The food … the food … the food. The biggest thing I was looking forward to on the food side of things was the funnel cake. I love me some funnel cake. I’m craving one right now just thinking of it. My funnel cake cravings even got us (me, Lisa, Robin, and Neal) backstage to meet Emerson Drive 3 years ago. This year, I got my funnel cake on Wednesday nite when we (Robin and I) went to see 32 Below. As for the other food, I always go for a brisket sandwich. I got that Thursday nite. The only thing that I didn’t get that I wish I had was cheese curds. There’s always the fair to get those tho.

The music … the music … the music. Who can beat a concert for only $3 (or $5 if you don’t have a discount coupon). They usually always have someone there that I want to see. This year it was 32 Below on Wednesday and Rodney Atkins on Thursday. I’ve seen 32 Below so many times that I’ve lost count. But I will always go see them every chance that I can. Since I’ve seen them so many times, I didn’t take my camera with me. I have enough pics of them as it is.

This was the first time that I’ve seen Rodney Atkins. He did not disappoint. We were fairly close to the front (thanks to the fact that I was there early and staked out a spot), so I took a TON of pics. I ended up with 90 pics. I would have had more, but I deleted the ones that ended up blurry or had hands or heads in the way. The pic to the left is just a sample. You can find more in my photo gallery. I also took 4 videos. Unfortunately I don’t have any software to process the videos to put online. The only thing I have is Windows Movie Maker, and that crashes every time I try to save a video.

Overall, it was a good RibFest this year. And I’m glad the crappy weather waited until AFTER the concerts that I wanted to see. The weather was beautiful on both Wednesday and Thursday nites. There was a while on Thursday where I thought it was gonna rain … it sure did get windy. But no rain fell. I got my funnel cake and brisket sandwich … I got to see 32 Below, October Road (they opened for Rodney), and Rodney Atkins. I can’t wait to see who they get for the concerts next year.

Twunch: Lunch – twitter style; loosely organized open invitation lunch meeting among twitter friends

Source: Twictionary

On December 29, 2007, I joined Twitter. At the time, I was following 2 people. As of tonite, I’m following 106 people. Up until December of last year, I didn’t know a single person that I followed on Twitter in real life. Now I know quite a few (I work with most of those). Today I added more to that list.

A co-worker of mine (Melanie, a.k.a. @AmazonGrace) organized a lunch Tweet-Up for today. I believe there were about 20 of us there. I ended up sitting near my co-workers, for the most part. But I did meet some of the other Fargo tweeps. I hope we do it again soon. I think we should do it once a month. I’ll just have to wait and see what everyone else wants to do. If we do do it again, I need to mingle more.

I think it would be fun to get together for a nite on the town too. I tried to organize that a couple weeks ago, but I’m a poor organizer of social events I guess (could that be because I’m naturally shy?). I only ended up meeting @epizoic and @kalyke that nite. But then again, all I did was post a few tweets about going up and possibly meeting somewhere.

And to think, there was a time where I said that I wanted to live in a more high tech town. I guess Fargo is more techie than I thought. I’m now following a lot more local people than I even knew were on Twitter. And I know that there are more that I’m not following … yet.

Earlier this week, a co-worker of mine (Laura, a.k.a @lala_k) decided to organize a Twestival right here in Fargo. “What the heck is a twestival” you ask? Well, quite simply, Twitter + festival = Twestival.

On February 12, 2009, more than 100 cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals, bringing together Twitter communities for an evening of fun while raising money and awareness for charity: water. Well, what is charity: water? charity: water is a non-profit initiative bringing clean water and basic sanitation into impoverished communities. They raise money to build freshwater wells and sanitation projects in developing nations, giving away 100% of the funds raised.

Right now 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many communities in developing nations often have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water just below the ground, but no way to get to it. This is where charity: water and their partner organizations come in. Drilling a well can cost from $4,000 – $12,000 USD and many living on less than $1 a day cannot afford one in their community, even if the money is combined. With the help of exemplary organizations on the ground, charity: water can drill wells and provide people with this basic, essential need.

I’m doing my part to help. In addition to being at the Twestival, I’m helping out with the Fargo Twestival website (since I’ve got experience with WordPress). How can you help? I’m glad you asked.

The Fargo Twestival will be held at Ristreto Coffee & Tea on Thursday, February 12, 2009 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Ristreto has coffee and tea as well as a selection of beer, wine, pastries, and edibles from the Green Market. Entertainment will be provided by Fargo’s own The 404. Check out the Fargo Twestival website for more information as well as for tickets. I hope to see you there.

You don’t have to be on Twitter to come to the Twestival, but … why aren’t you on Twitter? Sign up for an account already.

Being unemployed makes you reassess your goals and plans. The one thing that I do know is that I want to continue to work as a web developer/programmer. There is no question about that. I do NOT want to change careers again. I really enjoy this type of work. I think I like it so much because it is structured … but it does leave room for a little creativity. And I’m always learning something new.

The one thing that I REALLY want is to stay in the Fargo/Moorhead area. Despite all my bitching and moaning about the cold winters, I do like this area. And my friends and family are around here. My parents are only an hour away and other relatives are pretty close as well. And even though I said that I wanted to live in a more “high tech” town, I’m finding more and more techie people on Twitter from around here. I’m sure if I dig far enough, I could find tech groups around that I could join or maybe even try to organize some Twitter meet-ups.

But with the limited opportunities I’m finding, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stay. Even though I’m waiting to hear back on some things, I can’t just sit around and wait. I need to keep looking. I really want to be back at work somewhere. I just want that somewhere to be around here.

My biggest decision right now is when to start expanding my search area. I’m already thinking about looking for opportunities in Grand Forks. That’s only an hour to the north. And I live there for 4 years during college. I would still be within 2 hours of my parents and the majority of my family and an hour of my friends. I could visit them or they could visit me on the weekends. We don’t do much during the week right now anyways.

The other place that I was considering is the Minneapolis area. I’m sure there are lots of opportunities there, but I would be quite a ways farther away from everyone. Still within driving distance, but only for weekend trips. I’ve only visited the Minneapolis area, and I’ve never driven there. That’s one of the main things that freaks me out about moving there. I know that is something that I could overcome, so it’s not a deal breaker.

I just don’t know when I should start looking elsewhere. I don’t want to give up on the opportunities here. But I don’t want to force myself into a box with no way out. How long do I wait to hear back from the current opportunities and when is it time to give up hope that there might be new ones?