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Jun 09

30 Burmese Refugees Bust into Anarchistic Craze at the Outta School Super FunFest

June 9, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended, Social Media for Social Good

What happens when you take
1.) 30 Burmese refugees in who don’t have cars to go anywhere and
2.) Texas heat (a given in the summer)

and give those refugees 250 water balloons?

You get THIS!

Outta School Super FunFest from Michelle Greer on Vimeo.

Check out Grant Hutchins’s pics on Flickr. Too awesome!

Many thanks to Josh Seaver and Grant Hutchins for helping out. It was an entire day of awesomeness.

These refugees have led a very hard life and could use them help. We are trying to score them computers as well as internet. If you are interested in helping them people out, please leave a comment or get in touch with Elaine Allan. Her website is www.borntohelp.org.

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Jun 02

Get Green at the Green Technology Alliance Meeting on June 3rd

June 2, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

I ran into Phil Wheat from Microsoft at the Maker Faire Town Hall meeting yesterday. He mentioned the Green Technology Alliance meeting on June 3rd. I often feel networking events can accomplish more. As early adopters and frankly, incredibly fortunate people, we should feel obliged to use the technology we have to instill positive changes for others.

So if you mention “green” and “technology”, you can usually count me in. You can find more information about this event here and register for it here. It takes place on Tuesday, June 3rd from 8:30-12:45 here:
MTC Austin
Stonebridge Plaza
Building One
9606 North MoPac Expressway
Suite 200

What will make me happy about this event? 1.) I’d like to learn more about virtualization and its role in green technology and 2.) To begin a dialogue between Dell, Hitachi, IBM, and Microsoft on how they will work with the community on these issues. If this is going to be a pitch like any other with little substance, I’ll not be too happy.

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Apr 20

GeekAustin/Agile Austin Will Rock Union Park on Tuesday, April 29th

April 20, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

*Which one of these is not true?

The Boom Boom Room is:
a.) The burlesque-style back room at GeekAustin’s newest venue, Union Park.
b.) The place where I hugged a person in a giant Elmo costume and ran into the Big Bad Wolf.
c.) Full of pictures of scantily clad women.
d.) Always crowded, but accessible via a secret entrance that only cool people know to access.

Union Park is a bit of a departure from the subdued and somewhat cramped venue of JBlack’s. With a pool table and video games, an upstairs patio with a view, and the dance-friendly and somewhat naughty Boom Boom Room, Union Park is a great venue for a group as diverse as GeekAustin.

Can you handle unleashing your geek on the Boom Boom Room? If so, RSVP for Get Agile GeekAustin/Agile Austin on Upcoming.

*Actually, they are all true.

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Apr 17

A Community Drawn Together by the Love of a Friend

April 17, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

Tonight I went to Jay B. Sauceda’s benefit for osteosarcoma research. I’ve already touched on the story of how I ran into Jay B. by reading Cesar Torres’s Tweet about his awesome avatar picture. What I have not told you is how I ran into Willie Tichenor.

Willie was Jay B.’s friend from the Iron Spikes student organization at the University of Texas. Even though he was new in the organization that fall semester, Willie was a nice guy, always trying to foster a sense of fun and community among the others. Willie was bald and battling osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, when Jay B. met him. He never seemed to talk about it. He just wanted to have a good time with his new friends.

During the spring, Willie lost his fight against osteosarcoma. The Iron Spikes had no idea he was so sick. Willie probably wanted it that way. After all, he had a much better time just being one of the guys. When the group went to the funeral in Highland Park, they saw an overwhelming crowd of people there to offer their condolences. After talking with others, they realized what an amazing person Willie was. The experience of knowing him helped bring the group together, and many of Willie’s friends were there at the benefit tonight.

So I’ve never met Willie Tichenor. I am sad that his life was taken from him at such a young and exciting age. I do know that his joyful spirit inspired a group of people to connect with each other to raise money and awareness for his cause. I also know that we can have more and more events like this one to foster the sense of community and stewardship he would have wanted.

To make a donation for osteosarcoma research, please contact Jay B.

In memory of Willie Tichenor, a person I have never met.
http://flickr.com/photos/michellesblog/sets/72157604583744765

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Apr 14

Drink Beer, Buy Professional Photography Prints, Deliver a Beatdown to Cancer. Done.

April 14, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended
cancer fighterI’ve been on guard as of late. Since watching my sister undergo both brutal treatment for leukemia and a stem cell transplant, I look for any opportunity to lay my vengeance on cancer. Cancer sucks.

No one should have to deal with that disease.

Fortunately, some other people also think cancer sucks, so it looks like I’m not alone here. I ran into Jay B. Sauceda’s site watching my Twitter stream. Jay B. Sauceda is a photographer here in town with his own studio. I scrolled to the bottom of his site and he is having a happy hour for osteosarcoma research on April 16th from 5-10 PM. Osteosarcoma is the most common malignant form of bone cancer, accounting for 35% of bone malignancies. Any proceeds from prints purchased at Jay’s event will go straight to osteosarcoma research.

So basically, you can drink beer or wine, hang out at a photography studio, buy cool prints for your house, office, or friends, and help make osteosarcoma history. This seems like a real win/win here.

The event will take place at Jay’s studio at 301 #i Chicon in east Austin from 5-10 PM on April 16th. Please leave your katana sword at home ;) .

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Mar 30

A Productive Day One at WordCamp Dallas

March 30, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

There is nothing like reconstituted egg product at the Frisco Hampton Inn and hanging out with a bunch of fellow geeks with MacBooks to get the ideas flowing. I was a bit worried that WordCamp Dallas would not be worth missing out on a weekend in Austin, TX, but here are some of great ideas/announcements that came about at WordCamp Dallas:

1.) According to John P., I finally need to update the look and plugins of this blog so it does not suck.
2.) Andy Skelton wants to have a “rate my neighbor” Google maps mashup that allows you to see if your neighbors are total duds. Aaron Brazell thinks we should have a “rate that driver” application that allows you to call out crappy drivers by their license plate number.
3.) B5Media’s VP of Social Engineering, Ed, is a former diplomat and a total social media guru. Look for his ideas on how to kickstart your career using social media on Twitter soon.
4.) Will Andy Skelton allow me to whisper sweet nothings to you in your WordPress dashboard? Doubtful.
5.) Oh yeah, some guy named Matt Mullenweg announced the WordPress 2.5 launch 20 minutes after it happened. Then he gave insights as to what would be in 2.6 for the first time ever. Well, whoopidy do!

Look for more news from me, Ryan Joy, Paul Menard, Jen Simmons and Jeff. I’m hoping they don’t release the official WordPress mascot, Pressly the grizzly bear. That got kind of ugly last time, from what I heard.

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Mar 09

Kicking It at BarCamp Austin III with Three Burmese Refugees, a Blue-Haired Dude, and a Lawyer

March 9, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

BarCamp Austin III effing rocked.

Not only was I accompanied by the most diverse entourage ever, I managed to:

So how did I score such an amazingly cool entourage? I met Erik, a very cool blue-haired postgres guy from Emma Email Marketing through Nuclear Taco chef Decibel. I met Elaine through the Austin Christmas Bureau and helped her create (albeit poorly) a presentation for her speech “Connecting the Disconnected: Using Your Sweet Social Media Skillz to Help Free Burma”. We are trying to get people to sign the petition to end oppression in Burma as well as get computers for refugees here in Austin, so if you have any lying around, let me know and I will inform you of a meetup place to deliver them.

If you want to see more, check out the Flickr pool and the footage on Viewzi. Much thanks to Whurley, Richard, and the folks at That Other Paper for putting together such a fun event.

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Feb 27

Crashing ATXRyan’s Web Design and Developer Meetup

February 27, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

Ok, so yesterday I ate dinner and was about to go to the gym. Since I figured a.) my food had to digest anyway and b.) Ryan Joy and Paul Menard were heading out to the Web Design and Developer Meetup at Gingerman, I figured I’d join them. Perhaps not the best idea, since I am neither a web designer or developer, and I don’t want to distract Austinites from their conversations of designing or developing new and incredible things. I did get to speak with Jerry Hughes, a photographer here in town, about blogging and what I need to do to make my Flickr pics actually presentable. Very cool.

Paul claimed that if I stray from WordPress and move to TypePad, “I am dead to him.” TypePad just seems a ton easier for me to manage, although I emailed their support team for questions on a WordPress import and have yet to receive a response. So much for $15 a month. Since their support isn’t the greatest, and there is such a great WordPress community here in town, I think I’ll stick with my not so cool looking WordPress blog. It will come in time.

Since my knowledge of writing is decent but my knowledge of WordPress is severely lacking, I am going to check out the WordPress Meetup group on March 3 at GingerMan. If you are wanting to discuss WordPress and all of its awesomeness, I suggest you do the same.

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Feb 25

Something’s Finally Cooking for BarCamp Austin…

February 25, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

You can find me and my partner in crime, Odelay Jefe (also known as Jeff Greer, my brother) at BarCamp Austin on March 7-8. If you can’t tell by the BarCamp Austin wiki, BarCamp is a user generated technology conference. You can present your ideas and choose the presenters you want to see. This year’s event will take place at Idea City in downtown Austin. Interested? Be sure to RSVP at the wiki or on the Upcoming page.

I am looking to present some ideas of my own at BarCamp. A little intimidating since this is my first one, but hopefully the idea itself will keep me motivated. Stay tuned for details…

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Feb 13

Super Second Tuesday Proves Success for GeekAustin

February 13, 2008 • View Comments • Events I've Attended

Lynn, Whurley and I would like to thank everyone who came out to the February Dorkbot/GeekAustin Happy Hour. Much thanks to David Nunez and the crew for the crazy cool animation going on in the mix.

Unfortunately, the date of February 12th was just too appealing and Austin on Rails and Refresh Austin people had events on the same day. Although we had a decent turnout, we are planning on moving our events to another day of the month so they can join in on the fun.

A special thanks to whomever picked up my bar tab. Very cool.

Do you have pictures of the event? Please add them to our Flickr pool.

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