Portland, Oregon

I had a wonderful time in Portland at the nerd/geek dinner. I have to admit after getting a late start I thought twice about the value of driving 3-4 hours for dinner only to spend the night get up early the next morning and drive 3-4 hours home. Then I met the Portland Geeks - now I'm smitten. :)  Alex Williams and Judy were gracious hosts and I met some really cool people. The conversation was full and not just with the usual jargon in regard to traffic and blog politics. I listed a few below for your enjoyment.

 I had some really great conversation about life,philosophy and snow boarding with John Hann. Check out his new blog and watch out for this guy cuz' he's steppin' into your conversation pool in a big way. David Parker told me funny stories about Chris from way back and even approved of my changin' hair styles, since he's a former stylist and current photographer and retouch specialist I'll take that as a big compliment. Rich Claussen and I talked at length on media hardware and his HUGE collection of DVD's. Turns out he and his wife are big movie buffs and have started to create a mini monster (a wall and a half of DVD's from a rough estimate). Thank goodness he has a great filing system to keep it all orderly. (Next I forsee him starting his own version of Netflix -after attending G5 and learning how to monetize the 'net with what ya got.) A really cool conversation that comes to mind was with Scott Hanselman, he's a newlywed who still beams when he talks of his new bride. A definite renaissance geek considering he had his laptop with him at dinner but he could still point out how to save a buck on a wedding, without chintzing on the style. Thanks for the tips Scott! The pictures were awesome. The award for the geekiest geek goes to Josh Bancroft! He definitely came with the most toys and I don't think I saw him once without something bluetooth connected. Chris hogged Scott Niesen and Geoff Kleinman at the other end of the table. Greg Hughes tried for at least a good hour to explain the details of XML and RSS to me. His patience deserves praise because when it comes to technical details I usually have about ten questions to the usual one. I have to mention he didn't once roll his eyes or sigh. Alex, Judy and I talked about The Podcast Hotel and what cool things are in the planning of such an event. That's going to be a really fun event!

I'm looking forward to another visit to the Portland Area soon. Heck maybe Chris and I will even make it over to the Ponzi Winery since it's only half hour outside of Portland!