Wordcamp Savannah 2010

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending WordCamp Savannah.

“WordCamps are low-key community conferences that celebrate all things WordPress and bring together local WordPress users, developers and fans.”

To read more about this particular WordCamp, visit WordCamp in Savannah GA.

Before I talk about the actual event itself, let me drop a little bit of background on my history with WordPress.

How Did I Find WordPress?

I’ve been working with web development as well as programming in different languages since I was a teen. There is just something about submitting and retrieving data using code and a database tickles my fancy.

For extra cash, as well as the stimulation of programming itself, I was developing websites for friends of mine.  While doing this I was also creating my own Content Management System to enable my clients to log into their websites and make changes on their own.

Little did I know how important this kind of action would become in the next couple of years.

After having made it pretty far along with the CMS I stumbled upon a free piece of software called WordPress. As soon as I installed it and tried it out, I immediately knew I would never need to work on my own CMS again.

WordPress was not quite where it is today, but was leaps and bounds farther along than my solo CMS, as well had a large support environment online, and plenty of people focused on making it better and safer.

Since that day I have been programming less and hacking more. WordPress gives me a strong  platform to grow on

Having been developing a CMS, the background functionality of WordPress enticed me.

Enter WordCamp Savannah 2010

Now that I have been using the software for a while and spreading goodwill about it, I decided to take the plunge and really see about getting involved in this community. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I enjoy putting on and hosting events myself, and something that I have noticed is when you bring together a large group of people, many times it is hard to maintain a certain vibe. There is a good chance for controversy.

WordCamp Savannah smashed that idea.

Every single person that I met, and I talked to quite a few, was kind, generous, and generally just cool to be around.

That vibe resonated throughout the entire event and alone would have made it worthwhile to be there.

Add in the fact that several of the core members of the WordPress team showed up to present and just hang out and share…

No egos to be found found here, just people sharing a similar interest and trying to build a great community. Everyone, regardless of title or experience or responsibility was down to earth.

As a developer I was able to really get my nerd on in the developer track and was stimulated and inspired.

The biggest thing that I noticed about this event was that everyone is giving. Giving of their time, their knowledge, whatever they have to give, they are giving it.

This also inspired me and has given me the desire to give back to this community as well.

I am not exactly sure how or when or where I will fall within this community in the future, for now I will continue to use and support it.

Keep an eye out people, you will be seeing a lot more of me in the future

If you have any kind of online presence, a business site, a blog, anything…and you have not experience WordPress or WordCamp, I challenge you to check them out.  I promise you will find something you like.

As an added bonus I wanted to share some links to some of the amazing people I met while there. All of these people are heavily involved in WordPress and know things that you can learn

Daryl Koopersmish – Developer
John James Jacoby – Developer
Ptah Dunbar – Developer
Mark Jaquith – Developer
Jane Wells UX designer + Amazing Coordinator
Sara Cannon – Designer
Andrew Nacin – Developer
http://ma.tt – Founder
Amanda Plum – PR
Nikolay – Translations
Otto – Developer
Chris Cree – New Media
Matt Thomas – Design/Development

Other WordPress attendy reviews

WordPress Savannah 2010 – Steven Miller
New Tricks – Judi Knight
Just Ask Kim – Kimberly Castleberry

Official WordCamp Savannah Sites

WordCamp Savannah 2010
WordCamp Savannah TwitterWP MU – Slides From WordCamp Presentations
Foursquare Listing

This particular spot in the yard was chosen because it gets quite a bit of sun during the day.  We even did just a little limb hacking on some trees to open up the suns space a little more.  One would think this is prime real estate if you were a “6+ hour sun light” plant.

Behind the garden is a bench. This bench was creatively covered in ’semi transparent’ deck stain…a few too many times and is now very white.  I will say it definitely keeps the water out.

Just behind that is our fire pit. It is pretty large and in charge, but we can not use it until October =/

As you can see here, I have two 4 ft x 8 ft raised beds. They were a bit overgrown from not being tended to for about a month, so we had to do some weeding before we could even get some plants in there. Super High Quality photo images brought to you by blackberry storm.

I had thought about just tilling up a big section of the yard right there, but I figured using the beds would look a little cleaner, and also offer a little assistance in keeping critters out if/when I install some chicken wire fence around them…yes, chicken wire.

After just returning my parents weed eater back to them, I was left having to use a pair of gloves and hands to pull the weeds.  With some help from my friends we knocked it out quickly.

In this photo you can see everything that we started with in order to create the garden.

• Top Soil
• Conditioner
• Blue Berry Bush
• Green/Red Bell Peppers
• Jalapeno Pepper
• Roma Tomato
• Solar Fire Tomato(supposedly does well in heat)
• Watermelon
• Cucumber

Next step, spread out dirt and conditioner, then till it all up and mix with the existing dirt.  This was intense but we definitely created a nice home for the new plants.

Done! Garden beds mixed and tilled, ready for plants.  On the left are the Tomato’s, and Peppers.  The two Tomato’s in the back were given to me by my parents and are not doing so great.

On the right you can see the Watermelon, Blue Berry, and Cucumber.  Thinking about moving the Blue Berry to a location outside of the garden.

Below you will find my potted plants which are all doing great. Surprising considering every one of my attempts with them last year failed.

• Basil x2, both purchased from farmers markets
• Oregano, this died last year and grew back in the same pot
• Cherry Tomato’s, sprouted by a friend of mine’s neighbor

Once the cherry tomato’s are a little larger, I think I am going to replace the two other failing tomato plants with them.

So there it is, my garden 2010.  Hope you like it…hope it feeds me soon!

Are you growing anything? If so leave me a comment and tell me what it is. The same goes for any tips or tricks you might have that can help me out!

I like to give back to my fellow man and teaching people a skill that will help them survive and also increase their fun level by millions really feels good.

After my first appointment, I called my second appointment, the swimming lessons. We spoke and I told them I would be there in 20 minutes.

20 minutes later I arrived at the location, an apartment complex with a pool(which by the way is a great place to start learning).  Most of the time these pools are shallow from end to end so a new swimmer can always just ’stand up’ if they get scared.

Anyways, I arrive at 12pm as we had agreed upon and I gave them a call. Got the voice mail.

12:10 rolls around, I give them another call. Still the voice mail.

12:20 is coming up and I call again. Still no answer and I leave a voice mail.

Shortly after I get a call back.  They are less than 2 minutes away and will be there asap. I can go through the leasing office and into the pool area…which I do.

After changing, I grab the kick boards and head to the water. They are still not there so I just get in and start swimming some laps.

12:30 and still nothing. Just me and a small family hanging out in the pool. I continue swimming laps.

12:35 I check and still no call back, no sign of them. So I swim some more laps.

Ah ha! It looks like two people that could be my people. Sweet, 40 minutes late but at least there are here, we can get started.

I will teach them how to swim, a skill everyone should have for safety and fun! In exchange they will pay me in money.

They walk down to the pool area, one in a bathing suit ready to rock, the other in shorts and a t-shirt. I ask them if it was in fact them and they agreed.

Jokingly, and I said something like “well great, I’m glad you are here, hop on in because we only have like 20 minutes right?”

1 hour long lesson, we agree to meet at 12pm, I arrive at 12pm, they arrive at 12:40pm…the math is in there.

Anyway, the person I had been speaking to went back to their car for a second to ‘get something’.  I continue swimming laps.

I swim away, swim back, swim away, and on my way back this time, I notice both of them are back in their car driving away!

Staring right at me!

I swam back to my stuff and gave them a call then left them a message to the tune of  “I appologize for wasting your time. Please give me a call if and when you are actually serious about learning to swim, have a good day.”

Sure I was stewing but I would have felt like an idiot if I had ‘gone off’ on them for being the kind of people they are.  It wouldn’t have changed them so I saved my breath and kept it professional.

My first mistake was not having them pay me before I drove out there.  The location is really far from where I live, but was fairly close to where my first appointment was at. I can easily accept online payments, even from credit cards, so there is no reason that I should have not been paid for my hours of waiting around at that pool.

Anyway, like I was saying….Some People right?

So far he has interviewed some really great people from all over the world, and I am honored to have been asked to do this.

Anyways, without further a due, here is the link to the interview, enjoy!

“Read All About Him – Bret Phillips”

http://shotfromguns.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/read-all-about-him-bret-phillips/

There are only so many people that I can meet face to face every day, so natural I decided to look towards the internet in search of making these contacts. Again tho, even with the internet, there is only so much that I can do myself…this is where you come in.

I need YOUR help.  If you support me and have my back, I need you to spread the word about me.  This is really easy, just tell at least one friend or family member(if not more!), who is into playing, recording, writing, or making music in any capacity, to hit me up. Just a quick ‘hi, hello’ and I promise I can take it from there.

How can someone get in touch with me? Here are a couple of different ways:

Friend me on Facebook, no fan page right now, this is my personal account so you will definitely be able to contact me.
I have set up this Facebook Event in honor of this as well.
Follow me on Twitter
Link up on LinkedIn
Use my Contact Form to contact me directly.

Thank you all very much for the support thus far, I really appreciate it. Having the help of my friends and family helps make following my own dreams possible.

Hit me up!