Packing list for Camping at unconferences

Based in part on https://wiki.har2009.org/page/Camping:Some_guidelines, and my experiences at the recent SSWC here is my packing list:

Essentials:
- Tent - be aware most tests seem to be designed for tiny people, so get a slightly bigger one if possible.
- Ground sheet/sleeping mat/air mattress
- pillow
- Towel
- Torch
- Warm jacket
- Waterproofs
- phone charger (unless your phone is one of those really simple ones that can last a couple of weeks on one charge!)

Good to have:
- Spare torch or one of those head mounted ones
- Spare towel
- extra jumper, multiple thin layers
- knife or multitool
- string
- hat/pippo

Things that will make life easier
- multi-block/extension lead - there are never enough power outlets at these events.
- Jesus-tape/gaffer-tape/duct-tape
- bungee cord/luggage strap
- Case trolly - the bigger the wheels the better. Useful if the wheel on you back breaks, easier to clean, if you hurt your back and can't carry your bag.

(I have used Clas Ohlson not because thaey are any good (in fact not sure where i got my stuff from!), but as they have pictures for the things where the name it not 100% obvious, and sell it in Finland and Sweden)

Videos and memes i helped friends discover over the xmas break

So as i was traveling around the UK visiting various friends and catching up with them in real life, i was telling them about various things that i had seen via various places on the internet.

Everyone seemed to enjoy them, so i thought i would gather them all together here in one place.

Silly ones:

Numa Numa guy
Leave Britney alone
Chocloate rain song
Baby Panda Sneezing
fat cat fail

Interesting ones

Money as debt, very interesting/scary explanation of how the banks work
where the hell is matt, view the three videos and read the FAQ.

I also showed Spotify to a few people. This post is a good explanation of how it works

In other news, I also attended my first Tuttle club meeting, and had some very interesting conversations (and geeked out a little :)

Hierarchy of Communication

Once again, the almost ever happy James Whatley, has posted something that was in my "should post something about this idea" queue, before i manage to get my post out. So in response to that, i have mostly tied up my thoughts and here it is.

I had been thinking about this (but from a slightly different point of view), as i had been rather busy on multiple projects at my job recently. So busy in fact, that i got to mostly dictate the communication methods other people could use (which in fact turned out to be email only).

For me, i think of the various ways that other people send information towards me in a hierarchy of increasing order of interruption (something like):
Social network/microblogging
email
IM
SMS
Phone call
Face to Face meeting

Digging a little deeper into these,
- Microblogging or social networks
they have an "ambient intimacy" idea going for them == i check in when I have time
- Email
I can check this when i get a short break in the day i.e. 2-3 times per day.
- IM
pops-up on your screen, but can be ignored until you are ready to deal with it (or you can set your presence to be do not disturb or away if you need quite/thinking time)
- SMS
again it can be ignored, but is not usually. For me, this is probably my preferred method of communication (low interruption, little expectation of response, i can respond on my schedule if needed, etc.)
In fact, i have found that in Finland SMS is actually a very valid method of business communication.
- phone call
I need to be almost 100% focused for the duration of the call, with conference calls at least i find i can do small "tidying" type tasks (sort out inbox, desktop or temp directories etc.).
To a certain extent i also use the "divert to voice mail" to judge how important the call was (if they leave a voicemail, it was important!).
- Face to Face meeting
The most expensive in terms of interrupting me or stopping me doing something else productive, due to the fact that as well as the duration of the actual event, there is some period of time before and after the meeting where there is not much else i can do because i am focused on the meeting.

Now in terms of the volume of information that is transferred, for the interruption of time, i see it as something like;
Email is best (least intrusive, most information), face to face gives good value as you can draw pictures etc., SMS, phone call, im and microblogging brings up the rear (filtering out the noise from all of the status Updates can be a relatively major task)

Services like Spinvox would probably help me by moving phone calls further down my interruption hierarchy. In fact judging by my current phone behaviour, i might even just leave the phone in "silent" mode and never answer it again.

Getting back to why i was thinking about blogging this, was that i have seen that unlike James' pictures, I don't see the other half of the picture as normally a mirror. From what i have experienced, the order changes slightly, or some options are not even there.
Like most assumptions, this thinking that the other person likes to be contacted in the same way can cause dis-connects and friction.

EDIT: Follwing on from @whatleydude's comment/request, i created a diagram that sort of summs it up.

update on 100 press-ups challenge

So i stumbled across someone else doing the "One Hundred Push Up Challenge" on Jaiku.
Seems they have quite a number of their company has also started.

This lead me to finding a new channel - http://jaiku.com/channel/hundredpushups
This is important to me, as i use Jaiku as my Facebook status update via the rather good Jaikubook application.
What this means in practice is that i think twice about what i post as my main Jaiku, but i am very free with posts to channels and comments.

It then occured to me that once again, somthing that is obvious to me, might be useful for someone else.
As a long time PDA user, it was obvious to me that there must be some sort of "countdown" app out there.
Sure enough some searching later and i came up with this Stopwatch/time application
Much easier than staring at the second hand on my watch.

As to progress, i have gone back to Week 3, but this time doing column 2 instead.
On day 2 i missed the final set by 3 or 4, but yesterdays set was a bit of a disaster.
Oh well, onto week 4

Progress towards 100 pressups

So a little over 3 and half weeks ago, i came across this site one hundred pushups, and thought, that sounds like a good idea.

So i take the first test (this was on a Tuesday), and according to that i should be doing column 3. So i try that on the Wednesday, and it was rather hard to say the least, but i managed it.
I then try the second day on the Friday, and complete fail. I barely manage to do the number as per the first column, and i am in a world of pain, so obviously something is wrong then.

The following week, i decide that i will try column two instead (and as per the site advice, do it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday).
Much better, i can do the recommended numbers and still move afterwards.
Onto week two of the program, and it is all looking good, well, apart from i am on holiday at the family mökki, so some of the day's get moved round a bit.
I had written down the numbers as i had also taken the monday off, and i thought they looked too big, so instead of doing that, i repeated week2's numbers but moved to column 3 instead.

On returning to the city i, re-read the site and realized my mistake.
I had not taken the new test that i was supposed to do at the end of week 2, bit late to change now (or rather i could but it would make tracking things harder), so i continue with doing week 2 again but this time using column 3's numbers.

So this last weekend i did the test and managed 21 press-ups, so that should put me in colum 2 again, but having learnt from my mistake last time, i decided to do column 1.
And glad i did. I managed to do the sets (the last couple of press-ups were really boarderline good form, but...), and i did not manage to reach the minimum for the final set.

Looks like i will be repeating weeks 3&4, so this is going to take just a little longer than 6 weeks ;)

And, the reason for posting here; lifehack, post your fitness or weightloss plan on the web, and you are more likley to do it.
so expect more in this series of posts