Florida Creatives - Creating a Community of Innovation

CoLab Orlando Coworking Open House

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:20:10 -0700

Start: 08/27/2008 - 18:00

End: 08/27/2008 - 19:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Cow-orking and collaboration for Central Florida's tech/creative community.

CoLab Orlando is the home for those wanting to have a home in downtown Orlando while collaborating in an environment built for innovation.

John Hussey, the owner of the historic Angebuilt Hotel building on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando, has converted office space on the sixth floor of his building into a coworking spot.

Don't miss CoLab Orlando's open house August 27th at 6PM. There will be appetiers and beverages provided by Finn Henry's (the Irish pub downstairs), as well as a raffle for CowOrking space. But the main purpose of the open house is to get feedback and direction from the community on what they want out of CoLab.

CoLab is located at 37 N. Orange Ave - 6th Floor
Orlando, FL 32801

Please RSVP and send any questions/requests to info [at] colaborlando.com

Coworking

BarCamp Chaos

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:28:38 -0700

Start: 10/13/2008 - 18:00

End: 10/13/2008 - 22:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

On Oct 13, 2008 members of the BarCampOrlando community will be organizing an ad-hoc BarCamp session as a part of the Create Chaos conference. Create Chaos 2008 is a five-day creative industry destination event produced to inform, inspire, educate, and connect creative professionals across industries through an all-inclusive event. This ad-hoc session invites participants to control the programming by preparing a 20 minute talk on any creative topic and presenting it to other conference attendees (so, bring your laptop). The fun starts at 6pm.

BarCamp Chaos is free to attend, of course, and all registered Campers will receive free access to the Create Chaos Expo Hall on Oct 13, 2008. You can use the discount code: BARCAMP to get $200 off your tickets, if you're interested in attending the whole conference.

More about Create Chaos

Create Chaos features several unique industry conferences under one roof, at one time, and takes place Oct 13-17, 2008 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort in Orlando, FL. Create Chaos serves as a spark to ignite a new renaissance by bringing together creative professionals across industry boundaries including: graphic design, advertising, film and video production, animation, photography, printing, Web, and publishing professionals. Produced by Brahn Awards & Events and partners, the Create Chaos experience features the following conferences and events: The Creative Suite Conference, Printing+Paper+Packaging Design Conference, The Vector Conference, Stash Theatre, CreativeHeads Job Fair, The Web Design Conference, MGFest, The Pixel Conference, and more.

BarCamp

BarCamp Tampa Bay

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:13:00 -0700

Start: 10/11/2008 - 00:30

End: 10/12/2008 - 17:30

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

BarCamp Tampa 2008 conference will be the first in the Bay area for this unusual technology and new media conference.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tampa, FL – August 8, 2008 – BarCamp Tampa 2008: the interactive BarCamp conference (http://barcamptampabay.com/) will take place October 11-12, 2008 at the University of South Florida College of Business in Tampa. This is the first year for a BarCamp event in Tampa and will bring together thought leaders from technology and New Media to explore exciting new developments in their fields.

Topics may include, but are not limited to: open source software, startups, UI design, entrepreneurship, iphone applications, AJAX, hardware hacking, Ruby, Java, .net, PHP robotics, mobile computing, bioinformatics, RSS, Social Software, video, podcasting, music, blogs, programming languages, Virtual Reality, mashups and the future of technology.

Saturday’s events will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. and will focus on technology. Saturday evening there will be a party for conference attendees to share and get to know each other a little better. Food and music will be provided. Sunday will start at 10:00 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. and will focus on New Media.

Unlike traditional meetings, a BarCamp, is what is known as an unconference where people interested in a wide range of technologies come together to participate, teach and learn. The format does not have scheduled speakers. Instead, the morning of the BarCamp, everyone proposes the sessions they would like to have covered. Those sessions are put on a schedule and groups form and start an intense session of learning. Everyone who attends a BarCamp is expected to teach and to participate. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

People who attend should be prepared to share with barcampers, and when they leave be prepared to share it with the world.

What is BarCamp?

The BarCamp concept originated when people realized the best times they had at conferences were the times between sessions when people could meet informally and share and learn. The goal of BarCamp is to facilitate this type of informal learning interaction for an entire day. The event organizers provide the food, the space, the wireless, and the audio visual equipment. The attendees bring their laptops, some ideas for session topics and provide the content and the participation.

BarCamp Tampa is sponsored by local business and technology professionals. For more information, visit: http://barcamptampabay.com/

Contact: Peter Radizeski
Phone: 727-369-0741
Email: peter at barcamptampabay.com

Download in Acrobat pdf format

BarCamp

Florida Creatives Happy Hour #22

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:13:43 -0700

Start: 08/18/2008 - 18:00

End: 08/18/2008 - 21:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Every single 3rd Monday for the past 20 3rd Mondays, a group of geeks, artists, writers and other creative types have been gathering in Orlando for a networking event otherwise unheard of in this part of the country.

Folks from a wide variety of jobs - designers, poets, programmers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, painters, filmmakers, musicians, actors - plus plenty of friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, and acquaintances get together for some delicious Cajun/Creole food (and the ever-popular hot tots and fried pickles), beverages, and discussion.

Admission is free, there is no sign-up form, there are no nametags, just come and be yourself, and the creatives will guide you from there!

Orlando

Likemind.orl

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:08:40 -0700

Start: 08/15/2008 - 08:00

End: 08/15/2008 - 11:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Likemind.us just added a few more cities: Ankara (Turkey), Shanghai, Bucharest and Frankfurt. On the same day, people in these cities and 40 other places around the globe, other likeminded individuals will be getting together for some good coffee and conversation.

Coffee sponsorship ($25 is plenty) could be kindly paid for by your employer. Last month, we were given free copies of the "Buying In" (Murketing) book.

If you love Orlando and you want to find other people of a like mind, you've come to the right place. Chris and Ryan and some friends get together once a month before work to have a good conversation. Come talk about anything, exchange emails, share stories and walk away with a smile on your face ready to face the last day of the week knowing you have made some new friends this week.

Panera is at the corner of Robinson St and Eola Drive on the North East corner of the lake.

Orlando

Calling Home: A Plurk and Twitter Science Fiction Story

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:03:13 -0700

I love Social Media. I’m on at least five different services and spend way more time than I should on them, but I enjoy it considerably and have befriended many great people. With as much enjoyment as I get out of these services I thought it would be great if could combine together two things I feel passionately about: Social Media and Writing Fiction.

But how do you develop a story in only 140 character bite sized morsels? You could write a longer piece and serialize it, or you could even write Flash Fiction which thrives in such small spaces. Also, how do you develop characters in serialized stories when you use one account for both posting and comments? I felt all those approaches left much to be desired. What I wanted to see was a story, using Social Media where one character interacts with another using separate accounts. And what’s more, I wanted the story to be science fiction.

The big problem with writing science fiction or fantasy is you usually need quite a bit of space to build your world and have your characters explore it. Could this be done in 140 character pieces and still be a compelling read? My answer is yes it can. And the way to do it is by telling the entire story in dialogue.

Dialogue is powerful. It’s one of the best tools a writer has in their arsenal to convey emotion and feeling. Think of the last novel or story you read. What were the parts which moved you the most? It was when the characters were speaking. The author manipulated the words coming from the character into a stream of emotional strength. You knew how the character was feeling because they told you so in their own voice.

With this in mind, the idea for Calling Home popped into my mind. A story entirely told within the confines of a damaged ship’s system status messaging and emails. Each character would have their own Twitter and Plurk account, and communicate with each other through those accounts only.

After some refinement of the idea, I’m proud to announce I have started posting the individual Plurks and Tweets for the story. Here is where you can get information on how to follow the story: http://tinyurl.com/CallingHome

This story will run for at least a couple of months, so feel free to follow and see what happens to our characters in the deep reaches of space. For the time being, there will be twice daily updates, however that could change as things progress in the story. Read and you’ll find out why….

Lastly, if you enjoy the story please tell your friends about it and spread the word on any other Social Media services you’re on. If you’d like to see it posted to another Social Media service then email me and I’ll look into it.

Enjoy the story!

R. Alexander Spoerer
http://www.renegadesanctuary.com

Orlando

Stories that you read but never write

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:11:33 -0700

I'm writing this month long awaited blog post here at almost 3AM. I care not to really get into any linkage or media savvy discussion because, as my picture indicates, I'm more apt to writing about, well, writing. So let's get to it, shall we?

I am almost done with my M.F.A. program. I'm happy and, at the same time, sort of meh...unfulfilled. I know that I took on this program for my own personal desire to work towards my heart's desire. I wanted to have deadlines and discussion and work done on my writing. When I took this program on last April, I was in the midst of my crappy workplace. So having something to glue me back to my sanity was necessary. And the program was taken on. Yay for me.

However, now I am wondering where I want to go from here. I'm at the much awaited cross roads in my life. (Huh, I wasn't intending on getting to this in my post this evening. But I guess it all is related.) The way I see it; I can write anywhere, by any means about anything. I can carry my legal pad or my spiral bound notebook out to the porch with my tea and write away. I could be anywhere and I could write a story or a journal entry or a poem (my new found, lovely thing to do right now -- even if I am drastically untalented in the art since I am no Dickinson or Whitman or W.C. Williams) and my life's purpose would be complete. I am still fervently convinced that my life has to be lead first and foremost and then my writing can echo it in a way to describe the pathways. It may be silly to say this but, yes, I want to "teach" the future readership of my little section of shelf at Borders one day that this is how things were for me and this is what I learned from it all.

But teaching, even after an interview at the community college, I'm not sure I can or will or want to still do it. (Although nothing tickles me the same way seeing a book about grammar sitting in my lap as someone leans over and discusses "curriculum" with me does. Aahh...) I still am thinking of going a different route in my educational realm since this English bit isn't really panning out. I even had a lady at another, separate interview, query to me, "Not to be disrespectful, but exactly why did you chose an English degree anyway?" I had to admit, "Because I love it." I mean, what other explanation can I give? I love books and I love writing. I never expected to be a millionaire, I always expected to sit at a desk and pour over facets of print media and write things in a little notebook, just as I did since as long as I can remember.

Anyway, so tonight I got some of what I was supposed to do tonight but I still have to work tomorrow. It is now 3:04AM and I was going to make an early morning tomorrow and head to the pool. Apparently not. I still have reading to do before I go to bed and I still have things to write; just for me. I can work anywhere, live anywhere and this is what will always be readily available. But as always I'm still behind in real progress. I will, however, it just takes me a while to get there. I am not so much envious anymore of all that people do because I know I have the potential and the ability in me to do all the things I want to do. Now I sort of just appreciate seeing what kinds of things are possible.

My other thing I wanted to mention was that my poor fishy has died. I noticed him looking a little sluggish and I kept trying to feed him and chat to him and encourage him to be okay but I guess two years for a fish is pretty good. He was the one that my friend at school last year gave me when her mother bought one each for our classrooms. The kids loved them but they did try to overfeed them or shake them to "see if they were dead." Very nice. I still remember when we had the hurricane that school year and I had to bring his big plant filled beta bowl in the car with me, to the apartment complex and up the stairs; very carefully. By the time we got back to school, once the hurricane passed, I figured there was no reason to subject him to further torture at the hands of middle school children, so I kept him in a little one gallon tank on the kitchen counter. And there he stayed until his toilet bowl funeral yesterday afternoon. Poor fishy.

So even though I'm working through all sorts of my past habits and lying them aside (ignoring the impulses and killing off all the bad thoughts, etc.) I still justified my impulse to get another fish. It was a nice, hot Sunday afternoon and I hadn't even left the house yesterday since my books kept me on the couch, at the computer, and on the porch for some fresh air -- still not out of the apartment. I reasoned that I needed some sunshine and fresh air, a ride, some music, a visit to my parents (Mom made chili; like I'm going to pass that up. Plus I got my letter from school about my financial aid; I have an email saying that my classes are paid for, yet a letter that says I still have an outstanding bill. Um...okay?) I then took a ride to get $10 worth of gas. Then went to Dollar General for $15 of: Cascade with Bleach, Purex laundry softener (cheap but it works), a stationary set ($2 and purple!), bottles of water and sugar free Bubble Yum (that is no where to be found anywhere except the Dollar Store it seems; that is my driving gum brand of choice because it is the only one that hold the capability of bubble blowing.)

Then I went to Petco. Now what I intended on getting was, say a couple of goldfish or angelfish or something that wouldn't have to be all by itself in my little tank. I know that Bruce dying was sad and it definitely ended a part of my past life for me and made me think about my classroom once again (also made me really think that I need to get on the ball and email my friend again and see how she is doing at school, however that may entail a social situation and I'll have to get to that later too.) I looked and looked at the store in the freshwater fish department. The lady working there assisted a middle aged lady and her daughter, then a mother with five or six (well behaved, mind you) children who were all getting fish for their aquarium. It was cute to hear them discuss with one another what their fish's names would be. However, it was not cute that I was never asked to be helped. I mean I mingled, I looked, I browsed, I even had a couple of aquarium supplies in my hand but nope, even as I looked around for the lady working there to come back, she never did. No one wanted to help the girl in the Halloween t-shirt. (It rules; it's orange with a big, black splashy painted raven on it.) Anyway, so since it was evident that no one was going to help me get a fish, I started realizing how much easier it would be to get a beta fish. I mean I had all the stuff for one and they are very, very easy to take care of. Plus, if I even did go anywhere (I still hold out hope!) putting a little feeder in there would be easy as pie, or even taking the little one gallon tank to have someone else feed him a couple times of day works fine. So I looked at the beta fish, already sad in their little plastic homes and I thought, "I should just rescue one of these guys and let them live in a nice, happy, aquarium in my kitchen." I love hearing the sound of the aquarium and I didn't want to put the silly tank away and not let it keep life in it as it should so, I found a fish! I was looking at a big, pretty medium blue fish but both Scott (my first beta who died quite a while ago) and Bruce were blue. I couldn't help but notice the little red guy who was sitting on the shelf staring straight at me. I kept thinking about the Velveteen Rabbit and how the toys on the shelf were sad when no one wanted to take them home. (They really shouldn't traumatize children with such ideas, especially those with overactive imaginations and a sensitive nature. I always think of things like that and feel bad for all of them. I always understood why Charlie Brown chose that little Christmas tree that needed a home the most. That's why I always choose the ones that are short and fat that no one else would really want. Sigh...) Anyway, so I picked up my new red fish and have named him Borges after the writer that I'm writing about for my class right now. (If my professor ever comes across this blog, I hope he feels quite proud that I chose this name.) I figured that Borges was Spanish speaking, the idea of red and bull-fighting came to mind and seemed like a suitable name; although I did research and discover that this is not a practice, apparently, in his homeland of Argentina. Sigh...oh well. The same is there so it shall stay. How else can I be expected to be a writer if I don't name my pets after literary figures or characters. (I still say the cat is named after Jacob Marley.)

I'm also very, very tired of my current situation. I never talk to anyone and I never want to go and do the same old things I use to do a while back. The club is just dead to me and I have no desire to go anymore. And when I did go out a while back I felt depressed for days afterwards. I've been getting like that lately when I'm out with people and feel like I just don't have any connection to any of it anymore. This has slowly been taking effect on my for a while and now I really see how I'm just over it where I am now. I am so ready for a change in this solitary little life.

And that's about it for this evening. It's now 4AM and I really should go grab my books and head to bed so I can get up at a hopeful decent hour and get back to work. Before I go for now (I'm sure my writing/education/unemployment topics will surface again soon; supposedly I'm getting that extension on unemployment like everyone else in the country!) I will leave you with one revelation that I made while working this evening. Sometimes typos are a good thing.

Love and Live are only one letter apart. You have to remove the "I", as in the selfish side of yourself, perhaps, to allow that center, that empty place in yourself to be filled. "I" can live, but "O" is the center, the core of love.

Photo credit: deloresdefacto

http://www.deloresdefacto.com/?p=89

Orlando

New User Group for Developers in Brevard - RAnDOM

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:20:11 -0700

Myself and a few other guys have put together a new user group for developers in the Brevard Area named Rich ApplicatioN Developers Of Melbourne (RAnDOM). Our blog is located @ http://itsrandom.info. Our goal is to meet monthly and work to cooperatively program sample projects focusing on assorted topics in the web and RIA technology space. Our first meeting will be August 21st at 7:00 PM at Goombay's. We'll be building a mash-up web application using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. For more information on the meeting check out our latest blog post.

I noticed from the membership list that there are a lot of web developers in the Brevard area. I hope this group, like Florida Creatives, can help to grow the community. Hope you can make it out!

Brevard

Café Scientifique: "Evolutionary Antecedents of Obesity"

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:53:29 -0700

Start: 08/06/2008 - 19:00

End: 08/06/2008 - 20:30

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Presenter:
Lieberman, Leslie Sue

Evolutionary medicine provides insights into why we are experiencing a global pandemic of obesity, and what we might do about it.

The presenter, Leslie Sue Lieberman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Anthropology and the founding Director of the Women’s Research Center at the University of Central Florida. She is a biomedical anthropologist with research specializations in type-2 diabetes, nutrition, and obesity. She has co-authored or edited 11 books, and published over 70 journal articles and book chapters. Her research has been supported by NIH, NSF, HRSA, NIMH, and others.

(Publicity flier)

…and after that,

"Removing Pollutants from Water" 3 September, 2008 19:00 - 20:30
"Invasive Species" 1 October, 2008 19:00 - 20:30
"Tidal Modeling in the 21st Centurys" 5 November, 2008 19:00 - 20:30

Florida Creatives

FL Creatives 18: Eric Marden

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:10:24 -0700

Download Show 18
flcreatives_18_eric.mp3
Length: 1:34:26

Eric Marden, AKA Xentek or Dr. XNLB, shares with us some stories from his past about starting record labels, trying to form creative collectives, and the creative climate in Orlando.

Shameless Links:

Florida Creatives

Coworking Miami: Brikolodge

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:09:56 -0700

Reposted from a message on the international Coworking discussion list:

...we recently opened a coworking facility in Miami's Wynwood Arts District. Brikolodge is a loft unit in a live-work building, home to design shops, galleries and some of the best views of downtown from the roof-top pool. We have been hosting RefreshMiami meetups since our inception and we have recently opened our doors to The Figure Network - a local artist who conducts weekend workshops on figure drawing and has also posted some of his artwork around the facility.

We are always looking for more ways to expand our community. If any of you are ever in the Miami area, please stop by and visit :) Check out our website: www.brikolodge.org

Coworking

Meetup Location Discussion

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:48:50 -0700

Some discussion has already taken place on the prior post (be sure to scour that first), so I thought I'd place a followup here and open the floor for discussion. Ideally, we should probably have a discussion in a forum since that is some kind of internet rule that Al Gore put in place when he invented the internet, but I'm just going to risk it and start one here.

Problems with Brevard: I don't think this issue is going to go away soon, especially with gas at $4/gallon. Brevard is the longest county in the state of Florida (72 miles) so we are probably always going to have a bit of a logistics issue.

That being said, I strongly feel that the way to handle this for now is to start a meeting in the Melbourne/Eau Gallie area and invite our northern brothers and sisters to it. The hope here would be that after a few meetings they might be able to start their own North Brevard group. I think we'll have to wing this and can probably best discuss this issue in more detail once we meet in person.

Suggested Meeting Places: I took a walk through Melbourne this past Thursday and I think I've found a great spot. But before I reveal it, let me chronicle a few discoveries and comment on a few spots previously mentioned in the prior post.

Meg's is closed due to fire damage (which I had forgot). Moonstruck and Lexi's were both about as empty as a funeral parlor and the candles and tablecloths (and the waiters with bowties) were a bit too upscale. Although we could all throw a tie on or wear a pretty dress, I was hoping to find a place where people could stop by on a Blackberry moment's notice in case they forgot at the last minute. Island Pasta was it's usual crowd with no decent sized tables and no extra room (as was also the case with Salsa's with only two tiny rooms and little 2 and 4-tops).

Main Street Pub (previously suggested) is still a remote possibility but it's focus was clearly on being a bar only. The upstairs stays closed until 9pm and is only available for paid parties beforehand. Considering that we don't really know whether will have 3 or 30 for many many months, I'm not sure we'd be good neighbors for them until we have a more consistent turnout.

A few places (like Bella's) closed at 8 or 9pm... no good. I was about to give up and drive up to Eau Gallie, but with the cooler breeze beckoning me from the river, I wondered east... and then discovered...

Grill 192: I wondered across U.S.1 and noticed that On Tap had changed their name to Grill 192. Well, lo and behold... what a change, and for the better. I went and spoke with them. Plenty of room (but busy), great atmosphere, and the food smelled great. It's located one building east of Strawbridge (S.R. 192) and Harbor City Blvd (U.S.1).

Those who have been to On Tap know it was primarily a sports bar and lounge. And although Grill 192 will still have football and other things from time to time, they've tried to be a bit rounded. It's not just a name change, it's new owners.

I think this meets all our needs. It has great food, it has a full bar, it has a large covered outdoor deck for our smoking friends, it has a number of larger tables throughout, and the entire place is divided into about five or six sections.. so there are quieter spots, louder spots, etc. It has nice wood decor throughout. It even has a partial view of the river. It's open late.

Location-wise, I think this is as "good as it gets". It's right on the bottom of the Melbourne (192) causeway, so anyone coming from beachside will be about as close as possible without having to fight mainland traffic. In fact, from south Cocoa Beach, it's only 20 minutes down A1A and across 192. It's also right off US1, so those coming from the north and south will have about as direct a route as possible. In short, it's about as centrally located as possible for a south/central Brevard meeting spot.

Price-wise, it's affordable, but not dirt cheap. Burger platters run about $7.95 to $9.95. Salmon burger at $12.95 (I'm curious about that one). A mediterranean grilled chicken sandwich is $8.95. Appetizers run from $5.95 for nacho gringo, to $7.95 for conch fritters or purple onion straws, to $8.95 for a shrimp cocktail.

Downsides? They say they are trying to make it more family-friendly. I'm not sure what that means (I didn't see kids anywhere) as I never really thought On Tap was anti-family friendly, but I think it might just mean they don't want it to be known only as a pickup joint or a place where cops have to come every Friday/Saturday as would often happen at On Tap after midnight.

Also, they don't have a website, but maybe some of us can help with that. They do have a MySpace page and only because there are some pics of the restaurant there, I'm temporarily suspending my personal pledge to never to link to MySpace pages so you can have a look: http://www.myspace.com/grill192.

Only other minor downside is that the menu isn't very deep. Appetizers, Salads, Burgers, Stuffed Burgers, Sliders (??), Sandwiches, a few side orders, and home-made pie. No steak, no fish dishes, no flaming anything. But, I don't think our primary purpose is pallete-pleasing (how's that for alliteration?)

So, what do you think?

Brevard

Film

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:24:22 -0700

Simply a place for folks who sign up on Florida Creatives to have a place to discuss film and share film-related resources.

Orlando Sentinel Editor speaks to Orlando Arts Blog in informative podcast

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:29:58 -0700

When the Orlando Sentinel did that recent re-design of their print version, I was floored. Why did they do it? Who did it? Where did they find the inspiration? What do other readers think?

Bonita Burton, Orlando Sentinel's Associate Managing Editor for Visuals and the person who lead the team that carried out the project, was gracious enough to do an interview with me about all the above questions and more.

Find the interview here:
http://orlandoartsblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/orlando-sentinels-bonita-bur...

Orlando Arts Blog (http://www.orlandoartsblog.blogspot.com) will celebrate it's one year anniversary in August 2008.

Thanks

Mark Baratelli

Florida Creatives

Orlando Entrepreneur Meetup - Business Networking Opportunities

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:42:13 -0700

Recently (two weeks ago) Mike has taken over an established meet up dot com group, which wasn't holding any meetings. This group has a membership of over 500 people, and everyone here is encouraged to join:

http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/2/

Our plans for this group is to build a realistic business cooperative for people in our community. By connecting with people everywhere in the Orlando Market, which includes people in Brevard and Volusia Counties.

We presently have a cooperative agreement with the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce (EOCC), to post "Business After Hours" events as "meet ups". Mike is an chamber ambassador for the EOCC, and would be glad to introduce you to anyone that could help you.

We also will be hosting monthly happy hours (on a Thursday Night) at the Holiday Select at the Airport, there is plenty of free parking, free internet terminals in the bar area, and plenty of open space to kick back and to talk to people.

You never know who you will meet at one of these kind of events, or the insight that you may obtain from them to help your business.

Peace,

Mike Feravolo
Software Freedom Innovations
Orlando: (407) 745-1545

Florida Creatives

FL Creatives is the Best of Orlando!

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:02:18 -0700

Exciting news: I was informed that Florida Creatives and BarCamp Orlando were named "Best way to staff your social networking startup" by the Orlando Weekly as part of their annual Best of Orlando issue.

Orlando has been cultivating its reputation as a technology center, and there's evidence that it's working. There's a community of people who straddle the line between artist and techie, and you can find a good number of them hanging out with the Florida Creatives Group. They host a happy hour once a month, and they've hosted two "un-conference" BarCamp events where anyone could give a presentation. It's a somewhat nerdy crew, but there's no better place in town to meet that user-interface expert or the Drupal developer that you've been dreaming of.

Mad props to the Orlando Weekly. In fact, this is not the first time Florida Creatives has appeared in their pages. The editorial team there does their best to keep their fingers on the pulse of the community, and this year they've chosen our nerdy slice of Orlando... three cheers!

BarCamp

Florida Creatives Happy Hour 7/21

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:50:54 -0700

Start: 07/21/2008 - 00:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Admission is free, there is no sign-up form, there are no nametags, just come and be yourself, and the creatives will guide you from there!

Florida Creatives

Deep Carnivale - A Celebration of Words

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:49:13 -0700

Start: 09/25/2008 - 10:00

End: 09/25/2008 - 17:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Deep Carnivale - A Celebration of Words

The Artists and Writers Group, Inc., has scheduled the second annual Deep Carnivale literature festival for September 27 2008, in Ybor City on the campus of Hillsborough Community College, at the Cuban Club, and along 14th Street between 9th Avenue and Palm Avenue and is free and open to the public of all ages.

This literary festival aspires to bring Florida authors, writers and poets and related vendors together to share in a celebration of literature and writing with the Tampa Bay community. Approximately 70 poets, fiction writers, and songwriters as well as visual artists presented work at the first event in 2007. There are events for all ages.

There will be four sound stages for readings and live music. Literacy and arts activities will be available for ages from 2 through middle school and workshops available to adults of all ages. The schedule is currently under construction and will be announced around September 1.

One goal is to excite all children and young adults about the pleasures of reading and using the written and spoken word creatively in its many wonderful and diverse forms. Another goal is to illuminate the numerous talented writers living in our community, and a third goal is to provide a new opportunity to emerging authors to develop their audience.

The festival will also have an outdoor live music stage featuring singer/songwriters including Ronny Elliott, Bunko Squad and Darrell House. Booksellers, small publishing houses and related vendors will attend the event. Related activities include street theater, food vendors and book signings.

Tampa

Kasey Crouch to speak at Orlando InDesign Users Group

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:08:56 -0700

Start: 07/22/2008 - 00:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

We are fortunate to have Kacey Crouch return to our club and participate as our speaker for our next meeting. Kacey is an Adobe Certified Software Instructor, the owner of Pixeldot, Inc., and a well-known presenter at Adobe events and InDesign conferences. Her topics for the night are:

Using the Assets of the Creative Suite
CS3 ships with many built in goodies. Some you may have used before, such as templates in InDesign, or brushes in Illustrator, but are you really getting the most of these freebies? We will explore where to find the hidden goodies Adobe gives to us, and how to use them in ways beyond the obvious.

Managing Images and Choosing File Types
While the idea of picking a file type may not sound glamorous, it is essential to maximizing the capabilities of your images. Learn when to choose PSD over TIF, and when PDF is better than EPS.
==========================
Date, time, and location
==========================
Tuesday, July 22 2008 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Orlando Sentinel Conference Center
633 N. Orange Ave.
(corner of Orange Ave. and Colonial Dr.)
Orlando, FL 32801

=========
Agenda
=========
6:00pm to 6:50pm: Registration, Eat, Meet and Greet
6:50pm to 7:00pm: Announcements, Introductions
7:00pm to 7:50pm: Using the Assets of the Creative Suite
7:50pm to 8:00pm: Break
8:00pm to 8:45pm: Managing Images and Choosing File Types
8:45pm to 9:00pm: Q&A - Raffle

Be sure to register so we have an accurate count for our usual pizza and refreshments... If you’re new to the Creative Suite or a professional, please invite your friends and colleagues, and help us grow our/your Orlando InDesign User Group. While it's all about graphics, many related applications are covered in a wide-ranging, freeform interchange among members. Our InDesign User Group is a Special Interest Group of FLMUG. CS3 works on both Windows and Mac systems. Bring your laptops as our meetings have WiFi.

Starting with this meeting there will be a minimum $10 suggested entry donation to support the cost of our meetings. Our raffles offer great tools to help you advance your knowledge and achieve your goals, with our top winner receiving a full version of InDesign CS3.

$10 suggested admission donation = 3 Raffle tickets
$20 = 8 Raffle
$30 = 15

Orlando

Likemind.orl

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:28:36 -0700

Start: 07/18/2008 - 00:00

End: 07/18/2008 - 11:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Coffee sponsorship ($25 is plenty) could be kindly paid for by your employer. Last month, we were given free copies of the "Buying In" (Murketing) book.

Panera is at the corner of Robinson St and Eola Drive on the North East corner of the lake.

Florida Creatives

BlogOrlando 2008

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:58:38 -0700

Start: 09/25/2008 - 00:00

End: 09/27/2008 - 23:59

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

what: an unconference
when: September 25-27, 2008
where: Orlando, Florida
cost: free

tracks:
Journalism
Technology/Tools
Local/Community
New Media/Creative
Marketing/PR

Latest BlogOrlando news:

The dates for the 2008 edition of BlogOrlando have been set, Sept 25-27th. Of course the big change is the main event is moving to a Saturday.

In the past I always debated about the Friday/Saturday thing, but this year we have some external forces....mainly the venue....we're just too big :-) In order to accommodate close to 300 people (like we had last year) we need to hold the event on Saturday.

Registration will be open shortly and we'll start to fill in the session leaders and schedule as well.

As I referenced in my previous post there will an invite only event on Thursday the 25th. The main event will kick-off Friday night with a reception and the full un-con and happy hour on Saturday.

If you're traveling in, then you can look to arrive on Friday and head back out on Sunday.

Of course we're always looking for sponsors to keep the event FREE. If you're interested let me know.

Florida Creatives

Meetup Votes

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:37:51 -0700

We'll close the poll down end of this week. So far, 10 of the current 17 members have voted and it's looking like Thursday night (5 votes) is winning swimmingly. However, we'll give it to the end of the week if anyone else wants to chime in. Saturday morning (2 votes) and Tuesday evenings (3 votes) have some interest as well.

We'll start a new poll next week to determine where we meet. Feel free to comment to this post with some suggestions to toss up on the poll.

In the meantime, keep forwarding on our sites URL (http://floridacreatives.com/group/brevard) to other folks in Brevard that may be interested. Coworkers and business partners are a great place to start.

Brevard

Don't be surprised. This change is my design.

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:57:45 -0700

I wrote this in my notebook as I was on my porch, smoking these old Camel lights that have been in one of my kitchen drawers for, oh a year now. I am like those stupid Become and EX commercials that talks about re-learning how to do certain things without cigarettes. For me, unfortunately, it's writing. I've tried to write an entry for a while about the internal stuff that's going on with me. There are some past actions and reaction, aside from writing without smoking, that I'm trying to unlearn.

Some months ago, I was lying in bed, wondering if I was going to be the girl who was always alone. Every past action indicated to that assumption. But I realized, that night, that it was me that was causing the empty bed and the lack of a friend-based relationship. I was alone because I had trained myself to believe that I was "supposed" to be alone. (What does that Interpol song say? "I'm sick of spending these lonely night, training myself not to care"?)

Now Lord knows that after having one guy say and do the worst, manipulative and dishonest things to me at a young age, when I thought that was all I could get, even thought I knew it was wrong, I was still hurt and discouraged. The idea of what "love" was to a man because a separate definition to what I defined the word to mean. Love meant calling me up, after tons of unanswered messages, telling me of his past conquests and hatred for my crying, even though "you know I still love you." So once I figured out that everything I believed in his words were empty, I went on to try the same routine with two other guys directly after my divorce. Each one turned around one day to say, "I don't understand what the big deal is" when they did something just as cruel. Hence, I became cemented in jealousy, anxiety, depression, guilt and disillusion.

And since those years long ago, I've sought after crushes who had the same kind of attitude towards me. They reeled me in, tossed me out, reeled me in, then berated me for having an emotional reactions to their inactions of care. Never once did I think I was choosing the wrong guys. Never once did it occur to me that I was setting myself up for failure on purpose because I didn't think I deserved anything else.

By being a single woman in my modern world, I have had plenty of firsthand experience on the long, arduous process of relationship discussions. We have books and movies and television shows and music and friends who all talk about men. We have to be "smart" girls. We can't put up with any man's crap. We have to (as Dr. Phil says) "teach people how to treat us." Men will do anything it takes to screw a woman over and we have to be on guard at all times. Basically, I have been fashioned into a bitch.

And since I have always been the one to be hurt, I never thought anything was my fault past not being beautiful, not being thin enough, not being like other girl who had husbands. I wasn't bitchy enough I supposed and Lord knows I got plenty of resentment in myself when I was called "bitter."

In the past month or so, something changed in me drastically. It was as if I finally saw myself on the inside and I found out that my past had been an excuse to carry a chip on my shoulder. I assumed all men were liars, cheaters, manipulators, skirt chasers and all-around jerks who delighted in nothing more than to push every button I had to make me crazy with anxiety and insecurity.

I started seeing that all this time, I was expecting people to say, "Oh, she's had it bad before, so she has a right to be distrusting." I had it said to me by women for years. I was set apart because I had this crappy past that I kept on call to use as a tool to week out any possible errors in a man's character that would potentially make him "just like the others."

But now I realize it's been me this whole time that's choosing to be bent out of shape over things that should be boxed up and buried. I am the one who accuses and assumes that every man is never going to be genuine or trustworthy or kind. So I set up fights and wait for an opportunity to pounce and say, "Ah ha! I knew it!" I lash out and keep myself "protected" instead of tearing down my wall that I took years to put up. I use to think, "I'll try with this (wrong) guy, but if it doesn't work (when I knew it wouldn't because he wasn't right for me), I'm putting another brick up and sealing myself off for good!" I wasn't going to be anyone's fool.

Nope, I've been my own fool all along. I saw mean and hurtful, unjust things. I get angry and jealous and worked up over nothing that is the actual truth -- I make up reasons to not try and let anyone in.

So unlearning all of this is what I've been trying to do recently. I realized that all of the things I have gone through is my reason for writing. I always figured that I'd be able to tell my future audience the things I learned along the way. What I wanted to write about is how I figured out, at age 32, that shutting the door in any man's face before they even try to know is anything but smart. I learned that it isn't that someone is going to have to save me from being hurt; I have to save myself from being someone to does the hurting. I've learned not to repeat my patterns, but to grow out of them and evolve.

I apologize for any rocks I may have kicked up as I tried to set myself on my path.

Photo credit: remotd

http://www.deloresdefacto.com/?p=88

Orlando

Joomla and XAMPP

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:44:17 -0700

Love this tool! Devon
Big fan of this free tool! XAMPP
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Joomla
http://www.joomla.org/

I've only used for Joomla, but you could use this with any open source MySql database I imagine, like wordpress, and even possibly some open source shopping carts like zen cart or. oscommerce

Hope it helps someone!

Devon
www.surfpiggie,com

Meebo - Free Internet Communication made easy

info@liberatr.net (Liberatr.net) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:23:29 -0700

I place meebo widgets on my websites, it's free, users get instant access to me and my services. I know when some one is on my websites based on the meebo widget in my control panel.

Example:

You can keep in touch with friends you know on any instant messaging network (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber) at meebo.com, or reach out and have live conversations with anyone at any website with Meebo Rooms and Meebo Me. Instant messaging from absolutely anywhere, no downloads or installs required, and free!