I know I should write an all-inclusive WordCamp write up, but I’m no good a that. WordCamp was something entirely new for me, and I really enjoyed myself.

I’m really no good at meeting strangers, and I was extremely nervous about heading out to San Francisco to meet people I didn’t know. It didn’t help that my mom was a nervous wreck, wanting me to call her every time I moved more than ten feet. Sometimes I wonder how she ever lets me out of the house.

After waking up at 5am to get ready, I arrived in Richmond just after 7am, in time to catch BART out to San Francisco. I arrived at the Swedish American Hall just after 8am, and was one of the first to sit down and have the laptop up and going.

The first session I attended was on Widgets, although I wish I had known where to find the schedule before hand, because I would have much rather attended Podz’s session on how to help out with WP. The widgets session made me hate widgets, with no small help from Bill, who was pimping a new widget by RawSugar. It’s supposedly for tagging, but he didn’t sell me on why I would want to switch from UTW to RawSugar, or how RawSugar goes and back-tags when you’re setting it up for the first time. He took over the session, pretty much, spending a half hour on his widget, when five minutes would have done.

Again, the second session was a wash for me, because I should have gone to Podcasting and Vlogging, but I stayed put in the main room, where it was supposed to be about writing a compelling blog. Also didn’t learn anything there, and unfortunately, I didn’t think it was well put together. Instead of asking people what blogs they found compelling, Prince started with what music people found compelling. I could kinda see where he was going, but I think discussing compelling-ness in terms of other blogs would have been a better jumping off point.

After the State of the Word by Matt (where he forgot to introduce himself) I got smart and moved to the small room. I sat next to another knitter, and we talked for a little bit about knit bloggers before the session on information architecture got started. It really turned into a discussion about the difference between tags and categories.

Lunch was different. Since I hadn’t really met anyone yet, and I didn’t particularly care for BBQ, I headed out and managed to find a Taco Bell within a block of the hall, and had me a fine lunch of a Mexi Melt and Seven Layer Burrito. I ran into Anthony at the end of lunch, and some one snapped a photo before I headed back in.

After that was Wordpress Wishlist, which was fun, because Ryan and Donncha were both there, and it made me feel like they were really listening, and really taking note of what people wanted to see in WordPress.

After that was Om Malik on journalism in blogging, and after he said that bloggers aren’t journalists, I just sorta tuned out. It didn’t help that my mum called in the middle of the session, telling me where to call her later so she wouldn’t worry. I was really disappointed in the session, as I thought it would be about how journalists are taking to blogging, and how to use journalism. So, that session was spent mostly in IRC.

Between session, I managed to beg an outlet off of Kim’s powerstrip, as I didn’t get the email before hand about bringing your own. My laptop had died, and she was really nice about sharing it, and then not getting frustrated when I interrupted her from behind about her use of the Sociable plugin.

Next was SEO & WordPress, which was interesting, even if I didn’t learn anything new. There were some useful tips, and they brought up a plugin that I had found a few days before but had yet to implement. I suppose I should get on that, since they said it’s a good idea.

The very last session was Plugin Showcase with Niall Kennedy, and they really didn’t cover any really new, exciting plugins. I took to yelling out “Ultimate Tag Warrior” at random intervals, which netted me my dinner companions. Also, this last session kinda sucked because people turned all rude-like, and stood in the middle of the aisle talking loudly while Niall was presenting. I just don’t understand why they couldn’t go outside.

Dinner was an entirely new experience for me. Not that I’ve never eaten dinner, but that I’ve never gone out with strangers before. Anna invited me to join them, and after a little hesitation, I’m glad I did. I enjoyed talking to Anna and Zbigniew at dinner, and it’s not everyday you can say you hung out with Will Pate (especially when you’re dressed like twins in your Avalonstar shirts). Lauren was quite a bit of fun as well.

The actual after party was alright. I didn’t drink any which I got teased about, but I had to drive home still. I left about 10:30pm to be sure that I wouldn’t miss the train, because I’m super paranoid about that. Poor You had to do some quick internet searching for me to reassure me that I would in deed make it in time. I got back to Richmond about midnight, and got home around 1:30am Sunday morning.

It was a good thing that I hadn’t drank anything because as it was I was so tired I was seeing things on the way home. Being up for 20 hours does no good, especially since I already hate driving at night.

I took some photos and posted them to flickr, and the official tag for WordCamp photos is, oddly enough, WordCamp.