Goodbye, BlogSpot

Kids, I know this may come as a shock to you, but...I'm abandoning Blogger and shacking up with Wordpress.com. We've been growing apart for some time now, and I had to find a free hosted blog that can meet more of my needs. I hope you'll understand. Please update your bookmarks and feeds to http://alicia.wordpress.com/.

I'd hoped to wait to do this until domain mapping was available at wordpress.com, but the one-two punch of not being able to post most of the weekend and the disdain heaped upon Blogger in the past week has convinced me to go ahead with the move a little early. So yes, it's possible I'll be making a similar request later (though alicia.wordpress.com should still work even after the next change). It was beautifully simple to import everything, I think it took about two clicks and maybe one full minute. I'm feeling right at home over there already.

If you want to start your own wordpress.com blog, you can download Flock and all that wordpressy goodness is built right in. Mmmmm, goodness.

Plasma car

The SFMoMA store catalog came in the mail today, and in amongst the jewelry and ceramics was this fascinating thing called a Plasma Car. Not only is it swoopy looking and super modern, but it operates without pedals or batteries. I don't have kids, so this was the first time I'd ever seen it and I was fascinated. How does it work?

As luck would have it, the very first link that comes up on a search of "plasma car" is the University of Toronto's Physics of the Plasma Car page. Man, when a search works like that it is such a joy. Not only does it have a fairly dry explanation on the main page, but links to a quicktime movie of the car in action, and best of all, a link to a Discovery Channel clip with an explanation in plain everyday language for those of us who may not remember high school physics. The video on the Discovery channel page didn't work for me but the audio came through just fine, if you get it to work on a pc let me know.

Now I just need them to make one in a slightly larger size...

Laid low

I've been fighting this verdammte illness for weeks now, which has really taken a toll. I've been tetchy and miserable, and I can't seem to get anything done. I even ditched out on the techcrunch party last night, which by all accounts was a great time. I'm kicking myself now of course, but I had trouble arranging transportation and then they closed registration so in my reduced state I just gave up. At least I didn't have to make small talk with a bunch of VIP CEO NPD VCs.

Oooh, that last sentence was vicious. Which is exactly how I've been acting lately. My apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to come into contact with me in the last couple of weeks, I hope to return to my usual sunny optimistic self soon.

Trolling for charity

Matt Haughey on what may be the finest fundraising idea ever conceived: paying to shut people up. Personally I have nothing against either of these guys, we gravitate towards different topics so I rarely see the sparks fly. But I think it's a fun and original idea and I'm all for it, as is most of the community.

BrainJams

If you're reading this now then you probably also read my post about the Web 2.1 BrainJam event. As it turns out, I wasn't the only one interested in creating an ongoing series. Thanks to Chris, BrainJams has a new site, including the obligatory blog and wiki, and about ten of us met at his home on Friday to try to hammer out what exactly we're trying to accomplish here. It's early days yet, but at least initially we're focusing on trying to connect those without a technical bent with the tools and knowledgeable people to accomplish their goals.

This has actually been something I've been interested in for a long time, so it's especially gratifying to be involved with a group working towards that goal. It's exciting to see the light go on in someone's eyes when they first grasp what's possible. For example, just last night my roommate was saying that what she wanted instead of social networking sites like Friendster, MySpace or Tribe was something that focused exclusively on forming networks between independent, strong-willed women (especially those working in the non-profit sector). An informal community but not a random one, built on shared experiences and goals. So I showed her Ning, and she's in the process of building her own. She doesn't have any technical knowledge at all, but she doesn't need it. She just needed to know where to find the tools that exist to help her.

Right now, my first goal is to find people skilled in mediation, conflict resolution and moderating discussions to train the BrainJams team. An important component of what we hope to accomplish is small group discussions between people of different disciplines, and having a number of us with the skills to keep the discussions on track would help tremendously. If you have connections in this area or know those who do, please get in touch. I'll be working both online and offline (gasp!) to find people with the necessary skills who may be interested in helping out, but I'd appreciate any help you can offer.

Oh, Apple

Thank you for once again giving me what I've wanted.

Now how about older shows at a low, low bargain rate?

BART does something right

The beast has finally crawled out of its cave. Metblogs reports that BART will offer 24 hour service starting October 14th - 16th. I predict much rejoicing amongst the single women of SF, since 70%* of straight boys live outside the city. Not to mention all the cool shows at the Paramount or the Greek we can go to now that our coach no longer turns into a pumpkin at midnight. Of course, this means an influx of bridge-and-tunnelers showing up in town as well, but $10 says they never make it out of North Beach.

*approximation based on observed statistics


ADDENDUM: Crap! In my excitement I failed to actually read the post. Looks like we have two days of beastly goodness before the door slams shut again. Cross your fingers and hope that bridge construction is delayed.