What’s been going on in my life? November 8, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Podcast, Press, Tech, Amazon, Beer, cats, community, Design, Drupal, floridacreatives, house, Liberatr, photos, training, Travel, Web Services ; comments closed
Um… where has the time gone? So many things have been happening lately, I feel like if I were to tell them all here, I’d pass another 2 weeks just re-counting all of them.
After the New Media Think and Drink, (go listen to the audio, and the audio of the 2nd half), I was excited about Community Building and Social Media Consulting even more than I have been in a long time. Also, the Digital Media Banner Center asked me to contribute to their New and Emerging Industries Task Force, which is basically trying to find jobs for journalists who have been laid off recently. I was very excited and honored to be a part of something constructive and forward-thinking. Needless to say, they were able to (once again) gather a group of smart, talented and well-experienced people and get them to talk about changing the world. I love that kind of stuff.
We have been doing lots of awesome DrupalEasy stuff lately – we have great podcasts with book authors and our patented “bookaway” contests, where you get Drupal books just for listening and commenting. I also got the chance to FLY up do to some Drupal Training in North Carolina. It was the first time that someone (specifically, Tomas and Jerry) actually FLEW to come hear me speak. I was proud.
I had a great time and got to try some wonderful craft beers at the Flying Saucer in Raleigh. I also learned that Raleigh has a Drupal User Group, but a bit too late. They actually had their meeting the same night I was headed home. Maybe next time!
The new house is treating me very well, the cats, Mariah and I are all settling in just fine, but Fozzie (my cat) has to stay in his cage, because he’s still trying to heal his leg, and he gets in too many fights with Litmus and Loki (Mariah’s cats), who are much older and set in their ways. He really likes chasing them around the house and is constantly getting hit in the face while trying to mount the large cat tree in the living room.
It’s also really nice working here. I have been “working from home” for most of the past 6 years, but only in this house have I ever had a dedicated room as an office, and an atmosphere that was so conducive to working and collaborating with others. I think getting this house will be one of the things I look back on as being very good for my work and creative lives, in addition to the benefits everyone else gets from owning a house. We already had one big party here, back on Talk Like a Pirate Day, and a few weeks ago, we tested out the Party Patio, the BBQ grill, and the fire pit.
A large part of my last few months was actually dedicated to working with a friend of mine, Kyle, on teaching him Drupal, and updating the website for his podcast, the Student of the Game. That site and Florida Creatives are two of the ideas that have really stuck back from the days when I was doing Liberatr more full-time. Kyle was laid off, and I was trying to introduce him to web site building and freelancing. We got pretty far with the whole idea, but it’s not like you can just flip a switch and change someone’s life, so he’s taken a contract with some place crunching database rows and generating reports. We’ll keep working on it, just a bit slower. That’s fine, because I need to work too.
Speaking of Florida Creatives, we are inching up on the start of the 4th year of Orlando Happy Hours for creative people. Our regular meetup will take place on the 16th at Crooked Bayou, just like it always does. I’ve also been trying to delegate some of the responsibility, like website design. Erik Baldwin is a fantastic designer and a good friend, and he’s been coming up with some designs based on my rudimentary wireframes, and I’ve also been adding new features to the site, like the Communties and Meetups page. I’m not sure how this feature will ultimately present itself, but it’s already better than a flat wiki page with just text and links. There’s nothing stopping anyone from adding new ones, but we’re not exactly advertising the feature just yet.
Also this week, I have been having some problems with an old server I keep around for hosting personal sites and sites for friends, so I started the very large task of moving several gigabytes of files over to Amazon S3. Namely, all the podcasts I recorded a few years back, and everything Kyle produced for the Student of the game in the past 4 seasons of football. As far as I can tell, everything is happily hosted by “the cloud” now, and the end users don’t know the difference.
One more geeky update, and I’ll be through. It’s about Twitter, so feel free to tune out now.
Twitter finally added a feature… something useful, and something that would be hard for a 3rd party to add. It’s called Lists, and I started making some. They’re useful for me, as I’m following 1700 people and my attempts to make the list shorter are really just making me find more people I want to follow, but for a multitude of subjects. One is just plain old technology, which is what my RSS reader used to be for. The next is a collection of the other Twitter accounts I own or manage, and hopefully one day twitter will let me say WHY I made each list one day. The last and most complete right now is my list of Drupal people. I think I’m also going to start one for coworking, but I haven’t really done much with it yet.
I’m sure I’m leaving stuff out, but I feel pretty well vented right now. I really need to get to this blogging thing more often…
October 24, 2009: A Day of Climate Action (350) October 23, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Podcast, Press, Beer, Earth, Events, Friends ; comments closed
Download Eco Footprint Special: 350.org
Length: 3:04
Gabe LeBlanc of EcoFactory left me this message about the event being held on 10/24/09 to raise awareness about the level of Carbon in the air. More info can be found at http://350.org and http://ecofactory.com
Gabe is offering free beer to the first 350 people to arrive at Orlando Brewing at 3:50 PM on October 24th. Gabe is doing awesome stuff in our community, and I recommend everyone go and support him, or find a similar event in your area.
Hunter S. Thompson Film: Gonzo June 7, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Video, Beer, Film, News, Orlando Weekly, Quotes, Storytelling, Video ; comments closedThe man who invented Gonzo journalism is a guy who I’ve really been meaning to check out on a deeper level for quite some time. I love the film versions of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I actually share a birthday with him – we were born 45 years apart, and he ended up living to be 68.
One of my favorite things about Gonzo Otaku is Flying Dog’s Gonzo Porter – a seasonal beer dedicated to Hunter, featuring the artwork of Ralph Steadman (he does all the art for Flying Dog), with a dog-portrait of the author, clutching his signature cigarette holder and wearing sunglasses. Apparently H.S.T. was a friend of the brewers. He is quoted on their site as saying:
“Good People Drink Good Beer”
So far the closest opening for the film is 4th of July in Atlanta, at Midtown Art Cinemas 8 (an eight-screen art-house? Que?)
In other Gonzo trivia, I would classify local Orlando Weekly columnist Billy Manes as a disciple of that style of journalism, if you’ve never read his weekly back-page column, Blister, you don’t know what you’re getting in to.
Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see the film some time soon, until then, do some LSD, smoke, drink, go for a drive, and don’t forget to bring your lawyer with you!
BarCampOrlando IZEA Geekout Party April 7, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, BarCamp, Beer, Contributors, Entrepreneurship, Events, floridacreatives, Links, Orlando, OrlandoScene, photos, Podcasts, Social Media Events, Video ; comments closed
This was how I spend 90% of the time at the IZEA GeekOut Party – talking to Tara Lamberson and Dan Kinchen about a Central Florida Tech Association, or something like it.
Thanks to Ted Murphy for throwing the party – we hope to see you on the 21st for Florida Creatives. Also thanks to Adam Teece for hosting the podcasts.
Also appearing in this video: Ted Murphy, Gregg Pollack and a widdle baby
See more videos by Adam at the GeekOut
Florida Creatives Happy Hour 1/21 January 17, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Beer, Events, floridacreatives, OrlandoScene, Site News ; comments closedFlorida Creatives
RSVP & Event Info
Monday, January 21, 2008
6:00pm – 9:00pm
Crooked Bayou
50 E Central Blvd #D
Orlando, FL
Yes, it’s the first month of the new year, but the holiday hangovers are a long-gone memory. It’s just the right time to head downtown for a drink!
Come meet some new people, catch up with old friends and get a clue about what’s going on in the coming year.
IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO FLORIDA CREATIVES NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME. It’s the start of a new year, and one of your resolutions should be to “Get out more”, “Meet new people in my field”, “Follow up with the people I swapped business cards with a few months ago”. If you feel you’re doing fine in all these areas, INVITE SOME FRIENDS.
Don’t experience Florida Creatives through a second-hand account – like a boyfriend or an intern – the event exists for you to attend, you are meant to participate, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. All of us are doing amazing things, and we all hold great potential, and mixing things up, rearranging the pieces, and otherwise adding catalysts to a beaker full of volatile chemicals can only be seen as a good thing. The problem is, our community contains so many different ingredients, and we have barely begun to scratch the surface. Make 2008 the year you got off your duff and became part of the solution.
The FLCreatives Wiki is starting to take shape, but you can help! Create an account or edit anonymously. Add something about one of your friends, and ask them to add something about you! If you think we’re missing a category or a metro area, go ahead and add a new page.
Florida Creatives is a networking group currently serving Central Florida and looking to expand to schools and other metro areas. Membership is comprised of people who pursue creative activities for work or pleasure. Each month we get together to discuss what we do, share stories, make connections, catch up with friends and have a drink.
New Media ‘Think and Drink’ at Red Light, Red Light Saturday Jan 5th at 5:30pm December 31, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Beer, Events, floridacreatives, Links, mashups, Orlando, OrlandoScene, PodCamp, Podcasts, Radio, Storytelling, Trends, TV, Video ; comments closedMore than a year ago, I hatched an idea about uniting the creative communities around Florida under a common banner at a Creative Summit. We are much closer to such an event now, but still so far away. After doing a dance in several directions, we came up with a Think and Drink.
This Saturday at 5:30, local media producers will gather at Red Light Red Light in Winter Park (map) for perhaps the first event of its kind in Central Forida. 2008 will see the coming of age of many types of new media. Blogging will become a pre-teen; podcasting is no longer a toddler; YouTube even turns 3 this year. As we start to see the hardening and refactoring of several popular and useful services and standards, it becomes more important for the enthusiasts and early adopters to come together to get on common footing and think about the future of media.
Orlando’s technology, media and other creative communities have been growing along side each other for the past few years in a collection of several small fast and focused movements. What better way to start a new year than with a gathering with the purpose of setting goals and recording the words of the trend-setters of our community.
We’ve been setting aside January 5th on our calendars for some time now as a day to share our thoughts and experiences with new media. In December, a few of us got together to discuss what we’d like to get out of a PodCamp or a New Media day. Everyone agreed we should plan to have a much larger and more ambitious event later in the year, perhaps this summer, but a small event would help us get a solid idea about what sorts of topics to discuss and how we sell the event to the community.
BarCamp was a great event that really brought a lot of the community out in force, but the focus on programming made the video people, the podcasters, the storytellers and the writers believe that we could have our own Unconference. Enter this PodCamp Party.
Be sure and hop on the Facebook Group and to add some of your favorite sites and links to the Ma.gnolia Bookmarks Group. We’ll make it worth writing home about.
P.S. I’m also trying to plan a “Photowalk” at 3PM for all the photographers and people who might like to take a walk around Winter Park and grab some food before the Happy Hour. Reply via Facebook if you’d like to go.
Beer Bomb Bus Tour Twitterstream via 30boxes Twapper September 17, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Beer, Blogging, Contributors, Events, interface, mashups, Orlando, Reviews, Trends, Web Sites ; comments closedLive Tweets from today’s awesome tour.
Hosted by Mike of Shipyard
Twitters courtesy hailtheale johnrife liberatr
Over at m.30boxes.com they’ve got a neat little service called Twapper – “Twitter Mobile for WAP”. I didn’t think much of it until just now when I realized that I only twittered a few times today, but John and Chris wrote several texts. I was even quoted in one of them!
Twapper is so easy you can use it from your cell phone, but it makes a great deal of sense as a web service as well. Think, I wanted to see tweets from just a few users, not all my friends, not just me. No special #tagging or @addressing needed, just a good service. If you want to see more than one stream, just type +bloggingfringe or +johnrife+hailtheale to the end of your URL. I think it has a limit on the number of streams you can combine, but it is ad-hoc groups! Ad-hoc! Buzzword compliant!
Another very useful thing that was omitted from this screenshot (for archival purposes) is a little text box just below the stream that bears the legend “Direct twitter this group only!” That’s a very useful feature, so easy you can operate it from your crappy cellphone browser.
Also, John was inspired to try out some live YouTube as per my suggestion at Friday’s lunch, so check out that link too.
Welcome to Beer Blog (historic) September 9, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Uncategorized, Beer, Blogging, Career, Historic, Site News, Web Sites ; comments closedThis was my first post to Wordpress over on RyanPrice.org exactly 2 years ago. 5 days later, I wrote my first post on RyanPriceMedia.com, interestingly enough about the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD debate. Who knew it would be 2 years, and there is still no end in sight. Check out my first post:
Welcome welcome welcome to the world of BEER! Beer Blog is a place to discuss and learn about beers both good and bad from around the world. If you are a friend of hops and barley, you have come to the right address!
My friends and I are part of a local beer enthusiast’s club, and we have this blog to share our beer experiences with you.
I’ll be doing a few more of these “historic” posts, as other blogging anniversaries come up. I consider two years ago to be my “public” blogging anniversary, even though I was writing long before then using static HTML. If I figure out when that was (start up my old clunker PC), I’ll be sure and post about it.
I have to thank my friend Nathan Kohlun of the Semi-Circle for getting me into writing online in the first place. Back in 2002 when I first had aspirations of starting a web design firm, I had Nathan and my friends Charley Cartee and Peter Brown gathered in a conference room at the UCF Student Union and pitched the idea to them of getting into small business web design. Peter would do photoshop, I would do HTML, Charley would do layout and Nathan would be the geek. I had such big dreams then, and now I see web pages as a means to an end. Funny how that works.
A few days ago, Charlie (Krueger) and I talked about setting ourselves up with a revenue stream that will let us pursue some of our more hairbrained schemes, and we just might have something. This blog will certainly be the first place you hear any new announcements, so stay tuned.
Portland, Maine 4th of July Weekend July 16, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Uncategorized, Beer, Blogging, Music, Restaurants, Reviews, Travel, Video ; comments closedI took a trip to New England seeking Beer, Whales, Lobster, and good times. Portland, Kennebunkport and Saco, as well as Oxford, Mass. Beer by Grtty McDuff’s and Sebago.
Music by Jason Spooner
Florida Creatives Happy Hour 6/18 June 15, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Coworking, Tech, Beer, Coffee, Events, Facebook, floridacreatives, Liberatr, Likemind.orl, Markteting, MySpace, Orlando, Podcasts, Site News, Trends, Virb ; comments closedThird week of the month, the two events we host come around, and I blog/email/post the hell out of it! First of all is likemind.orl at Lake Eola Panera Bread, that happened already this morning, but it happens every month. Alex Rudloff and Ryan Price (that’s me) host this event for… well… anyone in Orlando! The likemind.us fellas in New York got a very nice company named Anomaly to send us some coffee/bagel money, so come for free coffee and good conversation.
Now, for the big news – Florida Creatives Happy Hour is turning 7 months old! Officially our baby is 27 weeks along in its development (but been drinking since day 1? ouch!). I’m really hoping we will be able to get some presence in the local schools once the next year gets started, so I’d like to have a short directed discussion about that, maybe record it, when we feel like we’ve got “quorum” (enough people to make decisions). John Rife is supposed to be returning from his trip this week, so I’m sure he’ll have stories to share. I’ve also spent the last 2 months on a big recruiting push, and just sent a couple of fresh emails today to local illustrators/podcasters. Not to mention the social networking groups and doing lots of outreach there too. If you’re on Upcoming (meaning you have a Yahoo ID), Facebook, VIRB or MySpace, join the groups. Don’t forget the mailing list.
Event Page & RSVP
Monday, June 18, 2007
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
crooked bayou
50 E Central Blvd # D
Orlando, Florida 32801
If you’ve never been to a happy hour, all you need to know is BE YOURSELF. We have a very casual atmosphere at Florida Creatives, and we are mostly made up of people who want to make some friends who are passionate about the same things they are. In addition to likeminded friends, we are most of us interested in learning about other disciplines, so we are here to learn as well. Last but not least, there are some of us who want to see this community thrive, and what we can accomplish by getting organized. Admission is free, business cards are plentiful, discussion is honest and friendly. Check us out.
