Posts tagged as:

twitter

Damn, it’s cold in San Francisco

by Joe Doyle on August 13, 2008

The adult Doyles are on the left side - I’m piggybacking on the wife’s business trip to UX Week. It’s the first vacation sans kids and we’re very excited to be here, though we can’t help but think about the fun Katie and Patrick will have when we travel here as a family.

There is so much to do and see. SF has a real entrepreneurial vibe, just like Austin. You get the same weirdness, too.

Without taking up too much vacation time, here are some additional observations about San Francisco, CA:

- This place is filled with Europeans. Damn dollar.
- Speaking of, most Euro males love old Nike Hightops.
- High in the mid 60’s. Friday in Texas is going to be a shock.
- It’s hilly here. Yeah, that’s right, hilly.
- I could eat fresh seafood with every meal if I wanted.
- People are nice and the police, even nicer (seriously).
- Lots of Asians here, too. Damn dollar. Wait…
- The Golden Gate Park is the coolest municipal place I’ve been. Figures that it was built by Olmsted. That man was a genius designer.
- The Haight isn’t what it was, but I like to think about the free thought it provokes.
- Tonight we’re seeing my cousin Billy Doyle and meeting his girl. I’m really excited - I felt thisclose to Billy as a kid.
- Yeah, that’s right, Billy the Kid.
- Turns out, I like to be a tourist. But cool metro places make me miss Chicago.
- Hotel Nikko is the shit. Union Square is not, but I like the place we’re in.
- I forgot how much I love the Land Rover Defender (primer to Twitter info below)
- It’s super expensive to live here. I mean, extremely expensive.
- Hanging out in neighborhood places always beats a downtown locale. Seems to be that way across the board.

I’ve “Tweeted” a bunch more about out visit. “Tweet, what’s that?” you may say. “Sounds silly”.

A Tweet is a microblog post. Here, on my blog, I could write a novel and then post it. But on Twitter (where one “tweets”), you get 140 characters and you can upload images. That’s how I’ve been documenting the trip.

Go to my Twitter page to see what we’ve been up to. If you click on TwitPic links, you’ll see images from my posts.

If you’re still confused about Twitter, watch this fantastic video:

If you join Twitter, contact me so we can follow one another.

A quick note - I want to leave with a huge heartfelt thank you to Karen and Corky. if it wasn’t for your generosity, we wouldn’t be here. Thanks for watching the twins.

{ 5 comments }

I rode my bike to coworking today.

by Joe Doyle on July 24, 2008

It’s true.

I rode it to Conjectured for a coworking session. What’s that you say? Coworking?

People from all walks of trade work together, at least in the same space. Ideas generate through conversation, people show videos of their latest project, others hole up and build the latest new business deck or talk about their new social media strategy for local gardeners.

It’s open and lovely, like some sort hippy-ness revisited. Open source for the non-programming (and programming) sect.

Well, we are in Austin – so it’s never a stretch on hippy-ness. But this idea is everywhere and even if you work in a standard setting, it’s nice to change things up.

The call for FREE co-working got me out on my bike, so dig that. I need to ride more, and this is precisely the type of thing to get me moving.

I hauled butt this morning on the Austin streets, like the guy on the cover below. It’s great to see bike commuting become part of the normal outlay for advertising.

{ 4 comments }

Happy 4th of July!

by Joe Doyle on July 4, 2008

I don’t what it is, but this year I appreciate our independence even more. It could be recent conversations with Corky, my father-in-law, about soldiers and policy. But I also think some of it stems from an upcoming election and our nation coming together to grumble about gas prices and such. Seems we’re all in the same boat.

I’ve always had a deep sense of patriotism - from tending to the flag in grammar school (making sure it was presented right on the pole, and stored in the proper folded fashion) to the ever-present Stars and Stripes outside the door of my house.

That doesn’t mean I’m brainwashed into believing everything our government throws at me – I’m quite the opposite. I’m just proud that I’m American.

Yesterday I exercised my right to help others at the Austin Tweetup Blood Drive. What a huge success…instead of the usual 40 online sign-ups, they received 100! Social networking has amazing powers.

I arrived on time, spoke with @DaveIAM for a bit and discussed how much fun it is to hear people try to describe Twitter to the retired volunteers at the front counter. After being approved, I was brought into the “bloodletting” room, where they sat me next to the Tweetup co-organizer, @MichelleGreer. It was nice to meet people you interact with online based on their common geekiness for all things social media.

Michelle was being interviewed by WKUT, the local PBS station. You can hear the interview here, and there’s a bonus image of good-looking fella on the page. Here are some images from my blood donor chair:

Erika from WKUT was nary seen without her camera, mic and earphones.

The bank said no images of needles, so I’m sure they won’t mind a blurry image of Michelle giving blood instead.

These kids were touring the facility and hammed it up when I brought out the camera phone. I think the boy in back is flipping me off.

Today calls for a nice, leisurely bike ride downtown for a picnic under the stars and fireworks with accompanying music by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. Stacey is looking forward to riding for the first time in a long time, and I’m excited for us to get out with the Thompsons.

Be safe, and enjoy your Independence Day.

{ 6 comments }

← Older Entries

Newer Entries →