<editorsnote>Hi, I'm Jen Friel, and we here at TNTML examine the lives of nerds outside of the basements and into the social media, and dating world. We have over 75 peeps that write about their life in real time. (Real nerds, real time, real deal.) Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the stories!!</editorsnote>
Randombling: A 5 minute long unedited random stream of consciousness produced by a nerd for nerds.
#nowplaying:The Offspring - Pretty Fly for a White Guy
I feel strange....like I should be stressed out but I'm not. I have a booth at a wedding expo on the 30th of this month, and I'm soooooo so so so.so. not ready for it. Can't even emphasize enough how not ready I am. I finally finished designing my handouts today, and need to get those ordered. But first need to decide what size and style they should be. Need to redesign my business cards and get them ordered. Make a wall to look awesome, re-edit some photos, design and order an album, choose and order large sized prints....design my booth...and apperently I need to do all of these things in less than 20 days. *sigh*
But even though it is a ton of stuff, I am just not worried about it. It'll happen or it won't. I know that my work speaks for itself, so if my booth isn't perfect, hopefully there are some brides that think me and my silliness will be a good fit for them. Meh.
So instead of working on any of that stuff anymore, I am going to go to a friends house and have a girls night. A girls night that includes pot. And that is soooo not something I do, but I think it'll be fun. Good thing I ate a stupid salad for lunch so I can pork out with my munchies! Baaahahaha!
I guess things will just work themselves out like they always tend to do. I'll have fun and make new friends at the expo either way, and as long as I show up with my awesomesauce in my pocket, life is bound to be good. Welp, time to go jam out with my clam out! Peace!
This time right now - in the social space is utter madness. Literally ... in the best and worst ways possible. You're executing while writing the manual ... troubleshooting while promoting ... its just completely batshit.
I'm an artist, getting my nerd on is my art. Life to me is rhythm and movement. I feel and express; I'm so weird I love it. I own that. I however recognize in this state of consciousness that I am WAYYYYYYYYYY too right brained. Everyone in the digital space is all about money, and jumping from one thing to the next blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong, mama knows how to make bank ... but what does it all mean at the end of the day? Money comes, and money goes ... you can't take it with you, so what does it mean?
I love love love love LOVE showing my friends how to use the technology that I use to enhance their life. Make things easier ... just the overall greater good aspect of it all is far more appealing. People love you FOREEVVEERRRRR if you can just show them one little thing that means a whole lot to them. I guess I'm like a humanitarian nerdy hippie. I don't know ... the packaging of this all is madness. I get very overwhelmed, and conferences in general only magnify that fact. I love love love it, dont get me wrong, but just so many people pitch me the lamest shit, that I have no interest in. I respect everyone, I'll hear them out - and appreciate them reaching out ... but if you don't believe in what you're selling why should I? And then you get the people that come up to you and give you all the ideas about what you should and shouldn't be doing. Its maddening ... and the last few days being here, I've just hit COMPLETE overload. I am making a promise to myself to chill in this space and focus on my breathing for the next half hour. Dude, I can barely complete a sentence my words are just blah blah blah blah blah and this does that plus this and yada yada yada ... yeah, mama no like.
I'm having fun ... CES in general has been a blast, but we just all run ourselves so ragged. Not kosher for passover ... for reals.
So, if I met with you, or you saw my sign ... and wanna know more of what we're about here are some easy links.
Here's my email if you wanna kick it old school: JenFriel@TalkNerdyToMeLover.com
I apologize in advance if this sounds passive ... but I'm too close to all of this to really understand it. Lame, but very true. I built this site with a lot of passion, and my bare hands. It's been a crazy crazy crazy year ... just don't ask me to explain it to you or I'll make your head hurt.
CES is the shizzy shiz shiz shizness. Holy sweatballs. Dude, I couldn't even livestream yesterday. Like at all ... this is going to sound weird, but I didn't realize we were that big. I mean you see analytics and all the figures and dude, totally get it ... but its a number. I study the growth, see whats works - what doesnt ... its very different when you meet people face to face and they completely freak out. This one dude yesterday, I swear to god I thought he was going to have a heart attack. It's incredible ... and now I get it. But that was for sure, for sure, for sure a first. It's different when you lifecast and people show up ... its another thing when you're at a convention like this, and having it happen. I dunno - its all very weird to me, just promise to never get all weird on me TNTML. Just be cool ... and keep doing cool shit.
All that being said, had drinks last night with a super super super awesome big wig TV dude. No, like for reals, like major network ... and it was so rad to get to hear from him how much TV is changing. We were talking about the monetization of content, and what the internet kids are doing, and the psychology of it all. I kid you not, I've never had a more riveting conversation. It fascinates me being such a middle person. I hear from my friends who are building these new internet ready sets all about what the manufacturers want in return ... the people actually at the networks putting out the content ... and I dunno, its just my thing to sit there and say this works because this is what this person who made this said, and yada yada yada. It's just THE MOST INCREDIBLE TIME TO BE ALIVE!!!!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!??!?! W2G internet for being so fucking awesome, and creating such a demand its changing the future of entertainment indefinitely.
Resting up this afternoon, before the TweetHouse event. I love people, but I definitely need my "I'm in my own space - weird out zone." So yahhh!!! Thank you all so so much for yesterday. Had a BITCHIN time! Sorry I couldn't livestream - but I'll show you guys around tomorrow. Verizons been really weird too, keeps dropping calls ... so i dont even know how steady the feed will be. But either way, I'll figure it out.
Thanks again guys for being in my life. Really appreciate you.
Oh and dude, random vegas injury #1 - woke up with a cracked, bloody, pinky toenail. Um yeah.
OH and OH! Totally just saw the VP of my old company from when I worked in cellular in the lobby of the Wynn. STOP BEING SUCH A SMALL WORLD!!
OH!!!! OH!!! AND OH!!! Dude, totally saw Sir Mix a lot in the lobby of Aria last night. SO FUCKING RADDD!!!!
Okay, wait, give me a second, I have a total Adam Sandler boner. Aaaaaah...love his ridiculous albums, they make my life. Like for reals and reals.
Here is my brain:
Not even joking, I feel so terarded right now. I switched my photography hosting site (the one I was using before was crazy expensive and NOT at all good for what I'm trying to do with my business), and I discovered that I can host my entire website through the new one, not just photosharing and ordering. Yay team. But damn it, I just completely rebuilt my website 6 months ago. Okay, and I'm not not not not not to the extreme not a tech nerd. I am a tech tard, kinda. Not really, but it's the hubbard that is the tech genius in this house. I am just the personality. Anyways, I am all about doing all of this kind of thing myself, and I don't want to give up control over things like my site, so I muck through it. And I'm not like writing code or any crap like that, I'm using Flash. Not a big deal. To you, maybe. Boo.
So I'm redoing, my brain has melted, and I'm not quite done yet. Just a little bit to go, but I'll get there, and then I can say I did it all by myself again. But until then I'm just going to have to deal with the bloodshot eyes and bruised forehead from banging it against my desk. I'm so super weird, I swear - build a drag and drop website, no thanks, that's too hard. Write a 20 page thesis on parasite and parasitoids in the Andes with an empahsis on Geometrids and Hymenoptera, sure, no worries! Sounds fun!
Whatever, weird ass. So anyways, here's my funny story for the day. My neighbor has this big dumb juniper-style tree (some sort of crappy evergreen bushy thing) in their front yard. There are always hundreds of little sparrows in there (it's right outside their window, how do they hang with that?). Right as I pulled into my driveway today, I saw a big commotion over there, and saw a big bird fly in there, and a ton of sparrows fly out all freaked out. I figured it was a pigeon (those suckas are mean), but after a big struggle, a hawk flies out and lands in front of their house. With a sparrow in it's clutches! Working on the kill! YES!!! Definition of amazeballs, I swear. I sprinted into the house, grabbed the zoom lens (with three kids in the car because I'm a good mom, but whatevs), and headed back outside to get the awesomeness on camera. Right as I was clicking the lens onto my camera, my dumbass cat thought he was superman and tried to catch the hawk. Can't say I blame him, it looked like an easy double meal, but my cat has never killed anything in his life. Well, except my dreams of owning a normal cat. Shot = missed. Welp, my five minutes are up!
Randombling: A 5 minute long unedited random stream of consciousness produced by a nerd for nerds.
#NowPlaying: Life in a northern town - dream academy
OMMGGGGG I am the saddest human being on the planet right now. For reals ... I cannot believe I am leaving this unbelievable house.
I don't show a lot of emotion IRL, strictly because I have to live in my own little world. It's what I do, and it's also why I think the most commonly used adjective to describe me is "interesting." I always do my own thing. I sit at my desk - er in the case of the last few months, Tucker's dining room table with my spirithood on and headphones in my ear just processing.
These last few months have literally been the best months of my life. No joke ...
I met @Tgumb on friggen OKC and then he opened his house to me, gave me a room, and fed me with absolutely nothing but shared awesomeness and ad space in return. I'm not even kidding you, this last year has all been the most illogical and batshit experience of my life. Who has an entirely extra room in their house that they don't want to rent out?!?! This is LA?!?! And who just takes someone in like that?!? I just ... have no words. Tucker (@Tgumb), Morgan (@maniacalmorgan), and Stouty (@shitstoutysays) are my heart. They are three of the most incredible people I have ever met in my entire life, and you don't even have to follow them on twitter - or friend 'em on Facebook ... just know that there are people like this that exist. Crazy that we all met through passion and this website too. Morgan I met when I was the mayor of the Foursquare at the Coffee Bean he used to work at ... I then taught him what Foursquare was, and how to use it ... he got so jazzed that he started writing for us ... then became the co-editor of this blessed little website through all of his hard work. I mean Crazy!? He then was looking for a new place, and Tucker hit him up on Twitter.
Stouty? He's been Tucker's BFF forever and ever ... he's a little rough around the edges, but don't let it fool you - he has one of the biggest hearts you've ever seen. Sorry dude, I see through that act! =)
And Tucker? He full blown threw a campaign for me to go out on a date with him ... then we just started to kick it after I took him to a few nerdy events as friends ... and blllahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... I am an emotional mess. I fucking hate moving. I love these people so much, I don't want to move - which is a riot, since I really don't even have anything to move. Just the emotional element of it all is so draining. You build a relationship with these people coexisting in the same space ... and like that *poof* time to move on. I get it, I designed this life ...
I am walking into what I know without a shadow of a doubt will be the best year of my life, and even that doesn't touch the emotional overload I am experiencing. It's just so hard to accept change in any capacity - even for someone who makes a living doing it. Nuts, right? Go figure ...
Life is abundant ... Life is abundant ... Life is abundant in more ways than you could possibly ever imagine. Just believe in what you do - and others will follow suit, as life is reflective.
I am shocked every day that I never know what I am going to get myself into, and yet all life unfolds for me are the most incredible eye opening and consciousness shifting experiences. What's the story? I'm still not sure ... but I am certain no matter what, Tucker Gumber is going to be a big chapter in it.
All my love and all my heart. Thank you so much Tucker, Morgan and Stouty.
Leaving for Hollywood in an hour ... time for a new chapter.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 4:41PM
I feel strange....like I should be stressed out but I'm not. I have a booth at a wedding expo on the 30th of this month, and I'm soooooo so so so.so. not ready for it. Can't even emphasize enough how not ready I am. I finally finished designing my handouts today, and need to get those ordered. But first need to decide what size and style they should be. Need to redesign my business cards and get them ordered. Make a wall to look awesome, re-edit some photos, design and order an album, choose and order large sized prints....design my booth...and apperently I need to do all of these things in less than 20 days. *sigh*
