Happy Fourth of July from Seattlest
Seattlest Day Trips to Mount Rainier (in Photos)
Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition July 3-5
Weekend Theatre: July 3-5
Seattlest survived Mindcamp yet again. This installment, the third, ran with a familiar form of organized mayhem, and that familiarity removed a lot of our enthusiasm for the event. While we still met a few interesting individuals and heard some interesting talks, we couldn't help but to spend far too much of our time at Mindcamp wondering if we should have joined one of three different caravans of friends in going up to Vancouver for some Canadian shenanigans.
Seattlest didn't stay for Mindcamp's twenty-four hours. We managed twelve before we felt the need to head home and veg on the couch with movies that required no thought. In our time there we ate more than enough great food, met a couple of interesting people (a developer and a bodybuilder, how's that for breadth?), avoided more than a few socially awkward ones, and had a picture of ourselves created by Make Magazine's Drawbot (totally hypnotic). We were also blown away graphically by the XBox360 phenomenon Gears of War, which looks amazing even at 10 feet tall (it was played in the large theater). As amazing as that was, it paled in comparison to Nintendo's Wii. Mindcamp managed to get Nintendo to bring one of their not-yet-released consoles to let the Mindcamp crowd get a chance to play. The entire room was lit with smiles as these nerds played various "sports" against one another, As a point of comparison, Gears of War had about a half dozen spectators on average. The Wii room was packed to the gills for two hours with upwards of fifty. It's pretty safe to say Nintendo has a hit on their hands.
As far as talks, we weren't blown away by much this time around. The Lightning Talks (five minutes, any topic) were entertaining as always, but on the whole we were left wanting just a bit more. There was a talk on Lucid Dreaming that we were intrigued by, but we weren't willing to stick it out until midnight to hear it. We opened the day with a talk based around Mind Performance Hacks, which turned for the better once two audience members hijacked the session from the organizer. Also interesting was a discussion on how to adopt open source principles into everyday living.
The ticket prices keep going up, the same people keep showing up, and we aren't quite getting that giddy feeling from Mindcamp anymore. We'll still more than likely be there next time. Every time we've gone we've made new acquaintances, been introduced to some new ideas, and picked up some great free stuff (not to mention the food!). So even with our mild disappointments, we'd still recommend it to the nerds among our readership (you know who you are).
Image from flickr user ario_j
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I had tickets but could not go since my girlfreind was very ill and I did not want to leave her. So I stayed home and played Gears of War.
It was my first time. Remember your first time? Now think of all the other experiences you've had since. For me, it was thrilling. And I'll be back, too, much to the dismay of many who attended. Come see my video of Mind Camp 3.0 if you wish.