Not scared? Then you're doing it wrong

"If it isn't frightening, it's not worth doing."

I was ruminating with Ed Borasky (@znmeb) about that old adage yesterday at Beer and Blog. We sat at the bar together, I drank the lovely dark stout @pdxflaneur bought me, Ed ate his aromatic clam chowder, and we discussed how the things we choose to do in life, the things that influence pivotal changes and pregnant possibilities, are often the scariest experiences in life.

Ed is a superincrediblytalented math guy who specializes in open source performance testing software. He likes to optimize things for efficiency and discuss the future of semantic Web, and his real first name is Maurice. (He's also available for hire, so if you're looking for a superincrediblytalented math guy you should go check him out).

Talking to Ed makes me feel smart-ish, because I can work in smart-ish phrases when I talk to him: "Profiling Ruby is soooo 21st Century" and "Done with that paper on algorithmic composition and synthesis of music yet?" for instance.

Quite honestly I'm not sure what he's getting out of our chats, but he's very nice to indulge me when the topic is the art of being human.

The byword If it isn't frightening, it's not worth doing is similar to other, familiar Life in a Nutshell versions I live by. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger and If it's hard it must be good for you are themes I know well, as a writer and a human. I weave them into my stories, and I live and breathe them. I'm betting you do, too.

And I try to do scary things, every single day. I stretch my personal boundaries and talk to strangers, acting like that's no big deal. I blindly trust in my capabilities and capacity for being the best, most awesome me I can be. I am also working on the biggest, most personal media project of my life. The kind that solicits reactions from friends and strangers praising my bravery and questioning my sanity.

It's not bravery. It may be insanity. But always It is frightening, and therefore worth doing.

No matter how loud my instinctive personality kicks and screams, of course preferring I NOT do these frightening things, I still do it. My instinct tells me it's necessary to plunder through. Even though I am not a risk-taker by any means. Even if I am not a fan of surprises, and need mental preparation for spontaneous acts of "winging it" (which isn't really winging it, FINE). I do it anyway.

But still, I want to live a life of rewarding personal fulfillment, not have life be what happens when I'm busy doing other stuff.

What kind of "life" is that?

If you're not taking chances once in a while -- really going for it, scaring yourself with the fierce desire to follow through -- then you're doing it wrong. Life deserves better from you.

Go, start, now. You'll be so glad you did. I know I am already, no matter what happens.

Let's go steady!

Putting myself out there (literally)

Sweet, tasty news!

Firstly, I've taken on the responsibilities of Portland Chapter Provost for the wildly successful Beer and Blog. This position is akin to the one Julie had on the Love Boat, only with no boat or Capt'n Stubing, but plus beer and Justin Kistner. Okay, yes it's much more than that. I write on the blog, generate ideas, support the team. You know what? I've just decided that I need a clipboard. Yep. And also just decided that someone should buy me a beer at the next Beer and Blog. It's just curteous, for the Love of Pete. And also, that we should make it a tradition. Whee, this job is FUN!

Next, I need to confirm a rumor I've heard is a-flying: It's true, I will be the month of July in the Naked for a Cause 2010 charity calendar, which is now available for pre-order on their Web site. The calendars are expected in the flesh late next month. (Oh, yes. I went there.) My image was taken by film whisperer Aaron Hockley. So, go get one and help P:EAR, the PCC Multimedia Club and Free Geek, this year's funding recipients. (By the way, my fragile ego wouldn't mind at all if you asked for an autograph. Just putting that out there.)

Finally, and this is a big one for me folks, next month I'll be co-teaching a class with Melissa Lion. She'll handle the part on writing narrative for blogs, and I'll be yammering on about social media tools and blog promotion and the like, until I'm told my time is up and can I please shut the hell up now? I'm a bit nervous about this. Will I be able to shut up? (Note to self: practice shutting up.)

I hope to see more faces at the Beer and Blog, a great surge in sales of the nudie, er, tasteful simulated nudity calendar, and butts in the seats of my class next month.

Come on! I'm putting myself out there, after all.

Let's go steady!

Portland Geeks are Social Geeks

Here in the Portland, Oregon tech community, we embrace community, collaboration and connectivity. We're also big fans of beer. (We're 4th in the nation for breweries-per-capita in the U.S. and, have you see the Portland Beer Wiki?)

Once you put all that together it's easy to see why we have all these camps, conferences, unconference and meetups: we're geeks who talk about geeky things and we like to party. (So much so that we have a city-wide community event calendar. Have you see the Calagator?)

Take a look at 3 must-do events scheduled in the next 24 hours:

Friday 12/5 4-6
First there's Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon from 4-6pm. Tonight's discussion focuses on Open Source Bridge, an effort to promote open source technology and Portland's unique talent in collaborative software development. Talks will be led by Mr. Silicon Florist himself, Rick Turoczy. (Maybe you've heard of him? No? I'm sorry, we can't hang out any more.)

Please RSVP for tonight's @Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon (928 SE 9th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97214)

Friday 12/5 8:30-who knows when
Second is the official CyborgCamp Pre-Party featuring a special on-location, live broadcast of Strange Love Live. CyborgCamp is an unconference focusing on the interaction between people and technology. (More on that below.) Held at the office of Portland's OpenID darling Vidoop, my good friends Cami Kaos and Mike (Dr Normal ) will podcast their popular tech show in all it's glory. If that's not enough to tempt you, keep in mind that Cami's choice of outfit for the show will be reminiscent of Sean Young in Blade Runner, only with more cleavage. (Also, for those of you not impressed by boobies, there will be beer.)

Please RSVP for tonight's CyborgCamp Pre-Party at Vidoop (117 NW 5th Ave, Suite 210, Portland, Oregon 97209) Pre-Party starts at 8:30pm, Strange Love Live starts at 10pm.

Saturday 12/6 9-6
And, finally, the greatly anticipated CyborgCamp is all day on Saturday. Expect to hear such topics as "social media, design, code, inventions, web 2.0, twitter, the future of communication, cyborg technology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy." Okay, but the thing I am most looking forward to? Sexy Miss Burrows (Lia Hollander) and her talk on "How being a cyborg keeps me alive". Please check out the cute video she made to promote this event. (Tip: You will need to watch this more than once. Personally, I found her Treasurelicious t-shirt very distracting. Ahem.)

Please buy a ticket for Saturday's CyborgCamp at CubeSpace (622 SE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97214)

Hope to see you there. Say hello, wouldja?

Let's go steady!

Yay me! Beer and Blog Goodness in St. Johns!

I'm very happy to report that tonight my favorite networking event Beer and Blog will be held in my beloved St. Johns neighborhood at the Leisure Public House! I wrote a little thingy for their website in which I provide the Top 5 Reasons You Should Haul Your Carcass to St. Johns, for those of you who need reasons to meet me in person. (I also include in that post a badly written sentence in reason number three. It is atrocious. LOOK AWAY.)

Please RSVP on upcoming.org and join us tonight, won't you? I'd love to see you there to apologize in person for that terrible aforementioned wording. ;)

Let's go steady!

Who Loves You, Baby?

Last night I spent a couple of hours at Beer and Blog, a weekly get-together for those of us in Portland, Oregon. The premise: Bloggers helping bloggers over beer. We usually meet at the Green Dragon (who love us). Sometimes we work together, and sometimes there is a specific (and tasty) topic of discussion. Suffice to say, it's a popular event among local bloggers, and when you have a popular local blogger/author/startup entrepreneur leading the discussion you can be sure lots of people will show up.

Melissa Lion, author of Swollen and Upstream (which has been optioned for a movie, whoo-hoo!), book critic, creative writing teacher, Recovering Californian, and one of the brains behind the delicious storytelling startup Back Fence PDX, talked to a very crowded room about narratives techniques in blogs. Any blog. Now, Beer and Blog is an eclectic group of creatives, techies, ad peeps, and the in-between (that's me). A lot of us are on twitter. (You've heard of twitter.com, right?) We're a nice cross-section of the kind of professionals that Portland attracts. And, unlike other West Coast tech-focused cities (*cough*San Fransisco*cough*Seattle*) we adore tooting each other's horns. Loudly. (Kinda like I'm doing now.)

When I began tweeting last year I didn't really "get it." You know this story: I heard about it, was intrigued, signed up, but initially didn't see the value of sharing the events of my mundane life. The fact that I got bacon juice on my new Victoria Secret ass-enhancing slacks or that my green pepper plant had finally sprouted a pepper, only to be devoured by some bug, seemed trivial. Then suddenly people started to reply to my tweets. And following me. Some of the earliest followers of mediaChick were Rick Turoczy, Melissa Lion and Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read Write Web. (I've never seen Marshall at a Beer and Blog; I'm mentioning him in this post because he is awesome and a poster child for the Portland way of being both uber talented and so generous with his knowledge of geeky things. Seriously, go read his bloggie.)

So, I checked out Rick and Melissa and Marshall and slowly it dawned on me that I had been blessed with an audience of people who rawked it. Hard. And lived HERE. I had these insane thoughts like "Wouldn't it be cool if I met Rick and he wanted me to guest blog on his brilliant blog Silicon Florist?" (I swear I'm half done with it, Rick!) And, "Dang, it would blow my mind if Melissa published!" (She did, on Back Fence PDX!) You see where I'm going with this? Eventually I caught the attention of Miss Burrows and Cami Kaos and Banana Lee Fishbones and a huge number of local folks who let little ol' me sit at the cool kids table. Every week I meet more talented, funny, helpful, encouraging folks. (See us ladies huddled around Rick? Left to right: mediaChick, Rick, Miss Burrows, Cami Kaos and Banana Lee Fishbones. Lots of love there!)

Many of my tweeties showed up to hear Melissa at Beer and Blog explain that blog narrative is important, no matter what you write about. She talked about plot arcs and characters and why linking to and commenting on other blogs is super important. She also said "the best blogs update every day."(I'm pretty sure she was looking at me when she said that. Ahem.) I'm reluctant to show favoritism, but damn if this Beer and Blog wasn't the best one yet.

Bravo, and thank you to all the participants of Beer and Blog. Justin Kistner, the man behind the curtain, should be immortalized somehow for his tenacity in pulling this off weekly. I met a lot of new tweeties that I've had my eye on for some time. I look forward to seeing them again and talking blogs over beer. And we can't forget: this kind of collaborative love fest wouldn't work well in any other city. Portland, me loves you!

(By the way, thanks also to those "get well soon" messages. Recently I've had some asthma flair ups and I almost didn't make it to Beer and Blog. Also, thanks for not staring when I puffed away at my inhaler. Sooo not sexy! Also, sorry if I've offended anyone from San Francisco or Seattle. Just a little barb for laughs!)

Let's go steady!