Passed along from another friend…guy sings puppies to sleep. Awwww…I would have embedded it, but apparently the guy doesn’t want people to embed stuff on their sites for whatever reason.

So, this weekend, my awesome graphic designer friend Jennifer and I went to the BlogIndiana conference at the IUPUI Campus Center. It was a 2-day conference about blogging. I figured that my blog was neglected and for $50, it would be worth it to meet some people, get a little inspiration, and maybe even learn something.  And on all three fronts, I was successful!

After a short welcome and a couple short greetings from sponsors (seriously- I don’t know that I’ve ever been somewhere a sponsor was given a mic and they actually kept it short and didn’t push their crap on you), we were off to the first panel.  Basically, the schedule for each day was 2 panels in the morning, lunch (provided), a topical panel with multiple bloggers, and 2 more panels in the afternoon. On Saturday there was a networking event where we ran into some chick who was pushing some multi-level marketing product. 

I won’t get into gory details, but one of the panels sucked because the guy who was doing it was basically pushing his product.  Most of the other presentations were really good.  The conference itself was well-organized and I felt like the guys organizing it (Noah Coffey and Shawn Plew) were really quick to respond and adapt to different situations and make everything go smoothly.  Like how after the first session, the presenter (Andrew Paradies from Photrade) handed out some paper evaluation surveys and everyone’s reaction was like, “We have to fill these out after each session? Paper surveys at a technology oriented conference?” Well, Noah and Sean heard everyone and by lunch- no more surveys and plans for an online one instead. 

I did have the epiphany during the last session (Blog Review & Critique) that I actually know more about designing a blog and using certain plug-ins than I thought I did.  Granted I’m not one of those people making moolah from my blog, but I’m not really trying to either.  And frankly, I do know that in order to be making any money from your blog, you need to be consistent about it- which I definitely am not.

Anyway, the best part of BlogIndiana was just the interaction with other bloggers.  So, I will now give you a small modified blogroll of people I met and blogs you may be interested in reading (and obviously click the links in the text above to see the blogs of people I mentioned there):

Jeannette Fulda- pastaqueen.com In addition to this site, she also wrote a book based on her weight-loss journey called Half-Assed. The girl lost 200 pounds!  She is super nice and super smart, and I joked she’d be my new best friend.  And she’s cool enough she could be.

Casey- mooshinindy.com Casey is a “mommyblogger”- a term even she hates- who takes GORGEOUS photos and went to the State Fair 5 times this year. 

Hope Baugh- Indy Theatre Habit Hope really wants people to go to the theatre.  So she started a blog talking about everything coming up in Indianapolis Theatre. At some point in the next couple months, Jennifer and I are going to try and help her snazz up her site a little, but her writing is great and I think she’s blogging for a nice cause too!

Tedra Richter- Tedra on Twitter Tedra right now does most of her blogging on Livejournal and it’s marked as friends-only, so I posted a link to her Twitter so you can watch her micro-blog. 

Renee Wilmeth- Feed Me/Drink Me I really don’t know how I first found Renee’s blog.  But as I read it, I saw that she knew her stuff and I take her recommendations seriously.  It’s because of her that I found out HOW AWESOME brownies from Circle City Sweets are.  She’s a little more gourmet and foodie than I am and definitely has a more sophisticated palate than I do, but she’s in the know when it comes to food stuff in Central Indiana.

Kirsten- Middle West Meals I actually know Kirsten through my old roommate (and saintly friend who helps me organize), Mary.  They used to work together at Borders and I happen to run into her once or twice a year.  I had no idea she had a blog!  She likes to cook and share recipes, so it is definitely worth checking out.

Anyway, it was mostly dudes there, so I think a lot of the women gravitated towards each other.  There are actually a ton of other blogs I encountered, but I haven’t had time to check them out yet. This post is already bordering on TLDR, so you can check out the entire BlogIndiana Blogroll yourself. 

Anyway, thanks to BlogIndiana, you’ll probably see more from me here, and that’s a good thing, right?

This week I had quite a few observations and learned some random things:

1. I realized that if I can avoid buying the display pair of shoes at DSW or Marshall’s or wherever, I need to.  I bought a super comfy pair of Adidas shoes last week and this week upon wearing them, I realized that the right one is considerably looser than the left, probably from people trying them on at DSW.  But the were the only pair anywhere close to my size, so there is that.  But it’s kind of disconcerting to walk around with one shoe that’s almost falling off.
2. We went to First Friday in Fountain Square last night.  Saw our friends the Cocaine Wolves and saw some art.  Kind of meh on the art we saw.  A couple gems, but on the whole pretty mediocre.  Perhaps Mass Ave had the better art scene.
3. I walked around my property and took some pictures of the first signs of spring.  Plus, I wanted to document how shabby my property looks, so I can measure the impact of the spring cleanup.  Those pictures will come in a future post.
4. The Pioneer Woman posted a new chapter in her Black Heels to Tractor Wheels love story.  Seriously, if you haven’t read these, you should start from the beginning.  Here’s a link to all of the posts by chapter form the beginning.
5. Just think, air travel used to be a luxury.  I can’t believe 3 airlines went out of business this week.  I am curious to see what will happen with the Open Skies agreement and what will happen when some European airlines can run some flights in the USA.
6. What April Fool’s Story did I fall for? Annie Leibovitz moves her photos to Flickr for $25 mil
7. I ended up at the Melody Inn during the Ron Paul info night. A guy sang a song called “Big Bad Ron”.  We made up Ron Paul lyrics to his other songs.

We’re going to Chicago on Monday.  I am going to a photo workshop, and Rob will be doing some record shopping (he has been dying to do some record shopping since we got the bookcases out in and he purged some records as he was filling it).  He’s going for quality over quantity.

And I will now leave you with what has to be one of the most ridiculous campaign videos ever.  Watch it all the way through:

 

Adobe just launched an online version of Photoshop that’s free.  You go to www.photoshop.com/express and you give them your email and then you can make galleries and use some of the basic Photoshop tools on the web.  I played with it for a second, and I don’t know if it’s this computer or my Internet, but it’s kind of slow.  It may also be that this is the first launch day, so maybe they’re a little overwhelmed.  Nice idea, but right now I find the execution slightly lacking, but I will file it away for when I am on the go.

It’s really only a matter of time until all our programs come through the web.  Of that I am sure.