My Year in Cities: 2012

Much less travel this year, and only one trip wasn’t due to a side project.

Washington, DC for National Bike Summit

Jefferson City, MO

Long Beach, CA for Alliance for Biking and Walking leadership retreat

Lawrence, KS

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The curse of a common email address

Since I have a common first and last name, I have very common Gmail address.  And since a lot of people seem to have trouble remembering or correctly typing their own email addresses, I receive a lot of email intended for other people.

Somewhere there is a pregnant woman on oxycontin who missed some important medical information because she didn’t type her email address correctly.

A few of other misdirected emails that often come my way include…

• A nice woman’s Catholic singles web site matches
• A group of Mormon Sunday School teachers planning their lessons
• Tennis club reservations for a dude in Seattle
• Two different people who appear to be getting psychological counseling via email

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My Year in Cities: 2011

Chicago, IL

Takoma Park, MD

Minneapolis, MN

Washington, DC

Sedalia, MO

Jefferson City, MO

Branson, MO

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My day at camp, WordCamp

This past weekend I trekked out to the ‘burbs for the KC area’s first WordCamp – a full day of presentations and conversations about WordPress. A healthy turnout of over 200 people wasn’t too shabby for the first year. Topics covered a wide range of interest to bloggers, developers, designers, etc.

While all presentations were excellent, there were a couple of big highlights for me.  Eventually all the WordCampKC talks are supposed to be on WordPress.TV.

Clint Hall from Cerner gave a great talk on mobile development basics, emphasizing the advantages of simplifying design down to a core of HTML that can form the basis different versions and platforms using progressive enhancement.

Jeremy Fuksa of Sullivan Higdon & Sink had a similar message of responsive and adaptive web design, but focus on using flexible grids to achieve multi-platform sites with a single design.

Overall it was a great event with lots of great folks. Probably the most worthwhile day ever spent in Overland Park. A big thanks to all the WordCamp organizers. Until next year, be sure to check out the monthly WordPress meetup group.

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Test ride some sweet Civia bicycles

Here’s a chance to try out some bikes from Civia Cycles, a Minnesota company that makes some awesome touring, commuting, and utility bikes. I currently have the Bryant, and absolutely love it for its comfort, reliability, and of course style. While I opted for the traditional Tiagra version, it also comes in an internal hub belt drive version.

On June 10th Family Bicycles in Waldo will have a special demo night with several Civia models, plus some food and beer.  Come check out these great bikes, and help restrain me from buying the Halstead cargo bike!

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