On a rowboat without a paddle

I have managed thus far to get my “mojo” back. Some semblance of what I use to be and of what I know I can do given the resources. Founding and hosting the 1st Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner was a challenge I wanted to take and needed to succeed in – publicly. It was something that I felt I required as part of my induction into a German/Technology niche, no matter how small (in Frankfurt).

I have now managed to obtain the much coveted Media Pass to the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin Oct. 21 – 23.

Thanks to the kindness of Tim O’Reilly for making this possible.

The only challenge I foresee in the next week is:

1. How do I get to Berlin.

2. Where do I stay.

3. Where do I get the money to fund this.

I shouldn’t be going. I’ll be missing 4 English classes and that means not getting paid for the classes for that week but having the classes moved over to the first week of November. This is not good because it will be a lower amount of pay for my October Paycheck that will arrive at the end of November.

Because I am going to the Philippines Nov. 14 – 29 (my parents are paying for my ticket), I will not be working for half of November. December will be a very POOR month with only really, one week of pay in November that will be given to me end of December. You got it. Christmas. (

Sigh.

I am thinking of NOT going to the Web 2.0 Expo but how could I not. This is one opportunity that was given to me as a gift. I would never have been able to get in without Tim’s kindness. I NEED to be there at the Web 2.0 Expo. I am hoping things will find a way to work out – as they always do.

Come on Universe. Make it happen.

New Media is Old Media

Granted that technology and new technology always have profound impacts on people, society, the world – whatever the current New Media hype is, it’ll only be Old Media in another decade or so.

There’ll be a handful of early adopters ranting and raving about the new New Media. There’ll be people trying to creatively find ways to make money from it. There’ll be people claiming to be professionals or experts in how to ‘monetize’ the new New Media platform and there’ll be the usual mainstream of people that just won’t get it.

It’s certainly not rocket science and it’s certainly not a mystery.

There are hundreds of blogs currently, all posting about the advantages of embracing the current Web 2.0 etc … and honestly, it’s making me sick. It’s all redundant.

There IS no secret. It’s simply all about people and communicating. There is NO secret.

Sure, people suck at communicating. Sure, there are people that can’t even seem to get a grasp of what really is important or essential, so much so that they need someone else to tell them what to do, to enlighten their ignorant selves – only to increase the seemingly “ego value” of someone else’s false pretense.

Whatever.

It’s not that I’m a hypocrite. I’m only being honest on a given day or hour.

Do I embrace any new New Media? Of course I do. But that’s just me. I’m A.D.D. so I am always looking for things to learn and tamper with.

On the reality scale though, I feel that my reality is much more grounded than many others. Why? Because, while I DO have a grasp and sense of any new New Media, I am able to see the overall picture of where things will eventually lead to.

I KNOW what everyone ultimately wants to achieve, even if they do not know it for themselves.

After all the running around and trying out of new things, people will get eventually disillusioned at one point and feel the need to “STOP THE INSANITY”. Some will really STOP. Others will take a sabbatical but get back on the band wagon. People will sense at one point that it may be a waste of time, but they won’t listen to their intuitive because they feel that they don’t want to miss the boat on the next big thing. So what do they do. They merely continue on with their exploration and passionate acceptance of the current new New Media.

Me, I just go with the flow NEVER forgetting what is essential.

If you ask me, I think there is something deftly wrong with all this New Media, Web 2,0, Social Networking stuff. I just cannot put a finger on it.

Of course I admit that without Twitter or Facebook I would never have had the chance to communicate with Jeff Pulver, Tim O’Reilly and the hundreds of people that I may have never met, but you know what? There are hundreds of people within a 1 km radius that I have still to meet but never will because I spend time on the internet.

Basically, I too am fucked.

Stay tuned for my theory on the evolution of mankind.

I think I have abstractly blogged about it in a fiction sort of way.

1st Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner

It’s been 2 days since the 1st Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner took place. I’m still tired and still sick. I’ve been ill with a cold for almost 2 weeks now and it was rough trying to keep up with my English classes since I really wanted to devote more time to the event.

Call it my ego, but whatever it was, I needed this event for my *self*. I needed something public to show to others what I was capable of and what I had to offer. When you come to a country and the past 11 years of your life was spent as a nurse – trying to make your way into this new NEW MEDIA is not easy. Especially since I had to start of all places, in Germany. I cannot speak the language nor can I understand so that alone I feel is such a strike against me.

I’ve always been capable of doing many things on my own. That sentence is really not true. Not this time anyway. M helped so much. He seemed to pick up where I would leave off. He knew when to leave me alone to do what I needed to do and he also knew when to step in to volunteer. He did not even ask, he would just say, “I’m going to do this.” It was the first time that I would allow anyone to “do something for me”. Strange.

I don’t know if anyone would understand my reasoning for trying to do this event “solo” but in any case, it’s certainly something I could put down on my resume – a resume that will now depict my new life here in Europe.

I am really Blessed. Everything turned out as I planned. People said it would be hard to get 20 people but more than 30 came. I wanted a banner for the event and it was done. I wanted a professional photographer and at the last minute (2 days before), I managed to call on someone I met earlier in the year – and he was able to attend and photograph the event. We even got to use a beamer.

We had no sponsor but all in all people said that the event was successful. I wish I had access to more funds – if so, then the event would have been spectacular.

My plan was to create a WOW factor. I contacted certain people that were well known online personalities (Jeff Pulver, Tim O’Reilly, Chris Brogan) and asked them if they could do a shout out video to the guests of the Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinners.

The challenging things was getting these very busy men to even read my emails and tweets since they already get hundreds of emails and tweets a day. With persistence and the fact that I KNEW it would all come together, I just didn’t give up. And neither did they. These men were in the midst of traveling in between conferences all over the world and they all managed to do a video just prior to their flights, (Tim O’Reilly did his video while at the Frankfurt airport enroute to Athens,  Greece and Chris Brogan did his video in a hotel in St Louis!)  I really appreciated the time and effort these three very busy men gave to the cause. In the end, it was well worth it. The video’s were well received and everyone was indeed surprised.

I am now thinking about the 2nd Girl Geek Dinner. I want Crytek to sponsor the next one.