In Chicago, all Hammond players are blind Of course, buying jazz records is not enough. In Chicago, you have to go and see live music. Traditionally, it’s blues, though jazz is acceptable for the first time visitor. Especially when you’re me. We had a flick through the local gig listings and ended up with a [...]
The (almost) perfect working environment I’ve been asked by a couple of my colleagues and a few people who read my blog to let them know how I run my online and offline computer universe. What’s my workflow? Well, I think I’ve got it down to a bit of a fine art now. I’ve done [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
My happy place One of the things I made an absolute point of doing in Chicago was to visit a record shop or two. As you’d imagine, this was a fairly good place for someone like me on that particular front. In fact, it couldn’t have been better. Records that sell for £20 upwards here [...]
Stef, Pete and Chris join the cow orking revolution I dropped into the Custard Factory on the way home to see Pete Ashton and drop his copy of Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse‘s ProBlogger book that I picked up for him in Chicago. He was making the most of the free wifi network at Rooty’s [...]
Categories: Birmingham
Tagged: Birmingham, Internet, Personal
Chris Brogan, sporting a pro-blogger One of the things that quickly became apparent at SOBCon08 was the predominance of facial hair amongst the male bloggers. Chris Garrett noticed it first. Oddly, I had been growing a bit of a goatee for a couple of weeks (first time in at least five or six years), and [...]
Categories: Travel
It’s a giant mirror bean. What’s not to like? One of the most touristy attractions in all of Chicago is the Cloud Gate. It’s a giant bean-shaped thing, looks just-polished, and reflects the city’s skyline. David, who was showing me around, was not impressed. “It’s a colossal waste of money.” Perhaps. But it’s hugely impressive [...]
Categories: Travel
Tagged: Travel
Copyblogger’s Brian Clark speaks at SOBCon08 No disastrous travel stories to tell on the way back from Chicago, I’m happy to report. I know my travel mishaps make for great blog posts (who can forget the ‘New York via the Bermuda Triangle‘ saga or the ‘Lost in France‘ debacle – not to mention the recent [...]
Categories: Travel
Tagged: Travel
I’m at SOBCon 2008 and we’ve been charged with writing a five-minute blog post. Chris Garrett, whose blog I read regularly, and who I can thank for bringing me to Chicago, recommended several tools for effective and efficient blogging. He mentioned: 1) Mindjet Mindmanager I already use this – it’s a fantastic tool for mindmapping. [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Internet
Train hit by lightning. Wait here for bus. Part 3 of the story, and I actually make it in to Chicago. To say the flight was uneventful would be to downplay how much it was all about sitting around and doing nothing. I arrived at O’Hare a bit bewildered and looked around for the shuttle [...]
Categories: Travel
Tagged: Travel
Tristan answers a question “No… it’s not working yet.” So I didn’t quite get to Chicago yesterday. I arrived in Manchester around 11am, just in time to see a plane take off in the distance, which may well have been the one I was meant to be on. I put the call out on Twitter [...]
Categories: Music
