i’ve been meaning to blog about this for a while.. but alas, life has taken up all my blogging time.

when i moved into my new house… i already decided that the second bedroom would be my office. the only thing is that there was no phone jack in that room. so i had two choices for my internet options: 1) drill holes in walls and run a cat5 cable to my computer in my office or 2) buy a wireless card for my desktop computer.

after some research, and determining that option #2 would be around $50 and a whole lot less time/effort, it made my decision easy.

fast forward to after the airport extreme card is delivered. i open up my g5… install the card.. and have no issues whatsoever…. well.. until it comes to the point of connecting to the airport extreme router that is just down the hall.

turns out that i need to have an external antenna piece… that came with the computer.. now… i bought that computer over 4 years ago.. and have moved 4 times since then… so to find a little piece of plastic would be nearly impossible.

so i call the apple store. “no we don’t sell those. you’ll have to go to macsales.com or something like that” don’t you have them in the genius area or anything “no. i don’t think so. sorry”

i look online. the site that the apple store employee told me to go to did not have any such thing. i do a search online. $35 for a cheap piece of plastic… and NINE DOLLARS FOR SHIPPING?! oh come on. you’ve got to be kidding me. this thing probably costs less than a buck to make.

fast forward over my griping and complaining. i look in my “bucket of wires/connectors/adapters” and find an antenna wire for my old stereo that stopped working. it’s just a simple piece of wire… and thats really all an antenna is… right? well.. lets try sticking it in the back of the g5 and see what happens.

*poof* full strength wi-fi signal.

dear apple. you should really stop telling people they have to pay over $40 for something that can be fixed for around $0.50.

well hello there. it’s nice to see you again, my dear blog. sorry for neglecting you for so long. please forgive me.

let me tell you a (really long) story of last weekend. there was this thing called podcamp boston 3, which took place in, yep, you guessed it, boston. i had made these plans to go to boston way back in april of this year, right after i saw sooooo many of my awesome seesmic friends all meeting up at podcamp new york. i will admit.. i became instantly jealous. so i set my sights on the next podcamp that i knew some of my friends would also be attending. so plans for boston were made.

after looking at the insanely expensive price of hotels in boston… i booked a 4 bed room at the YMCA’s hostel. w00t. i had the wonderful pleasure of rooming with rayanne (@rlangdon), miranda (@ilovecpstyle), rick (@raweiss) and the most heavenly box fan. the most interesting thing about the housing arrangements, is that i had never met these three people in person. they drove all the way from toronto, canada.. and arrived in boston around 7am boston time.

i arrived in boston on thursday, and since i tweeted my whole journey… i got a direct message from @orchid8 with instructions to come out for drinks with her and @philcampbell… which was simply awesome. sarah and phil were just as amazing in person as i knew them online. and btw… yes.. this was another two people i had never met before going to boston. they kept buying me drinks. that turned out to be dangerous.

then friday started the pre-podcamp festivities. the canadian trio took a bit of a nap, after driving all night. my friend @nikkiana took a quick trip down to boston to hang out at a coffee shop with free wi-fi. the pre-podcamp meetup was at some sports bar right by fenway park. (lets just say that i probably wouldn’t have been in this bar if it weren’t for meeting up with some of my amazing seesmic/twitter friends. ) here started a very interesting phenomenon that continued throughout the weekend. the seesmic people instantly had a deeper bond than all the other attendees. it was almost like we had known each other for years… and not months.. or weeks. hugs were instantly exchanged. laughs were a plenty… and pretty much every moment was photographed, videoed, tweeted, plurked, dented or otherwise documented.

throughout the weekend, we attended sessions, seesmiced, chatted, hung out, chatted, seesmiced, laughed, partied, and acted like the best of friends. most of the sessions were filled with information we already knew. but the value of the weekend was in the networking. the human interaction. the “after parties”. the people.

since this is already painfully long, i won’t go into many other details of the events of saturday and sunday.. but i will just say that the podcamp planned parties ended up being horribly disappointing. not because of the people.. but the location. i don’t enjoy paying $20 for a single drink at a bar. i’m not a fan of the run of the mill “sports bar” either. the “seesmic crew” ended up leaving many of these parties and starting our own party. now those were the best moments.

now this leads me to more deeper (more deeper? what?) thoughts on this phenomenon. why did we instantly have this deep connection with people we had never met? there were lots of people at podcamp. some people who knew each other for a long time on the web. but there was something deeper about the connection between people who were friends on seesmic. first off.. for those who don’t know what seesmic is, it’s a video conversation engine. basically like a chat room or a message board.. but all video. there’s definitely a more personal connection with someone you can see and hear. you can see their eyes.. you can read their body language… you can hear their tone of voice… you can see them smile.. you can more easily understand their humor/sarcasm.. basically… they become more “real.”

so why did i go to boston? i went to see these people.

was it worth it? more than worth it.

best waiter ever, originally uploaded by MissSomething (?).

these are true friends.

keep an eye on my twitter to keep up with my boston adventures alright.. back to the session. i’ll post a big update on podcamp boston when i get back home. *waves*

i think i want to do this as little as possible throughout my whole life. man. i feel like my stuff keeps multiplying behind my back. i pack three boxes… and then i turn around, and there’s more stuff than i remembered before packing those three boxes. maybe the stuff that i’m putting in the boxes is sneaking out of the boxes when i’m not looking. either way.. this is not very much fun. i’d rather go outside and play. maybe my break will consist of getting more boxes.

anyways.. i’ll make sure to take pictures of my progress and post them. since looking at packed boxes is oh so interesting for everyone.

IMG_1143.jpg
Originally uploaded by tray

awesome show… and cyndi is amazingly cool. i just wish the photographer would have really paid more attention to the cropping of this picture… i’m gonna have to photoshop out all the extra “stuff” in the background. ugh!

anyways.. more pictures (and video clips) are over here

orchid8 sometimes thinks she should be a life coach.
tapps hmmm.. i think i’ll just be life “stats girl”…
orchid8 oh. maybe a life water boy? maybe i’ll be that. i like the way you think.

locust street days
Originally uploaded by tray

-t

my new set of wheels
Originally uploaded by tray

check out my new “ride” *rawr*

it’s been a crazy past couple of days. but here’s an unordered list of some highlights:

• was recommended a real estate agent
• i saw a house i liked and viewed it a day before my birthday
• i turned 29
• i saw the house for the second time on my birthday
• i also put an offer on the house on that same day
• received a counter offer on the house the day after
• i responded with a counter offer that evening
• i woke up today to the message “they accepted the offer”
• also today found out that i have been pre-approved for a mortgage loan
• told my landlord and building manager that i’ll be moving
• woah. i bought a house
• scheduled home inspection
• dang.. i’ll have a house…
• … and a lawn
• have an appointment to talk to a home loan specialist
• co-workers proved how awesome they are by drawing on my dry erase board, a very funny “my new house” scene
• wait… did i just get a house?

i’m pretty sure i have the best friends in the world… oh wait.. i know i have the best friends in the world. i still have a full day of my birthday left, and i’ve already gotten so many messages, emails, cards, and even this video, from danmark:

i laughed *so* hard at that video. it’s long.. but FULL OF AWESOME! hah!

hey, i’m starting planning on my new domain name, greenb.us. so i’m wondering who’s interested in helping out with the site? i’m thinking of a group blog and community site, to share information, links, ideas and best practices for “green living”

so who want’s to hop on the “greenb.us’?

so i’m on my lunch break, and i head to the local deli/market down the street from work. i have eaten a hot meal at lary’s market before, and they gave me my food in this really nice plastic container. and not some flimsy plastic container either… something that could very easily be reused. so that’s exactly what i’ve been doing. i’ve washed out the container a couple times and handed it back to them when i ordered my food.

the first time i did this i got a little bit of a weird look from the lady behind the counter. today i got a weird look and a “i’m not sure if i can do that.” luckily she checked with a co-worker and she said “yea, of course!” … and another customer standing next to me said to me “good for you.” (and i didn’t even know how to respond actually, it took be by surprise)

this got me thinking… why is this so weird? i mean, it’s honestly not that hard to do. it just takes a little effort and some remembering. i also think that more places should offer “rewards” for reusing stuff. (technically they save money, and it provides another way for marketing) not that i wouldn’t do this stuff if there was no reward (heck, i do it all the time. my reward is that i feel better after not consuming more “stuff”)

anyways… i just finished my lunch, so i’m gonna go wash out this container again.