As you may know, I attended WordCamp this past weekend. WordCamp was my first time in San Francisco, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. During my stay in San Francisco, I crashed at fellow 9ruler Eston Bond’s apartment. Only living in the Bay Area for two months, Eston enjoyed hitting the tourist spots such as driving down Lombard Street, checking out the Pacific Ocean, or driving across the Golden Gate bridge as much as I did. I could not have picked a better person to stay with.

WordCamp

While checking out the sites was certainly fun, I went to San Fran for WordCamp, so I think you should hear something about the conference. Simply put, WordCamp amazed me. While not every speaker excited me or even interested me, there were enough speakers that did to make WordCamp worthwhile.

I particularly enjoyed John C. Dvorak and Om Malik’s Blogs vs. Journalism presentation, although, talking with others led me to believe I stand alone. I don’t care what anyone says, I will always enjoy hearing Dvorak and his rants. Anyway, I thought their presentation engaged the audience and got us thinking. They were not just presenting something, they sparked an excellent debate.

John C. Dvorak and Om Malik tag team an excellent discussion.

Another presentation which fascinated me was Matt Cutt’s Whitehat SEO Tips for Bloggers. Matt managed to give some excellent SEO tips and discuss some of the hot search placement topics such as text link advertising. He also managed to show some great features of Webmaster Tools that I was not aware of. What made his presentation exceptionally interesting was having the opportunity to talk with him in a small group before his presentation. He managed to give us a small taste of what was to come, getting me in the perfect mood to learn more.

Matt Cutts intrigues the crowd with awesome SEO tips..

No event can be without controversy and Dave Winer’s Past, Present, and Future of Web Publishing provided it (video). His presentation started out bashing WordPress for lacking an API, when in reality Winer was a few versions behind. Matt Mullenweg made sure to point out Winer’s flaws, forcing Winer to quickly bring focus to Facebook. Winer failed again when the entire WordCamp continued to bring up excellent opposing viewpoints. The conversation got so involved, WordCamp essentially turned into FaceCamp for Winer’s remaining thirty minutes.

Dave Winer tries to stand proud knowing everyone hates his presentation.

Winer’s presentation made me realize he is washed up. He’s out of the loop on modern tech services and can’t seem to catch up. He’s not trying to serve up controversy, he just no longer understands the technology. I hate to say that, but it’s true. If anyone at WordCamp got a different vibe, I’d love to hear it, but I highly doubt anyone will support Winer after his awful presentation.

9rulers Rule

Besides the conference, I hit up the town with my fellow 9rulers. Saturday night Paul Stamatiou, Kyle Neath, Eston Bond, and myself decided to go bowling. It turned out to be the most fun I’ve had in awhile. After getting bored playing straight up for one game, we decided to spice things up. We shot-putted the ball, threw it down the wrong lane by mistake, and even managed to take a chunk out of the adjacent ball return machine. The whole ordeal left us red-flagged with bowling employees watching us like a hawk. Not to mention, Stammy left with nearly two pieces of pants. I can say without a doubt, I have never bowled a more entertaining game.

Stammy acts like nothing occurred, sporting his destroyed pants.

Sunday night we unfortunately lost Kyle as he had to head home, but that didn’t stop our path of destruction. Between Stammy’s girly drink and our crazy credit card / cash split bill, our California Pizza Kitchen waitress must have been ready to quit. After getting some delicious pizza, we crashed the Facebook offices where Eston showed us his mad mixing skills. Stammy posed for a photo, just so all his readers would think he’s Mr. DJ. Upon leaving Facebook and driving back to San Francisco, we managed to spot a modified Starbucks billboard. We just had to turn around a take a picture.

Someone really hates Starbucks.

MacBook Pro Hunting

Nearly everyone left town on Monday but myself, so I randomly got the bug to pickup a MacBook Pro. Seeing all the Pro’s surrounding me at WordCamp just became too much to endure, and I had to pull the trigger. Unfortunately, the gun was not loaded, and I could not find a MacBook Pro anywhere. Pal Alto, the Stanford Shopping Center, and Downtown San Fran Apple Stores were all out of 2.2GHz Santa Rosa MacBook Pros. I even found that my local Apple Store (King of Prussia) lacked the 2.2GHz model, with no restock in sight. Therefore, I ended up ordering my MacBook Pro online. It’s going to take some time to arrive, but I should have it by the time I get back from next week’s week-long camping trip.

With that said, I now have a MacBook for sale. If you’re interested in purchasing it, contact me. I still haven’t come up with a price, but if you contact me quickly I may cut you a deal. I’m planning on selling it with the following items as a bundle:

• White Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook
• G.Skill 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM (2×1024)
• Original Memory (If you ever need to send it to AppleCare.)
• Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 100GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• Waterfield SleeveCase - Vertical with Flap
• Mini-DVI to DVI, VGA, and S-video Adapters (Yes, I have all of them.)
• AppleCare Warranty Until June 19th, 2009 (Will be transfered to your name.)

In addition to my MacBook, I have a 2nd gen silver 4GB iPod nano that I’m looking to flip quickly. If you’re interested, contact me.

That’s a Wrap

Yeah, so that was WordCamp in a nutshell. Between meeting my Summer of Code mentor, attending an awesome WordCamp, hanging out with my fellow 9rulers, and making the decision to purchase a MacBook Pro, WordCamp was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference.