WordPress. Open source and free. I use it everyday. I make money from it almost weekly. It’s a giant part of what I do.
Since it is open source, anyone that uses it should feel compelled to somehow give something back to the WordPress community. Many people think that you need to spend time squashing bugs in the core code, or developing sweet plugins and themes. Sure, those all work, but I’m not really good at either of those things.
What am I good at? Training, implementing and thinking so far out of the box you can barely see the box. That’s what I do to give back and part of the reason why I volunteer at my local Wordcamp in the Rockstar Bar. That’s just a fancy term to say that if you have a question about WordPress or a problem with your WordPress or you are looking to have a discussion about WordPress, this is the place with nerds that are available to help you out. And this year I did.
Overall, it was a pretty great day of WordPress and I’m glad I was able to take the time to participate. As an added bonus, because I showed up, I received a free-for-life account at WP Engine, a premium, WordPress-only, web host. Expect a full review of that in the coming weeks.
If you have to use WordPress, are curious about WordPress or looking for a place to meet other WordPress users to swap stories and tips, I highly recommend hitting up a Wordcamp near you.
What better way to get back on to the horse I slid off of then to jump back on with both feet placed firmly in the stirrups? I’m actually going to hosting a session at Podcamp AZ later this month about podcasting.
I’ve been producing one of the highest rated automotive podcasts for more than 5 years with a listener base that almost always shows growth. I would like to share with you some tips on how you can help your podcast retain listeners and snag the new listeners as they come around. And a few words about WordPress, since you can never have enough talks about WordPress!
If you are in Arizona and want to hang out with a bunch of new media folks, cruise over to the University of Advancing Techonlogy on November 20-21. There are already quite a few great sessions on the books. The last podcamp I did was in Southern California and there was a ton of great information shared and I had a great time. You can too! Did I mention it was free? You can register here.
Details on the session to follow. I’m going to use as a bit of a sounding board, since I’ve never actually done this before. Should be fun!
As most of you know, I am in the process of relocating the offices of Donburnside.com. Follow along at Facebook or Twitter (links above) for the complete play-by-play if you are so inclined.
I expect normal service to resume shortly.
Thank you for your patience.
1 week ago, I spent 9 days driving a MINI Cooper from San Diego to Denver. All told, I racked up about 2,000 miles (no matter what I tell you there) from the time I picked it up to the time I got to Denver.
I’m in the process of completing my worded wrap-up of MINI Takes the States 2010. It’s going to be a multipart series spread over a few days. Why? Quite a lot happened over the course of those 9 days and it is taking more words than I thought to tell the story. So far, I’m up to day 4 and I’ve written almost 1500 words.
Usually I would have done this during the event as we went along. Usually. This event was different from any other that I have ever done which threw me off a bit trying to find, for lack of a better term, my rhythm.
Normally, when the show covers a large MINI event, it’s a process. There are people. There is the team. There is even paper (and all y’all know how much I love that). There is a process. Todd does the interviews/audio, I do the photos and video, Gabe stands around and looks pretty. That’s not it exactly, but pretty much. It’s a good system that has served us for years. Everything gets covered, everything gets posted and the MINI community rejoices.
This time however, we were separated. The boys were coming from the East, I was coming from the West solo. I was a photo taking machine as you have seen. I even managed live video twice a day. Even got the photos uploaded to flickr. But honestly, I fell short.
After spending 9 hours in and around a MINI, with a few stops thrown in for photos or bathroom breaks and, as I was told, being ‘on’, I was usually too wiped out to write. At the end of the day, there was enough time to hook everything up to charge, get photos uploading and grab a bite or do the owner event. By the time all of that was done, I was back in bed to rest for the next 400+ mile drive tomorrow.
I’m not complaining at all here, and hope it’s not coming across that way. It was this trip that made me realize a few things.
The drive and all of it’s associated events were epic. Dare I say life changing. I can’t even accurately put it into words, so you will just have to take my word on it.
All was not sunshine and unicorn feathers however. By the time I got to Denver I started getting sick. And I was tired. That combination is never good for me, and I got pissy. And I’m sure I pissed off quite a few people. If that was you, and I’m sure you know who you are, please allow me to apologize. I don’t have any excuses, it just happened.
Next time will be better.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have another 1500 words to write, proof, edit and add photos to. If you are a fan of my work with the MINI, keep an eye out for it starting, I hope, tomorrow.
Another year has passed and today I am, once again, celebrating the anniversary of my birth 42 years ago. As tradition dictates of late, I will be spending the day working as much as I possibly can. Unlike other years, I can’t say this past one was terribly fantastic.
Which isn’t to say that cool stuff didn’t happen this past year, because it did. I mean, I did go to England last summer. Co-hosted and co-produced the first ever White Roof Radio live show. Met the lads at MINI of Ontario and MINI of Loveland. And I met some cool people otherwise (the list is too long to post here).
Without being too Donny Downer, I’m just going to end by saying that I am very happy this year is now behind me and I hope that the following year is a damn sight better!
Happy Birthday. To me.
As usual, I accept Amazon, iTunes and Starbucks gift cards. Just sayin’
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to use my stuff, just Be sure to let me know.