I’ve neglected this blog and haven’t posted in a while so I decided to combine a bunch of events and things I’ve done into one big post. The last thing I posted was my Vegas trip so we’ll start from there…

Super Happy Dev House (http://superhappydevhouse.org/)

Super Happy Dev House (shdh) is a great event for developers. There’s no hidden agenda, no real schedule, just a good environment for people to get together and work on stuff. This time it was hosted at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley offices. They did a great job setting up a swank environment with snacks all over the place, catered beer and wine service, dinner for everybody, and demos of some of their products (like surface and xbox). I actually got a lot of work done on advancescreenings.com and launched the 2nd iteration (The first major release was during Google’s Wave Campout).

Silicon Valley Tweetup (http://www.siliconvalleytweetup.com/)

On the following Wednesday, I made my way down to San Jose for a Silicon Valley Tweetup. I met Michael Brito (@britopian) who is one of the founders of the tweetup at CES in Vegas and he invited me to come down, so I did. It was pretty cool, a lot different group than the developer crowd. I need to stop going to these events alone, I’m a pretty shy dude so I’m not use to just going around and introducing myself when people are talking in groups. However, Michael introduced me to a couple people and it was a good time. On top of that, these tweetups are set up to sponsor good causes. This one was for the Twitter Kids of Tansia and the next one is for the San Jose Family Shetler…we’ll see if I can make it out to the next one (and find someone to go with me heh).

San Francisco SketchFest (http://www.sfsketchfest.com/)

San Francisco is amazingly amazing. Events are happening all the time and sometimes you don’t even notice it. I didn’t know about SketchFest until the week it was happening. AND IT WAS AWESOME. I ended up getting tickets for 3 events, A Tribute to Conan O’Brien (which was postponed dude to all the NBC BS), Facebook Improv with 2 of the guys from Human Giant, and Sunday Comics with 2 guys from Reno 911 and Nick Kroll from The League. The last 2 events I got for uber cheap via Goldstar which is an awesome site to get half off and/or free tickets. I love going to see comedians…it’s almost always a good night, I’m definitely adding sketchfest to my yearly to do list for San Francisco.

Great Urban Race: Miami (http://greaturbanrace.com/)

For a weekend, I went back to Miami to surprise my dad for his birthday. Coincidently it was also Great Urban Race’s first race in Miami. I had a great time last year in San Francisco so I decided to do it again. Originally, I was planning to do it with my father but his party was planned during the day instead of the night so he couldn’t do it. Instead, I invited my friend Tony to do it. It was a fun race all kept in Miami Beach. It was such a great day for the race with great weather on the beach and a lot of Miami distractions, if you know what I mean We walked soo far it was ridiculous. The race spanned from 1st street to 41st and all over. We ended up waxing a surfboard, taking a salsa lesson, getting our nails did, and taking a bunch of pictures in front of random things. It’s a great way to really explore a city, I recommend it to anyone. The next race I might do is San Francisco on August 14th, we’ll see…

NFL Pro Bowl (http://www.nfl.com/probowl)

Coincidently, it was also Pro Bowl weekend in Miami (usually the Pro Bowl is in Hawaii and after the Super Bowl). I didn’t plan on going to this, my original ticket back was actually during the Pro Bowl but since my friends had an extra ticket and I only live once (my mom’s advice) I changed my flight and went. The weather was pretty lame and the game wasn’t too exciting since … it’ the Pro Bowl, but it was a good a time. How many people can say they went to a Pro Bowl? But the best part was the cheerleaders! They literally take the best from every team and then put em together…I wonder who gets to vote for that, I would love that job

SF New Tech (http://sfnewtech.com/)

Back to San Francisco, back to techie events. I said for this year I would try and get out to more tech events and network. This was my first New Tech event and it was pretty good. There were a lot of interesting people from different circles and backgrounds. The companies that presented were actually pretty interesting. Well, most of them. I’m still trying to decide if its worth going to the event every month (it does cost $$$ and I would assume its pretty much the same kind of stuff each time) but I definitely would go again in the future. Especially when I have stuff to talk about. Also, I’m pretty sure I have to make business cards for advancescreenings.com …definitely in time for SXSW next month.

SF iNDIEFEST (http://www.sfindie.com/)

Remember how I was saying San Francisco is amazingly amazing? Well here’s another example: the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. Located in the heart of hipster headquarters, the mission, this film festival features films of the indie variety. Since I don’t live in the city yet, I didn’t go to the whole festival. But I did check out opening night (mainly because it was a film about Jamaica). The film is called “Wah Do Dem” (http://www.wahdodem.com/) and is about a Brooklyn hipster who gets dumped by his girlfriend days before a full paid cruise to Jamaica which he eventually goes on by himself. He explores the less traveled paths once he gets to the country and ends up missing the ship and trapped in Jamaica. He has to journey to the US Embassy in Kingston on the other side of the island. It was a pretty good film and you can definitely tell it was made and shot by a couple of guys but they really showed the country in a good light. I was smiling ear to ear throughout the film missing and appreciating the beautiful island and people of Jamaica.