workers, de-centralised and local phyical. We chose, de-decentralised. See our wiki and writely notes .

5 min presentation from all the groups.

Barcamp Stanford Saturday

The grid took a while to get going, the role of democracy slowing down progress??

Each barcamp is and should be unique. We are just about there. Go

User Interface design session, notes here (need to get )

Identity, session here

BarCamp Stanford up and running with BBQ

www.barcamp.org Stanford is up and running. A great BBQ thanks to microsoft for supplying the food. A great location and the chat of ideas is flowing. Looking forward to tomorrow.

California Consistancy - weather

It is approaching three months since I have felt rain on my head. This is by far the longest period I can recall with out seeing a shower. All that is of to change as I return to Scotland next week. Atlantic weather fronts are already sweeping across the UK, driving temperatures down and producing bright echos for the radar to pick up.

This is my first full summer in Mountain View, and what is struck me the most about the weather is its consistency, blue sky every day, not the whole day, fog is almost daily in the bay but down the bay it is gone real early on most days. The temperatures have been consistent too, mid twenties, OK, one week of real heat, 42.22c a MV record, that was way too hot. And another benefit of the climate is that the nights are in general cool, making it easy to sleep. All in all I have experienced why people are drawn to the California lifestyle.

For me I like my weather a bit more changeable and the number one reason for living here is still the people that makes silicon valley the home of Interent innovation.

To Black Mountain & Back

The hike ahead,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Yesterday I walked to the summit of Black Mountain. The 2800ft summit that I believe is the Mountain in Mountain View. The starting task was to get myself to Rancho San Antonio via bus. The bus was late, I had hoped to get hiking while the cool foggy morning conditions were still around. As the photo shows, the first blue sky had appeared, something back in Scotland you would wish for.

I had packed three containers with water, just over three litres. I had set a time limited of 4 hours maximum to research the summit as I know that is as far as I done in the past. I have walked at Rancho before, but this walk was taking me to new territory and the map provided was my guide. There was many paths to follow to get to the Black Mountain trail and I chosen the one that required a fair hike, up and down to the first meadow, a few hundred feet of extra altitude to get the legs working on. The Chaminse trail starts by taking you to the right of the Black Mountain summit. It's a medium climb but in the sun, hot work. I stopped for lunch at 11.30, having been walking for one and half hours and break fast was at 7.30am. A tree provided good shade, but the ground was hard, dusty and sharp. Sharp, with dead leaves, branches and angled grit.

Lunch provide a few minutes to look up at the hill to see glimpses of the trail as it zig-zagged across a knoll of trees. I could tell the climbing was going to get stepper, reminded me of the drop in to the Grand Canyon trails. And sure enough after plateauing through an old meadow the zig zagging soon started. The steepness wasn't as bad as I had expect but the frequency of turns more than made up. The welcome shade of the trees for most of this part of the walk meant the focus was on walking not on views but I was keen to see how far up I had come. The path stopped twisting and broadened. The top must be near? Turned out I still had the equivalent of a walk up the full length of the fungle head of me, and it was hot and I was getting tired. Just under three hours has passed. Unlike, most of my walking in Scotland where I hardly see anyone, there was a regular enough passing of fellow walkers, not too many to feel crowded, but enough to be welcoming. Half way up the second last steep climbed, but they were all feeling like the last, a couple of walkers where sitting down surfing the web. No escaping I was in silicon valley, or more precisely on top of silicon valley. One large saddle climb down and the final push to the summit. A leg burner. The radar masts were reached and no view to be had. I had wanted to see the Pacific Ocean but in a few more metres a circle of rocks marked the summit and views in all direction. 3 hrs 30mins to reach the summit. Time to take on board some water and food before a photo fest.

The start of the walk was now a long way away. Rested I started the downward journey. I always find walking down hill more painful, I find it easier to half jog-run than walk, after an hour I had descended half the altitude. I wish the last of my water was half empty too but a quarter had to do. I walked for another 4 miles before finishing it. The final push, walking was just a concentration game. Keep the concentration, the walking would continue, tiredness was ever present. The bottom paths were much more populated and timed passed and before too long I was at the water fountain at the start of the trail. The walk was not over, another mile plus was still ahead to get to the bus stop. Never has the seat at a bus stop felt so comfortable. Within minutes, the bus came, making up for its lateness at the start of the day. The map was taken out to add up the miles, a minimum of 22 in seven and half hours.

Barcamp is back, Stanford

Barcamp Stanford is on, Friday 25 August to Sunday 27.

See wiki for sign up etc.

Shakespeare in Hollywood

Shakespeare in Hollywood,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

My friend Jon invited me to watch a new play that he is in called, Shakespeare in Hollywood, a farce.

In short, I have not laughted so much in ages. A high calibre performance all round, would be a hit on the Edinburgh fringe I would suggest.

Well done to all the cast and people behind the scenes, thank you for great entertainment.

Silver City Blues Relay Team

Silver City Blues Relay Team,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The Belardi pool is where all the action is on relay day. Silver City Blues team is at full speed.

William Wallace of the swimming world

William Wallace of the swimming world,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Keith and Andrew march up in determined mood for the start of their 200m Freestyle relay, with Iona and Gillian I. making up the team. A great time is recorded.

10 years of entrepreneurship Aug 1996 to Aug 2006

10 years ago I left the offices of KPMG in Aberdeen to start pursuing my vision for changing the world full time.

Looking back I can see three phases of development,

1. 1996-1999 focus on money, the worlds commodity and financial markets. How could so few people impact so many people?

2. Internet 1999-2002. This Internet needs to be focused on empowering the individual. How does a none techie lead the information world?

3. Life, health, ethics and the environment 2002 to current. This period started with a life changing experience but it taught me that openness, honesty and the truth will win out in the long run. This has been the hardest period in my life to-date, but I have learnt so much about myself and life at large that the future is going to be an even better place for me.

I am going to come back in expand on these notes, in the weeks ahead.

Wiki wednesday with TiddlyWiki

@ Socialtext WikiWednesday with TiddlyWiki,
originally uploaded by enochchoi.

An interesting presentation from Tiddlywiki and Social Text. As always the questions and the follow on conversations were of the highest calibre.

Thank you to all who attended.

(ps, yes that is me in the photo, cheers Enoch.)

Silver City Blues at Eagle Park

Eagle Park,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Two other shiny silver city blues caps joined mine for training at Eagle Part with Mountain View Masters Swim Club. G & G from silver city blues, the first arrivals from Aberdeen arrive in the bay.

Aboyne Games Sat 5 August

Next Saturday, the first Saturday in August is the date for Aboyne Highland Games. I am not going to be there this year, a pond of water is separating us and my swimming isn't that good.

I have a second reason for remembering the Games, it will be 10 years on Friday since I left my job to live my vision full time. I will be writing more on this later in the week.

Tony, PM is in town and he's not visiting

Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the UK is in the bay for a 4 day tour. The local news has it as the lead story every night, ahead of the war raging in the middle east. He is attending a bash hosted by Rupert Murdoch this evening and earlier in the day he was at Cisco Systems meeting with the Internet powerhouses in the bay area.

Earlier in the week Tony, lectured on lifestyle and health, and the need to empower the individual. Rating it as the no.1 challenge for the next ten years ahead, I thought he may pop in by to chat over our plans and to get a grass roots level insight into entrepreneurship happening in the bay. Or may be that is on the agenda for tomorrow?

Blogher summary: in both the 10% & 90% camps

I had researched blogher.org and had decided not to attend, simply because I felt the conference was for women. However, a good friend, Sylvia, pointed out that men were not excluded from the event. I was keen to go as the session topics were all ones I had an interest in. So, I signed up for the Saturday.

OK, we had to sit through a Microsoft plug first thing but things soon improved as the food bloggers gathered at the pool. There were a whole host of reasons for blogging on food, passion for food, restaurant reviews, health/diet reasons, chefs, how to cook, story's of the food, the stories of people behind the food etc. Then all the subsequent sessions were great and informative. My rough notes from each have already been posted.

Christine Heron, today writes a post, 'making room for men at blog her' that sync's in with an issue I have on the female v male categorization. Like Christine, I span both camps, she derives her statistics from, as I have been to both the tech focused, open source etc. events and now my first blogher. But my reflection on this issue spans a much wider time period and crosses other networks I participate in e.g. the environmental movement. Here's my observation: I repeatedly hear from women that the battle is against men. They dominate the corporate world and culture and are at the heart of all it ills. I feel uncomfortable listening to such statements and personally feel I am being attacked. I am passionate to see the corporate world change as the next person, so why should I be classified on mass as part of the problem?

To explain the point a different way, the word 'institutional racism' has gained favor over the last couple of years, a broad brush categorization of an entity. It's not the entity that is racist, institutions are made up of people, individual people express the racism. I don't feel we will evolve change by talking to some mythical entity, we will make progress by talking to individual people. We are at a stage where the female v male agenda is increasingly irrelevant I feel. It is core values that is uniting individuals to participate. United by values, we aggregate our voices for what we believe in.

One final note, the was my first non-unconference I have attended for a while. I did feel a bit constrained but overall I am glad I had participated.

Closing session blogher.org

Panel Washingtonpost interactive CEO Head hudding post .com Grace davis, blogger hurricane relief Mena Trout, six apart Big them that arose was FEAR. In lots of ways, start up risk, blogging what to say, identity, children, politics etc. All supported with inspiring anecdotes from the panel and floor.

has blogging changed your life

Last session of the day.

martha session

shangri-la diet (book) about set point and how to adjust and how to continue to eat normally but with a more balanced POV

Panel: intros
Marniemclean.com knitting, arts craft, lunch. http://marniemaclean.com/
Gaila community magazine
Andrea shera supperhero jewellry. blog personal.
Pim, food blog shapehim

blogging to monetization, community trade off's

Why does you site stand out?

Obsession with gardening, Gaila, could not relate to her experiences, non traditional, poor, renter. Mass media direct to money of gardening, middle class focused. Off line option expensive, she was a niche. She wanted to fill.

Marthy: free patterns, tutorials, some sales to pay for website costs. Find passion

Gaila, follow her passion.

Pim, 2001, 2003 food blogs, not many at start, first movers advantage. Main stream press refers to Pim. They come to her.

Mightygiril.com her blog audience became her customers, for shopping website.

[note from FOOD blog session, blog urls will be on blogher.org website, need to check.)

Gaila, big media, corporate world does come knowing on your door. Need to watch your back. Sign contract to own you. Against spirit of her. Need to be a real "hard ass". Paid fair but kept her rights.

German example, blogger now lead large german media network, web2.0 stuff, blogger get paid in print edition.

Pim, moving to food to tv and book to make money? Steam of work coming to her. Things just come. Then be careful how corporates use your work, e.g. what does the contract say. Find good agent, they are on your side.

buying spirit of the blog, i.e. person, not the jewellry. Create life, design your life. Also life coach, FUN AND EASY, wont do it or I won't do it.

Craft. give reason for coming back. give away, links

Pim, brand comes when you find your voice, know your self and you will find your brand.

be yourself, not authentic, people will know, so just be yourself.


book non fiction, 15k to 75k .

Paid for blogging, size of audience, <100>1000 unique, get paid at this level $3-5. SME, Larger, 70-100$ per hour.

Gardening no.1 hobby, bigger than golf. Gaila could not sell out to existing corporate model.

Monetization, must be inline with personal brand.

blogging too domestically e.g. knitting, yes, but be happy to be yourself them again.
Guy friends make fun of you, Gaila, like making things.
Andrea painting, hussleing your takes for ever, fun and easy, beading jewelry.

womens work, broad side to male driven corporate world.

24-38k internal blogging inside corporation.

Gaila, yougrowgirl blog and book, interest in idea, get info. out there, not all about the cash, sell out a little bit.
Start up all about stumbling upon, you could be martha stewart, at that stage, stage to manage??? Pim found agent that lives your vision too.

blogher.org live

Just finished breakfast at my first www.blogher.org . There is a lot of buzz in the air and I look forward to participating in the sessions ahead.


Welcome from Elisa, Lisa and Derri? (need to get the name). 700 blogger attending today. The day is all about participation, the music for the introductory slides fails, so the blogger start a sing along. Set the tone for the day.

Microsoft live girls take to the stage, like a comedy double act. They can talk! Talk about buying a house, on to home improvements, challenge, here is the plug, msn content integration to bj blog on msn. Sharing home moving experience via blog helps.

Emily 'cooper' takes to the stage, Katrina hits, blogged to donate items to victims of Katrina. Miracle happened, people read and posted, they in turn, posted on their website to a full blown relief agency. Tens thousands readers in day, so "freakin cool". Now, used for local service for people moving to new towns, cities or regions. Concept of 'grass roots' New Orleans green spaces. "women bloggers can change the world"

Mary Hodder, www.dabble.com blogging allows you to speak with out needing to shout.

Jen Professional, did mommy blog panel last year. mommybloggers.com startup with two other mums. What about risk? Took 10mins to trust co-founders.

Food, class, politics, wealth. Blogging chef. May1 immegrate post. Food industry employ lots of immigrates. Upperclass get access to chef school. eggbeater

Step mothers are blogging.

Erica, chicken -feminist blog combined both words, who she is. Take a moment of your life and capture it. A saved experience. Keep long distance friends, close. Make new friends, she never new before that share same interests. In professional life, she believes blogs make society closer to the stage to ACT. Non techies want to be part of impacting the world, as users talking and participating in the technology evolution for the planet.

OZconn. Opensource, commuity. 98% men. Kaliya, identity women. "not enough women involved'

Drupal development of blogher.org website. Culture kitchen blogger. Drupal open source, but still not user driven. Used moveable type. 'bitch on wheels' for open source. Mena Trott, give female input to be user driven.

Mille Garfield, change her routine. Paper and coffee. Now go, computer and check comments. Thinking more. First read about it newpaper, bostonglobe, asked son, set up blog. thurrleymotherymille. New friends all over the world. Share life experiences.

Mountain View record heat 42.222222 degree's

I lived through the hottest recorded day in Mountain View yesterday. 108 Fahrenheit, was recorded in old money at that is 42.2222222222222222 celsius. The order of the day was survival. Had to cancel my Supper Happy Developer House attendance as it was too hot to travel, carrying myself let alone a laptop across the south bay was going to be a challenge.

Just about as hot today, so I have come to my favorite internet cafe to ride out the heat of the day in their air conditioned environment. I have now lived 2 months with out rain and no house pipe ban or water shortages to report. It is interesting to contrast that with back home when after a 2 week hot spell the water use restrictions start.

Here's to a cool sea breeze forming for the week ahead.

Colon Cancer Prevention Katie Couric, CBS Anchor

Katie Couric, CBS Anchor,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Katie gave a real and full on speach on colon cancer prevention and early detection via screening. She also explored her new role as the new anchor at CBS prime time news programme. This was the first time I had heard of Katie but it clear from the audience that the US public have great admiration for her. I look forward to reading her new blog and how she uses the Internet to bring openess to her editorial decision making process. Framing the CONTEXT of news is a key challenge for her and this strikes a chord. There is a massive online trend of forming user centric context. How broad casting can apply this will be interesting to see.

Around half way

I am some where near half my time gone and half my time still remaining in Mountain View.

Entrepreneurship and life is going well. I have been blogging less here on aboynejames as my other blogs, my internal healthXY.com wiki blog and my lifestyle linking blogs are getting more attention. Got me thinking why is my business blog private to only my co-founders when all other a public?

SF Symphony Orchestra

SF Symphony Orchestra,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, put on a Lord of the Rings evening at the Davis Hall. As a fan of the films, I am a fan of the music too. Accompanying the music was animated photos of the picture taken from the book and the music was true to the book and play each section in keeping with authors original work. The highlight of the evening for me was the seamless combining of the orchestra with the choir to great effect and emotion.

San Francisco Fog

San Francisco Fog,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The line between fog and sunshine

Mashupcamp.com Self organizing schedule

Self organizing schedule,
originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Mashupcamp II is an unconference I attended on Wednesday and Thursday. What is an unconference? It starts with a website where you register to attend or in my case a waiting list to attend. The cost is free. However, I turned up as instructed and got in early Wednesday.

What happens is that a wall is covered in white paper where an empty schedule is grided out. Then those attending are free to write up a topic for discussion in a room of their choosing. Other mashupcampers then vote with their feet to attend. The result, you get a group of between 10 and 30, some times more to turn up and participate. Within a session if it turns out it does not match your expectations you can up and leave.

However, each session is full of information and the self organization extends to the participation within each session. Often, notes a posted live the WIKI so the knowledge created is captured.

Unconferences work because of the openness and willingness of each camper to participate. Hopefully one is happening near you, you should attend.

4th July, time to learn the anthem

Happy Independence Day, Untied States of America.

Swimming today was on the holiday schedule and after a few lengths warm up the coach made us tread water and sing the national anthem. Well, flower of Scotland does fit to well with the stars and strips tune so I just contributed the odd la, la la in there to feel part of the occasion. In all truth is was very entertaining.

BBQ and fireworks is the agenda for the day. So, I will report on that later.

My new house mate had prepared a tasty BBQ feast. Roast potatoes, Asparagus, Coleslaw and two juicy types of sausages. All served out side on a dry and sunny afternoon.

At night, I met up with my former house mates to watch the fireworks at Shoreline near the bay. They kept us waiting but when the fireworks arrived they were entertaining. I don't think I have seen such circular explosion before. Flickr photos

Mountain View Weather June

Last day of June and the weather here in Mountain View has bee dry, warm/hot/warm and mainly sunny the whole month since I arrived. I say mainly sunny as a cold front did pass by early on but no rain. A heatwave followed and now a pattern of low cloud/fog depending on how thick, either burns off before you wake or on thicker days, it late morning. Temps, have varied from low twenties to thirty seven as the hottest recorded temp. for the month.

BarCamp San Francisco 22-23 June

BarCamp San Francisco,
originally uploaded by miss_rogue.

Me arriving at barcamp, 1 Market Plaza, Microsoft Offices. Photo taken and you write your name and three tag words on a sticker to identify your interests.