Social (Network) Butterfly

I had a bunch of stuff going on after work.

Dropping some stuff off for a friend


The fountain park at Crown Center always draws a good crowd in the summer. I remember playing in the same fountain 15-20 years ago.


I was actually headed to The Art Of The Brick for a while. This traveling Lego exhibit is on display in KC until sometime in September. I love Lego, so I had to go see it.










Not many other bicycles at Crown Center, I suppose.


At 6:00 or so, my wife and I were going to a Brightkite gathering. Brightkite is a location-aware social network service that started in Denver and recently merged with another mobile network (Limbo). It also happens that several of the Denver Brightkite employees are bicycle commuters.

Lesley, a fellow cyclist who is currently Brightkite's Community Manager hosted the event last night. She said that in Denver, Brightkite is quite popular among those who get around the city by bike. Judging from what I see here in KC, there is a similar overlap.

The gathering was at The Cashew. I really didn't have any choice, then, but to order a big bowl of Cashews to share with my pals.


Lesley to the left, talking to Corey. Sallymander is a frequent reader and commenter here. She's Looking at me but talking to Anne -- a Kansas transplant from California who's looking to do her first Triathlon soon.


As one might expect at a gathering of nerds that have a highly-mobile lifestyle, things are a mix of face-to-face and face-to-phone.


My wife's toes. I was jealous of her sandals. The air conditioner was broken and the second floor at The Cashew was -- as Corey said -- "Hotter than the devil's ass-crack"


More face-to-phone conversation. The man on the left isn't intentionally striking a heroic pose. He is checking out the "Brightkite wall"


The Wall is a feature that allows you to turn a TV or monitor into a stream of photographs and conversation.


A former co-worker of mine (unbeknownst to me) and a few people that live near me -- actually in the same neighborhood as my sister. Again, there's a mix of talking, texting, and smartphone-browsing going on. It's strange to see people meet at the same place and still use online tools to see what's going on around them.


I've known David and Paul for a long time. We all met through the Kansas City 2600 meetings in the 1990s.


As we left The Cashew, a friend of mine handed me a BlackJack II that broke a few months ago. I've been meaning to meet up with him and fix it. I finally caught up with him last night. After I got home, tearing into it revealed that the power switch itself had broken loose and was no longer making any connection.


A few minutes with a pencil-tip soldering iron made quick work of the situation. Ted has already replaced this with a new phone, but he kept this one in good shape and asked if I could find a buyer for him. Does anyone want to buy a nice AT&T smart phone?


So, there you have it. I'm a nerd -- as if you needed more proof. I only snuck in about 12 miles yesterday. I suppose that's not too bad for having taken the bus to work and having my wife bring me home (she was also attending the event)