#LonData

So yeah, I was at the #Londata meetup this evening, it was all about Big Data. I was a little out of my depth.

My depth being those job vacancy posts I did in 2009, those libor posts of 2008, and the London rents posts of 2012, all lovingly scraped by hand. Rather than the api-driven professional affairs of tonight's audience.

Anyhoo at #Londata a company called Bloom were showing off some pretty network diagrams illustrating influence on twitter. They look like dandelions and help companies identify who to engage with. Its all to do with who passes on specific messages on twitter and expands the reach of a client's campaign.

One thing I took away from the presentation was that I ought to change my profile details on Twitter to more accurately represent my interests. Or maybe not, maybe I can opt out of being a marketeer's pawn by having my interests as guinea pigs and Dutch politics, things completely incongruous to the content of my tweets.

Anyhoo, I was wondering how Bloom's networky authority stuff could apply to the indiepop music scene. Allo Darlin were playing at Kings College tonight so its kind of topical, and Allo Darlin are both the sort of band who's members go to lots of other gigs and are also the sort of band who played on a train platform at the seminal Indietracks 2008 festival.

There's a handful of bands and a handful of people who all go to the same concerts. Sure some gigs are full of other people and some people go to see other bands gigs, but there is a hard core who are key to the scene. This we already knew.

Maybe if they were diagrammed as nodes, each node is a person, the lines reflect going to gigs, the colours have no relevance.

This diagram is just to illustrate the concept, Alice from The Cosines has probably been to Moustache of Insanity gigs, Bill From Moustache of Insanity has probably reciprocated and Hannah from Owl and Mouse must have been to a Moustache gig at some point too. And Trev OddBox, he puts on most gigs within the scene.

But can twitter be used more intelligently than just spamming the usual suspects, and target people better than just me tugging on people's sleeves?

Information about who goes to what gigs used to be more freely available on songkick, you could look at anyone's gig history and filter it and easy build up an idea of who liked what gigs and who your gigmates are. But now this information is less visible and it takes minds greater than mine to extract it.

Hmm, I'm not quite sure what the point of this blogpost was, just a ramble I guess, with links.

London Bloggers Meetup: Best Buy

Went to a London Bloggers Meetup for the first time in ages, this time at Doggett's Coat and Badge, near Blackfriars bridge, under blazing hot sunshine, with civilisation on the verge of collapse. MyBerry was playing up beforehand so I couldn't log on to FourSquare adequately, no one would have known where I was, my last checkin was hours ago on the other side of town.

On the second floor as usual, a warm and fuzzy cloud of recognition, some folk I knew, some I didn't, all friendly and chatting, all united in their enthusiasm for new media and free beer provided by the evening's sponsors BestBuy.

We chatted and introduced ourselves randomly, the phrase "Do you blog?" starting to sound like some 1970's swingers party fetish as we nibbled on canapés.

At some point I broached the subject of how there appears to be the cultural requirement for an artifact, a milestone, representing social networking, what Romeo&Juliet does for love, what Frankenstein does for science, what Heart of Darkness does for stuff, something that encapsulates online relationships, checking out on facebook people you used to know, without actually seeking them. Something like Billy Jones is Dead, but with added internet. How to deal with being unfriended, people who don't exist online, truly its a twenty-first century issue that needs to be resolved adequately.

Andy the organiser set forth on stage, thanked and introduced the evening's speakers:-
Tom Tired talked about political blogging, he works in politics, talked about political blogging, how we have no rules or conventions to abide, only bloggers can compare John Prescot's schlong to a cocktail sausage. The talk was about three minutes too long but rather entertaining.

Kind of reminded me that I need to register "DianeAbbottShouldHaveWon.com"

The second speaker was the CEO from BestBuy. There was a prize draw, where the prizes were Dr Dre headphones and Bon Jovi tickets, as I didn't win my coverage of his talk will revolve round how the chap is very nasel, but nice message. Gotta quote the word "Cushtomer".

I like the idea of Best Buy, an electronics store where they know what they're talking about. Against the backdrop of the shite service that Comet and PC World are reknown for, then some thing as inspirational as Best Buy can only be a good thing. And from talking to the BestBuy blueshirts at the meetup, they sure are an enthusiastic bunch.

I promised that I'd check out the Thurrock store at the weekend, and fire into the hi-fi demonstration room, but I fear, in the light of my self-actualisation and realisation of my nature, that although I like the idea, and I'm an open minded kind of chap, I'm going to come away with rattling off a list of everything they're doing wrong, and everything I'm sceptical about.

Like 3D cinema and 3D TVs, its just a gimmick, the next excuse to replace your existing media collection. As Lossless compression followed MP3 followed CD followed tape followed LP followed sheet music, as Bluray followed DVD followed VHS followed cinema followed theatre. Yes, but no.

During the CEO's talk the recycling message makes me weep blood, aw c'mon ceo, its bullshit compared to "drive slower" and "don't fly", the energy efficiency of your domestic modern conveniences is pish in the wind, do any customers really care about recycling when they buy the product? Doesn't that suggest that they're buying an inferior product which they're not going to enjoy using for many many years. Doesn't that suggest some kind of failure on the part of the designer and retailer? "You'll love our product, but not for very long"

And, oh ffs! Windfarms?

As is my norm for this sort of event, here's a list of the bloggery folk who I chatted to (18):-

• Cristiano Betta
• Caroline's Miscellany
• Bruce Bird
• James Melon London
• Andy Bargery
• Lucy MissCellaneous
• Baz
• Tom Tired of London Tired of Life
• Chris the Best Buy balloonist
• Pradeep meta-blogger
• The BestBuy website blogger chap
• Hayley from Witness to the Beard
• Kate of 'Fox on escalator' internet phenomenom fame
• Doreen owl elbows
• BestBuyGeekTeam David
• Tom Flashboy
• aw man, that other guy who was in the photo at the top of the post, he was kind of cool, although by that point I'd had quite a lot to drink and was rambling
  

Didn't speak to (8)

• Sianysianysiany
• Mark Wainwright
• Fernando Rizo
• Paul Antoniadis
• Neil Hallmark
• Rich Clark
• Dan Walker Smith
• Kirstie Allsopp
• Electric Spectre
  

I think I may have set myself a new record there
but if we consult the graph we can clearly show that apart from February's plumbing the depths of solace, my London Blogger Meetup socialising has kind of plateaued.

London Bloggers Meetup - the Greene King

My first London Bloggers Meetup in months and months, damn my job requiring I get up at 4:30am. I slip into Bank underground station, walk for ages to get to the surface, then wander the streets randomly until I find the venue. Admittedly I did use myBerry and googlemaps, but it was still loading when I stumbled in to The City Tavern.

It was a very pubby pub, just like a pub. The meetup was in an upstairs room, kind of crowded. You could see straight into the office above the opposite street. The event was sponsored by Greene King IPA, its a kind of beer. There were a handful of helpful brewer type people around being knowledgable about the ways of beer.

The free beer on tap could be served in one of two ways:-

• Smooth and creamy - the northern style
• Clean and Crisp - the southern style

I went northern. Its all to do with the nozzle, but is it a patronising stereotypically thing? Well, the beer's all right, and the talky brewer chap recommends trying the clean and crisp southern version and comparing.

I wish Aref-Adib was here.

Aw man, the nature of tasting beer is as nuanced as high end audio listening.

The difference between northern and southern styles is in the north the beer is broadly poured from the bottom with a sparkler to add turbulence and for southern jessies its poured from the top without the sparkler. When you make white sugar, you bubble up bubbles of somekind of sodium which removed impurities and bleaches the sugar. Similarly bubbles travelling through the length of the glass changes the flavour and makes the head taste different.

Its the Target hops, an English variety, that give Greene King IPA its distinctive flavour, the oils in the hops. Most people don't know what hops taste like, I don't, well, they taste like that.

I love hearing this sort of thing. Although its a little bit cheesy for the hosty speakery people to list words that people usually use to describe flavour at an event where people will be describing flavours. "Rearrange the following words in the order of you choosing".

So aye, there was a short talk by the brewery people about the nature of beer tasting, which sides of the tongue do the trick and how to pour it.

How would I describe the taste?

It was all right.

There followed a talk from a charity blogger. The travails of charities trying to preach to a new audience who aren't already charitynuts.

Madagasca faces problems, but I can't help but think of Mark Wadsworth's post today about a sequence of adverts on Sky, NHS quit-smoking services, private quit-smoking products, WWF soliciting climate change donations, and then airlines.

It begs the question, how can the government afford TV adverts?

Anyhoo, back to Madagasca, quite clearly having a forest just sitting there, not providing substantial income for the country is unsustainable. Its not going to feed the population, or educate them or get them iPhones. Making your blogpost titles keyword rich ain't going to get Madagasca into the Amazonspace. Ooh, did I make an irony?

Greene King IPA Cask Revolution
Originally uploaded by consolidatedpr

Anyways, as is my way for the London Bloggers Meetups, I'll try to list bloggery people I saw and spoke to.

Spoke/grunted at (7)

• Hailey the beard drummer
• Her friend Shell
• Christiano Betta
• Anthony Fresh Plastic
• Bruce Bird
• Oscar
• Godwyns

Folk who I saw and recognised (8)

• Andy Bargery
• Peter Marshall
• Krista Booker
• Chris qwgmlm
• Sweena
• Lolly
• Michael someone
• Caroline of Caroline's Miscellany

Hmm, everyone's a lot better looking than I remember from last time.

Please excuse spelling, poor memory and lack of links, I'll sort it next time I get on broadband internet. I'm on the train home right now, tapping this out on myBerry, clutching my goodie bag of Greene King beers, and wondering where I'm sleeping tonight.

London Blogger Meetup - Paramount

At work I had to tell someone off cos their hair was sticking out from under their hair net and in a food preparation environment, that sort of thing is bad, however, it didn't go well as they pointed out that my hair was sticking out too. So, I've remedied this by having my head shaved.

I'm crap at telling the barber how to cut my hair, always have been, and so I talked myself into having it shaved number two all over. This'll be like the third time in my life I've sported such a hair cut. The first time was in 1995 when I was trying to join the army and then in 1997 when I got cute Genny from my course at uni to cut it.

Every time I underestimate how cold it is without a thick heid of hair.

Anyhoo, London Blogger's meetup the other night, down at Doggett's Coat and Badge, just over the water from Blackfriars. This month sponsored by Paramount Home Entertainment, those lovely people who bring us films such as Indiana Jones, Star Trek and Transformers.

They had raffle prizes of a Transformers skateboard, all of this season's Paramount Home Entertainment releases on DVD and a 32" telly, alas I won none.

Also there was a rather fun talk from Marko Saric about 58 ways to promote your blog, my favourite was (21) "Stop Planning, start blogging". Here's one of Peter Marshall's photos from the evening of me enjoying the talk.


So, as usual with my write-ups of this sort of event, here's a list people I spoke to, with links

1. TomTiredOfLondon - From TiredOfLifeTireOfLondon its a blog about things to do in London
2. Nina - Who writes Mapapay Dhow Trips
   
3. Aref-Adib - Has a wonderful visual online diary of arty thing in London and lookalikes
4. Cristiano Betta - On Tech and Life
5. Mikal D - Aref-Adib, Cristiano and Mikal were chatting about Google Wave, I still have no idea about what it does, how useful it is or how to use it, can it send traffic to my websites?
   
6. Hayley - The drummer from Witness to the Beard
7. Andy Bargery - The Marketing Blagger and organiser of these meetups, some kind of benevolent dictator for life perhaps
8. Marko - From HowToMakeMyBlog.com its a blog about how to blog
9. Zubyre Parvez - From 'Freedom for China' which collects music and artworks from around the world all expressing a need for China to be free from the Chinese Communist Party's oppressive rule.
10. John C - I think this the right link, he was called John according to his badge. We didn't chat for long, in fact, "hi" was pretty much the extent of our discourse. He's from YourBlogTools.com
11. Godwyns - who writes poems at EroticFantasies
    
12. Harry Wood - From OpenStreetMap its the Wikipedia of Maps
13. Selena - She's into social media and meetups
14. Pete - TheLondoneer
15. Antony - Fresh Plastic
16. Tom Flashboy - Haven't spoken to him in ages, and I was on my way out when I spotted him
17. Kate- who was talking to Tom
    

And here's a list of people who I saw but didn't speak to

1. Sheryl - Sartorial Pervert
2. Andy Roberts - From DistributedResearch
3. Pete Marshall - My London Diary, neat photography from around the capital
4. Bruce Bird - the niche market blogger, proving that you can make money from blogging
5. Miss Geeky
6. Tiki Chris
7. Al Robertson - Have seen him around at these meetups for months/years, but never really chatted to him, at this meetup he overheard me talking to FlashTom about naked chicks and indiebands which is the essense of every conversation I've ever had at meetups.
8. Caroline - From Caroline'sMiscellany
9. Rachel Clark

I think I've set myself a new personal best record for people I've spoken to at a London Blogger's Meetup. Here's the graph of my progress over the past year or so.
There's still some way to go.

Other blog posts about this meetup that you might be interested to read:-

• The Londoneer - featuring a photo of me gazing at a drink
• The Seldom Seen Kid
• Life as she knows it
• Fresh Plastic
• Niche Market Blogger
  

Songkick Meetup

I'm so tired. I was up at 4:30am this morning to get to work, it's barely a life, and last night I was running non-stop since I finished work. A desperate sprint to the underground station to get across town for a users meetup at Songkick Towers.

Songkick, as I've previously spieled on about is this huge websitey database of almost every gig ever, you can log on and check off which shows you've been to. According to Pete Smith, one of the founders, they're all gig geeks and they want the website to make going to gigs on the same level as going to the cinema. Its an interesting take on the phenomenom, and I guess I've embraced it, probably averaging more gigs than cinema trips over the years.

But I don't see the gig-going experience like that, I'd compare it more to football. I've only seen Man United play once, I'm not much of a football fan. But I was reading highbrow blogoir Charles Crawford this morning, he was rattling on about how the invention of broadcast football...

..meant that there were two categories of sports fans. Those who had to make their way to the event and pay to watch it in person. And everyone else who got to see it in effect for free via TV.

I reckon its the same deal with music now, recorded/broadcast music is essentially free, you don't pay to listen to the radio or spotify, and there are those of us who make our way to the gigs and pay to watch the bands in person.

Enough pontificating, on with the meetup writeup blogposts...

We'd been issued with name badges and name clouds of people in the room who we may have seen at other gigs. So there was much wandering around looking for familiar-ish faces and people who's username's we'd seen online.

There was free beer and cakes and crisps and vodka and stuff and badges, there was a short presentation of new and exciting features they're hoping to add to the site, I'm not quite comfortable blabbing on about every on my blog, but later I was chatting with a fellow songkicker about how difficult it would be to pick your own Top Five favourite gigs of all time, torturously so even.

And if such a thing top five gigs had to be shown, I'd want it to be computer generated, some kind of algorithm that picks the top five gigs out of every one you've been to, not necessarily the biggest gigs, but some kind of complicated formular. My mind's been boggling about it all day at the factory today, and what I figure would be neat, is a rotating selection of different top fives, every time you click refresh it changes the algorithm, so you never know what it's going to be:-

• Top five biggest gigs
• Oldest five gigs
• Top five biggest attended shows by your favourite band
• Top five gigs at your top venue
• Top five shows by bands beginning with 'B'
• Top five shows with one word band names
• Top five shows biggest shows this year
• Top five shows you went to on your own
• Top five shows outside your safety zone
• ... and so on

I don't know about you, but I'd be clicking refresh for hours and hours.

Then again, mind boggling some more, how would you choose your Top Five gigs? Well, by comparing one to another. Was Cast at The Boardwalk better than The Loves at The Cavern? Were Friends of the Bride at The Buffalo Bar better than The Gresham Flyers at Jamm? It would be a seperate corner of the website, but it just pings up a load of these choices, and after a while the alogrithm knows enough to say my favourite gig was The Just Joans at The Enterprise.

What would be a tiny bit more interesting would be if other people could pick your top gig, so anyone visiting your profile gets to chose which show was better, even if they've never heard of the bands. Nathan Persad at the 13th Note better than The Mighty Sunch at The Captain's Rest?

Anyhoo, I digress again, I ought not to, I need to sleep.

As is my wont in these meetup blogposts, here's a list of people who were there, and for the sake of being fiercely competitve, they are listed by the number og gigs they're been to.

1. soapcompany - 1066 past events
   
2. triturus - 353 past events
3. bootzilla - 308 past events
4. bumblebee - 305 past events
5. bookarooble - 218 past events
6. dawnkitten - 191 past events
7. outspaced - 171 past events
8. AnthonyChalmers - 164 past events
9. natalie_shaw - 137 past events
10. brightslumber - 121 past events
11. saleandro - 118 past events
12. gideon - 115 past events
    
13. ian - 103 past events
14. kaz.patwa - 103 past events
15. jesstherese - 96 past events
16. mash1982 - 90 past events
17. michelle - 89 past events
    
18. deathwarmedover - 83 past events
19. EmilyS - 64 past events
20. phil - 44 past events
21. gtvone - 43 past events
22. ssaint - 32 past events
23. Craigtmackenzie - 18 past events
24. funky - 9 past events
25. marc - 6 past events
    

Apologies to anyone I've missed, my bad. I haven't included myself, my profile's here if you're passing through.

Here's everyone graphed and broken into percentiles.

I knew you would.

They had whiteboards for people to add suggestions, features they'd like added and stuff they don't like. I scrawled a couple of things, rambling and misguided, I think if I was thinking more clearly, I'd have written 'rank'. For every datum, I'd like to know the rank compared to the rest of the database. Number of photies added, how does that compare to everyone else; number of gigs a band has played, how does that compare to every other band; number of past concerts at a venue how does that compare to every other venue.

Sure, there's a bit of that rankinginess around, the site, but I want more of it. And aure, it'll give the game away for how big the database is an how many people are signed up, but like when technorati does it for blogs, it demonstrates how authoritative the datum is.

Hmm, where was I? ah yeas. I drank too much, chatted to lots of people, but not half as many as I wanted to. I had to leave.

It was a bit of a frantic sprint afterwards too, to the Buffalo Bar to catch The Primitives playing Twee As Fuck. I bumped into Dave from the Just Joans in the queue, down from Glasgow. Sadly my night was cut short as I had to leave before the headline act in order to get the last train home and get to work the next day.

Anyhoo, looking at the songkick page for the gig and the seven people who were there, they're mostly hardcore gig-going songkickers:-

1. illandancient - 529 past events
   
2. OddBox - 343 past events
3. darve - 204 past events
4. RockerRosehip - 116 past events
5. rewsan - 106 past events
6. emml - 105 past events
7. RorySoTough - 1 past events

London Bloggers Meetup: eBay

Aw man, its been so long since I last blogged, just over a week. I'm sorry, I've been busy, I have a job, a knackering job. My week has been ten days long, and today's my own personal Saturday.

I was called up to go in and work the morning shift. I said no, although I sorely need the money, I'm just too tired. My hands are cut and bruised, they feel like paws. I need to catch up on the internet and write up stuff, like the London Bloggers Meetup I went to the other day, sponsored by eBay.

eBay are quite self-aware of the slightly grimy reputation they've developed lately, and are trying to shake it off. They've got this new 'Daily Deals' thing where a limited quantity of brand new goods are on sale with quite impressive discounts, different stuff at 8am every day. As cool-ass bloggers they're willing to give us a bit of foresight for upcoming deals, which could be useful.

Also, eBay provided the prizes for a raffle which saw Aref-Adib walk away with a Vodaphone mobile broadband dongle, and Hayley from Punlimited got a Del Netbook thing, which was sweet. There were free goodie bags for everyone with notepads, mugs and a 2gb memory stick and loads of free drinks and food. Generous folks thems eBays.

As is my way, here is a series of lists of people/blogs I spoke to, make nodding eye-contact with or understood were there despite no interaction with. Firstly the former

• Aref-Adib
• Andy Marketing Blagger
• The chap with a philosophy video blog
  
• Tom - Bored of London Bored of Life
• Tom Flashboy
• Meaghan - from the top floor flat
• Dr Zoe - the Shaman
• The Epicurenne
• Hayley the band Witness to the Beard and Punlmited
• Sheryl - Sartorial Pervert
• Cristiano Betta
• Rob - the Wine Conversation
• Malcolm Eggs - The London Review of Breakfasts

And now the list of people I made nodding eye contact with, briefly stood next to at the bar or otherwise acknowledged

• Timinator
• Miss Geeky
• Tiki Chris
• Peter Marshall
• Godwyns - the poet
• Rax
• Anthony Fresh Plastic - the mobile phone blogger
• Willem - Ice Cream for Everyone
  

And finally people who were there according to the internet, but I don't recall meeting, then again, I had a lot to drink and was very very tired.

• Ruthy
• Al Robertson
• Krista Booker
• Matt - the Seldom Seen Kid
• Shopzilla
• BitchBuzz
• Litman Live
• Vikki Chowney
• Selena Chan
• Robin Grant and Nathan McDonald - wearesocial
• Mauricio Samayoa
• Harriet Hines - Shine
• Darika Ahrens

The room was packed, there's a couple of people I've forgotten, gentle reminder comments would be appreciated.

Other write-ups of the event:-
here, here and here

This one time I went speed-dating, it was an interesting experience especially after the two cans of RedBull I'd had as an alternative to dinner. What concerned me most by the experience was meeting some chaps who routinely went speed dating and would meet the same girls time and time again. Rather than going to meet new people in the hope of hitting it off and finding love, they just enjoyed having 3 minute long chat to the same people month after month.

I fear that the same sort of thing is happening to me at the London Blogger Meetups, I'm just chatting to the same people, rather than networking and meeting new folk.

I've got to go to the other end of the room.

On the other hand, maybe these meetups are helping me come out of shell a wee bit, lets look at a graph:-

This shows how many people I talk to and how many people I just nod at cos they're too far away or I'm scared of them or whatever. We can clearly see that both levels are rising, the latter rising a wee bit more than the former, is this because I now know more people, or because I'm scared of more people?

If we add trend lines, these rises are easier to see, and furthermore, if we extrapolate the trandlines out we can see when the two KPIs converge:-

There we have it, some time in July 2011 I'll be talking to fifteen people, and nodding at exactly the same number of people without having a sustained conversation with them. It'll be like a singularity or something.

Speaking of singularities, I'd quite like to ask Tom Flashboy his opinion of Songkick.

Furthermore, as previously mentioned, today's my day off work, I need to write up other blogposts that I started on my 'ackberry, but need to finish, these blogposts include:-

• Knitting update
• In praise of GAME
• What makes a good venue
• Project Google Maps Racing
• Ranking London Bloggers by technorati authority (again)
  
• Job vacancies update

Look out for them soon.

London Blogger Meetup - Coffee

The London Bloggers Meetup group, an elite band of diverse London-based bloggers brought together by the the internet.

This month the event was sponsored by Starbucks Via "The taste of starbucks at home", they were giving away sachets of their new instant coffee, I managed to grab ten. There's two different flavours, 'Colombia' and 'Italian Roast', so far today I've only had the Colombia flavour, and its all right. I'll try to do a blind taste test on my attractive young ladyfriend next time I have her in my grasp.

The meetup was at The Crown on New Oxford Street, Starbucks had provided a free bar, which was very kind of them, also they had supplemented the usual blogger population with lots of smiling marketing people asking what we though of the Starbucks Via and videoing our drunken ramblings. I rambled drunkenly, but I doubt it was up to my previous talking-head drunken rambling.

There was also a talk by a gentleman from The Londonist.

Londonist is a website about London and everything that happens in it. That means news, reviews and events; the history and future of London. We celebrate the quirks, eccentricities, hidden and surprising bits that make up the alternative side of the city.

Upbeat and eclectic, Londonist is created by an incredibly talented and diverse team of contributors who share a passion for the city with our readers. We're a bunch of London obsessives who live the city and share our best discoveries.

If I was somehow roped into writing for The Londonist, I would be interviewing my favourite London-based indiepop acts, such as Pocketbooks, MJ Hibbett and The Gresham Flyers, but its been over a decade since I last wrote compelling band interviews.

There was a third speaker, a gentleman from Platform A, talking about the use of affliate links for bloggers as an alternative to just using google adsense. Advertising money on the internet is getting spread more thinly so folk are going to have to adapt their monetisation.

Anyhoo, linkiture... blogging folk who I chatted to:-

• Andy the Marketing Blagger
• Malcolm Eggs from The London Review of Breakfasts - who thought that blogger meetups were just one step on a road that will inevitably reach the London Telephone User Meetup
• Godwyns the poet - who had recently returned from cycling London to Paris
• Anthony Fresh Plastic - who blogs about mobile phones and netbooks
• Hayley from Punlimited - who also drums for London rock sensation 'Witness to the Beard'
• Meaghan from the Top Floor Flat
• Tom Flashboy - wishes he'd gone to Indietracks
• Cristiano Betta
• The Ginger chap from Plummet Onions
• Miss Geeky
• Epicurienne
• Michael from Litman Live
  

Blogging folk who I made brief eyecontact with and possible some hint of recollection from somewhere or something:-

• Jaz from Jazamatazz
• Ruthy
• Bruce Bird
• Fake Plastic Noodles
• Tom Tired of London
• Mirona
• The Seldom Seen Kid
  

Blogging folk who were there but I neither spoke to nor made eye-contact with:-

• Krista
• Kim
• Rob from The Wine Conversation
  
• The blonde one from bananarama

Hmm, I'm sure there were other folk too, like people who people were talking to, brief introductions drowned out by background noise.

On the way home I saw the wee cat that me and my attractive young lady friend usually temprarily adopt, but the wee soul ran away and actually hid from me.

Sadness.

London Bloggers blookers?

Its that time of the month when I leave the flat and go and stand in a room full of people off of the internet.

Talks this month by Floyd Earl Smith about blogging books, he usually writes ... For Dummies books about websitey things and has sold over a million copies of his various work. Interesting stuff in the talk, how to write a blog as a book or a book as a blog, and get published. His next book is about crossing the climate change 'tipping point', which ought to be interesting. I myself have failed miserably in publishing bloggery things, and despirited enough to never try again.

Jaz from Jazamatazz spoke about Refugee Week and the Simple Acts Campaign which intends to change the way people perceive refugees, like making friends with them, trying foreign food, and so on. Refugee Week 2009 will take place from 15 - 21 June, some of the events taking place are listed here.

As is usual for me after these London Blogger Meetup, here's the first of many lists of London Bloggers that should be popping up over the London blogosphere as people write up the event, blogging about the evening, and adding to as they remember the names or find the links of people they missed.

Interesting folk I spoke to include:-

Chris qwagham
Tom from Tired of London, Tired of Life
Tom Flashboy
Andy Bargery
Aref Adib
Dr Zoe the Shaman
Bruce Bird
Alexa from Global cool
Godwyns
Derry
Ruthy
Celia Brooks Brown

People I made brief eye-contact* with include:-

Floyd Earl Smith
Jaz Refugee Week
Anthony Fresh Plastic

People who I didn't talk to or make eye contact with:-

Violette
LitmanLive
Plummet Onions

(admittedly some of these aren't people as such, but are blogs written by people who I didn't talk to, make eye-contact with or otherwise recognise)

Ooh, on the way home, at Old Street underground, I bumped into two chums I knew from school in the 90s. Warm fuzzy feelings inside, and also nostalgic memories bubbling to the surface. Parties and underage drinking and stuff.

*I made an amusing funny, talking about running 10K by running round Regent's Park twice. The chap I was talking to pointed out that it was a bit repetitive. I responded that when you jog past someone then round the other side you jog past them again, then back on the second lap you pass them again and get the merest hint of eye-contact, its almost like going on a date.
I thought it was funny

Breast Cancer Bloggery

I was at a London Bloggers Meetup last night, my attractive young ladyfriend came along too, as she had been kicking about town earlier.

The meet up was a big one, in the basement of Shish, a kebab restaurant in Old Street that I haven't been to since Tuesday 7th August 2007.

The evening was sponsored by Fashion Targets Breast Cancer UK, free drinks, free pin badges, free USB business cardy things and a little presentation about the charity. It was started in the nineties by Ralph Lauren and aims to raise awareness and money for Breast Cancer. They have a fine range of women's clothes available in Marks n Sparks, Top Shop, River Island, etc.

All the designs seem to be black and with with animals or the charity's target logo. My favourite was this one.

They had a raffle thing, giving away literally loads of clothes and my attractive young ladyfriend was lucky enough to win one (photies later).

They were also showing off their Million Model Catwalk website, which is a fine thing, you upload your photies and it gets superimposed on a catwalk model wearing one of their outfits. On the title page of the website, I think my favourite celeb pretending to be a model is Sarah Cox cos she looks like she's a little drunk late on during a night out in Bolton, stumbling to the side slightly.

According to the leaflets on the tables, around 50,000 women and 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and, according to the website, 12,000 die.

As is usual for me after these London Blogger Meetup, here's the first of many list of London Bloggers that should be popping up over the London blogosphere as people write up the event, blogging about the evening.

Interesting folk I spoke to include:-

Aref-Adib
Andy Bargery
Cristiano Betta
Epicurienne
Dr Zoe the Shaman
Barbara from GloCal Travel
The Londoneer

People I made brief eye-contact with include:-

Ridiculant
Fresh Plastic
Lolly
Hayley from PunLimited
My London Diary

People who I didn't talk to or make eye contact with:-

Miss Geeky
Annie Mole
We Are Social
Gregg Fraley

(admittedly some of these aren't people as such, but are blogs written by people who I didn't talk to, make eye-contact with or otherwise recognise)
Actually, it was a quite a quiet one for me, maybe I'm just really shy. There's probably lots of other people who I didn't talk to or make eye contact with, leave a comment and I'll add to the list, then you can just cut and paste it into tyer own blogs and it'll be like a successful venture into post-event networking, rather than me just link baiting.

Afterwards, as we wandered back to Old Street Underground, we were overcome with hunger and popped into the Cay Tre, its a Vietnamese restaurant. We'd been promising each other to sample Vietnamese food for months, and you know what, its great. Its a bit sharper than Chinese food. I had this chilli chicken with rice thing, and my ladyfriend had some kind of crab and prawn dish, I think it had black beans in it too. She's crazy for black beans.

Ooh, modest prices too.

Burning 100 calories / Fun

Over on London Bloggers, there's a competition sponsored by Bacardi Breezer 100. Its this new version of Bacardi Breezer with only 100 calories per bottle. The competition is to answer the following question:-

Bacardi Breezer 100 calories has just that, 100 calories. The most fun I’ve ever had burning off 100 calories is…

So, just what is 100 calories, what does it look like, what does it feel like? Well, using the magical power of the internet we can scrape together the following table.

Activity	Calories per hour	Time for 100 calories
Running	800	8
Rock climbing	748	8
Jogging	390	15
Fishing	204	29
Sex	102	59
Sitting at computer	91	66
Eating Celery	90	67
Ironing	90	67
Sleeping	61	98

A few caveats are required.

• That figure for running, it depends how fast you're running, a full out 100m sprint uses around 1000 calories per hour, but you can only keep it up for a minute or so, and a more gentle running only takes 500 calories per hour.
• There's much discussion online about eating celery, eating is about 110 calories per hour, and each stick of celery provides about 1 calory, I reckon in an hour you can eat maybe fifteen sticks before being 'full.
• Sex, I dunno, maybe the site I got the stats from was wrong, or does it differently.

So, what is the most fun I personally have had burning 100 calories? I guess that's all in relation to fun. So if we ignore all food (and drink) based enjoyment, and for modesty ignore all sex based fun (thats most nights out and crazy adventures during first few weeks of relationships), my great database of fun activities spews forth this list.

• Seeing the Boo Radleys Manchester Academy 1995
• Running 10K in 35 minutes 2008
• Paintball with Scouts 1993
• Outdoory things at Patterdale Hall 1995
• Expeditions round the Lake District 1996
• Gigs with Deep Fried Wolfknuckles 2007

Actually I think I ended up quite drunk at the Boo Radleys show and the Wolfknuckles gigs, so I can't count them. The Running 10K thing was fun, exhilarating even, but well, on refection, it was a little boring. Patterdale Hall and Lake District stuff spans too wide a period, so I think the most fun I had was the paintball thing in Stockport with Scouts in 1993, I guess 10 minutes of that would kind of count as the most fun I've had burning 100 calories.

Hmph, there's got to be more fun things I've done which didn't involve booze or food.

Think, think, think.

Maybe I should try sky diving or go bungee jumping, is there still time? Does being in free fall even burn up calories?

Meetup

Some short chap stood on a stool at the front trying to convince a room of PR people to feel passionate about wine.

Interesting point about wine being an agricultural product, rather than an industrial product where the production can be turned up if nessessary.

Slightly sozzled on the way home. It was a fun meetup, definitely in the top five London Bloggers Meetups, shame Chris qwagmir and FlashTom weren't there.

Lots of free wine, about 80% pleasant.






Aref-Adib was up to his usual fine form as my PR man pimping my old site and book.

I found myself talking to lots of interesting people. There's a cute girl on the platform outside the window, she looks like Heather Graham. Hmph, its been days since I spoke to my ladtyfriend, is it too late to phone?

I took lots of photies of wine with thumbs up, thumbs down reviews. And had decided I need to acquire Port for the flat.

Of course I'll populate this post with links when I'n next near my computer, but folk I recall chatting to include...

• GloCal Travel
• Bruce Bird
• The Plummet Onions
• Icecream 4 everyone
• Aref-Adib
• Shaman in the UK
• Cristiano
• Miss Geeky
• The event manager
• Andy Bargery
• Fake Plastic Noodles
• Ginger Monkey
• Wine Conversation

Made eye contact with

• Jazamatazz
• Balancing Act

Probably a couple more people too, I'm crap with names me.

Ooh, train stopping

Photies here

• My photies
• Tiki Chris
• Rob Winton

Bloggery Meetup

This time The London Bloggers Meetup was sponsored by Smirnoff who had some cocktail mixing folk on hand to come up with cocktails based on our blogs.

I wasn't really in the mood, work is a wee bit stressful, or I get too stressed by things that shouldn't stress me, but after waving a flag on Facebook, Merhdad dragged me along.

I was my usual immensely shy self, lurking about two foot away and to the right behind Merhdad, but it was kind of reassuring to see familiar face there. The vibe has changed a little from 'who are you and how can I use you?' to 'oh its you again and how's it coming along?'.

Bloggers who I spoke or silently mouthed hi to whilst bobbing my head or butted into the conversations of include:-
Merhdad
Flash Tom
Julius
Jaz
MissGeeky
Hannah
Cristiano
Andy
Peter Marshall
Lolly
Krista Londonelicious
Dr. Zoe
(Aw man, I think I've forgotten about four people... think think think... later)

Impressed by folk's ever more impressive moo card holders, and got carried away sketching plans for a moo card machine gun

I told the barkeep that my blog was about engineering, so I was expecting something that tasted of motor oil and disinfectant, luckily instead I got a cherry syrup and ginger based vodka thing.

Here's a video of the chap mixing it.

Its about six minutes long, you don't get those minutes back, ever. And the soundtrack is just crowd noise, I ought to edit it, and sling on some tunes. Heck I haven't even watched the video back myself yet, who knows what it sounds and looks like. The mic probably picked up my suggestion at three minutes of using ground up beetles in the cocktail to add bite and tang, and then at five minutes where I'm pouring out my heart to the barman and pointing out who I'm scared of talking to and who I wish I could speak to.

Ooh, free vokda!!!!

At about 9:30pm I became aware, a wee nagging feeling, that when someone asks me what I blog about and I replied Manufacturing Engineering, and then the next person asserts that I blog about pictures of naked women, its a bit disingenuous, and maybe comes across like I talk a lot of shit.

Here's a list of the blogs I currently update
Chris Gilmour's Diary Vol. 14 - Existential crisises and personal random blogging
Last night From Glasgow Indie Eyespy - Live music reviews and crap photos
Naked Chicks on Post-It Notes - Its art, not safe for work
Naked Pigeons on Post-It Notes - Its art, safe for work
Ill Theatre - Personal blog as a webcomic
Man Eng Man - The UK's favourite Manufacturing Engineering blog (this one's new)

Not so much someone with varied interested, more like a child covering the whole house in crayon.