Kathy Sierra’s WordCamp Waterfall of Words: How To Kick Ass, Create Passion, Do Everything Better (even sex!)
What do you do to help people kick ass? In a waterfall of words, Kathy Sierra swam us through 20 ways in the final presentation at WordCamp 2008. While she was speaking primarily to and for software programmers and developers, and not just WordPress uses, I could see where much of what she had to say applied to me as a poet, and as a blogger, and in other ways as well. (Heck, a lot of it even applies to having great sex!)
This is what I got out of Kathy Sierra’s presentation. It’s up to you to see if you can figure out if it makes your sex life better!
1) Focus on what people need. Don’t build a better box, build a better way for someone to experience the box. (well this one’s obvious isn’t it? focus on your partner!)
2) Offer a psychic shuffle/serendipity curve. People like the unexpected: add randomness in some way. (another obvious one–do it somewhere else! do it some WAY else!)
3) The dog ears design principle requires fluidity and follow-through: make it feel alive, makes the user feel alive, alove (my word). Test for aliveness, find the spark! Make it burn! (oh yeah! if there’s no spark if it’s routine, it’s terrible and boring!)
4) Pay attention Read more…
The Genie in the Bottle: Matt’s State of the Word Press World & other news from WORDCAMP
Strong, says Matt of AUTOMATTIC, the guy behind it all, the guy behind the curtain.
Matt
The Numbers: most didn’t mean much to me. But that’s ok. PHP! is the language behind WordPress. Didn’t know that. Multi-modal…press this! BackPress. BuddyPress! Crazyhorse (codename for the new WP version due out in November!) Themes galore–real estate! resume! you name it!
I did notice that Matt’s jeans are more stone washed on one side–the front–than the otherside. Not sure what this mean but it could be that when he’s nervous, he rubs his legs with acid. Hmnn.
He also plays with a plastic water bottle relentlessly. Maybe he rubs the bottle on his leg, wearing the blue of his jeans off. My chiropractor Dr. Doreo recommends you do this to release your quads if you sit around too much–rub a bottle on the tops and the sides of your legs. Maybe he should stop sitting so much, do more yoga, and keep rubbing that bottle.
He says however that I am a wonderful blogger (me and everyone else in the room)!
Maybe the bottle he’s rubbing is for luck. Maybe a genie comes out of that bottle. Maybe it already has–that genie is called WORDPRESS!
PS Thanks Randy, for the photo of Matt…
My WordPress WordCamp tattoo!
Thanks, Randy Stewart for taking this picture of me kicking back at WORDPRESS CAMP 2008!
My WORDPRESS CAMP 2008 TATTOO! photo by Randy Stewart
In addition to tattoos, WP gave out way cool t-shirts–the women’s are from American Apparel, brown with the WordPress logo in pink, the men’s brown and blue, with WordCamp San Francisco 2008 emblazened…
getting to WORDCAMP…and making money!
Good news, guerrilla camping went well, and I even woke and wrote at 3:15 (the experiment must go on!) But when I hit the road in the morning, somehow I ended up in Hollister, a sleepy town near Pinnacles National Monument. A quick jog had me back on the 101 N, but behind by a good 30 minutes.
Driving in SF–no make that NAVIGATING in SF–is challenging. Even early on a Saturday morning. Thanks to the directional help from my friend Kathy back home via cell phone and her internet (driving and searching for a hotspot proved to dangerous even for me!), I eventually found my way to 1675 Owens and the Mission Bay Conference Center (where you can’t see the Bay), parked ($24!!somehow I missed the morning validation call…no signs!) and figured out that I was in the developer part of the conference, not the user part (again no signs?)
Between my various snafus, I missed two sessions of interest “Education and WordPress” (and as someone who taught 30 college students to blog about environmental issues in an English class this was of interest) and “SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make” –SEO being Search Engine O? peration?–definitely of interest as someone with less of a year of blogging under my belt. Hopefully, I will get some of the key points from someone else here! And pass them on…
Now I’m sitting in a sea of Apples at a session by redmonk? aka Stephen O’Grady called “Open Source Business Models” the topic of which I barely grasp, but the catch is how to make money Read more…
Guerilla Camping & WORDPRESS CAMP in SF!
Yes, that’s right, I am on my way! Literally! I am writing from my guerrilla campsite just off Highway 101, between Salinas and Gilroy, beside a small trickle of a creek, just past a one lane bridge, hidden from the full moon by a thicket of shrubs and beyond that, tall, solid, second growth redwood trees.
I’m sitting on the bed in the van, ready to climb into my cool cotton sheets, warmed by a down comforter. I’m drinking Jonesy Port (love the stuff—from you know who of course, imported from Australia…The Grateful Palate). In the summer I usually drink it cold but tonight I’m too lazy to even bother with a glass much less getting ice out of the ice chest…lazy and tired—I did just drive almost 300 miles and it’s late.
I have guerilla camped here before— Read more…
my new spoken word iMovie: how to write at 3:15 am
I posted a poem about doing the 3:15 experiment a few weeks ago; (that’s the writing experiment where poets around the world wake up and write at 3:15am every night during August)
and now, I’ve produced a YouTube movie on the poem, an audio/visual extravaganza of sorts!
Join in on all the fun!
our home from space
What is Your Dangerous Idea? edited by Steve Pinker came out last year. Here are some dangerous ideas to contemplate.
“The planet is fine. The people are f*^#ed…the planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.” George Carlin as quoted by Oliver Morton, Nature chief news and features editor, in What is Your Dangerous Idea? collected by Harvard’s Steven Pinker.
“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385ppm to at most 350ppm,” writes NASA’s James Hansen (2008).
“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.” ~ Buddha
“Your future and fortune depend on your neighbor. This is more evident today than ever before.” The Dalai Lama quoted in Yoga Journal December 2007.
My most dangerous idea may be to pay attention–to taste, to flavor, to scents, to sounds, to what we see and do–and to appreciate it.
What are your dangerous ideas? Please share them!
These quotes will be added to my “quotes and ideas” page. Please share your “Dangerous Ideas.”
3:15 Experiment Poem: The County Fair
why is it during the day I have
Ideas about what to write and
at night I ghost blanks
—
after the fair
the county fair
is over–
the grand finale fireworks fades
they’re turning out the light on the ferris wheel
unleashing the bungee jump
the baby lambs go home
the pigs go to slaughter
the four hit wonders say goodbye
after the fair is over
who eats all the blue ribbon pies
and what about the cases of avocados tomatoes lettuce
who is fed by this salad
do the cherry tomatoes roll across the floor or a tongue
does the giant pumpkin go home
with the biggest zuccini?
Does the corn hook up with the
carrots and limas for succotash?
The cut roses find a secret tryst?
Who gets a new lawn from the sod?
Do the plants go back to nurseries or find themselves yards?
August 12, 2002
from Love & Terror at 3:15am: poems from the 3:15 Experiment 2001-2008
More information or to join this year’s experiment here.
Take a ride on the Poetry Train or check out ReadWritePoem!
My New Writing Project
I started a new writing project 08-08-08; at least once a week until 09-09-09 (at least 54 times in 13 moons) I loop from my house down San Jon Barranca to the Beach, then along Harbor to the Pier/Wharf to the River, up the River to Main Street and Art City and the Yoga Studio, down Main Street to San Jon Barranca and home.
I intend to observe and write about the present conditions–the seasons, the actions, the interactions–and integrate and incorporate the past–both natural and cultural history. Each week I will travel my loop and back in time 50 years, then 500, then 5000, etc.
There’s more to it, but that’s the basic plan!
art predator 