1. Natalia, 2. Jose, 3. Dolfinn, 4. Nicole, 5. Mehrdad, 6. Maria, 7. The Flying Ace, haha, 8. The Birthday Girl, 9. young aviator, 10. Mr. Bashful, 11. right between the eyes, 12. eat your heart out, Amelia Earhart

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Possibly related posts:

1. The Aviator Wall of Fame Miss K models David’s barnstormer goggles and helmet — and...
2. Flying Aces (Part II) The rest of the aviator photos from last Sunday’s brunch...
3. The Aviator I FINALLY found the photos from October 1st. (My archive...

View Larger

After the Flickr Meetup with Heather Champ at Reposado Bar on May 1, I finally decided to order MOO cards so I wouldn’t have to write down my URLs on little scraps of paper anymore. Now, they’re all neatly typefaced onto little pieces of card, which I will start handing out and mailing out soon. I can’t remember how many photos I used from Flickr (20? 25?), but I think my favourite in MOO card form is the one of the silver car in Cuba.

Yes, in my recent attempts to whittle away at my To Do List (which includes Spring Cleaning, which I’ve been doing for days), I am also going to sit down and send out actual, non-electronic mail, with my handwriting and everything. Something I’ve been promising to do since the beginning of 2008, and here it is, the year nearly half over. Better late than never!!

Possibly related posts:

1. The PowerBook Has Finally Arrived!! ...
2. Chucho Valdes (a speckly scan of the cover — yeah, I need...
3. Gearing Up for Today Had lots of sleep last night, so am feeling much...

I’m a little slow sometimes. I attended the Flickr Turns 4 birthday party in San Francisco one week ago, and I just realised something out about it today.

Last Saturday Kevin and I had dinner at Metreon before walking over to 111 Minna Gallery, where the party was taking place. Somewhere along the way a couple of people turned a corner and walked in front of us, one of whom looked faintly familiar. Kevin asked me if I knew who Robert Scoble was, and I said yes, but I didn’t follow his blog, I only knew about him. I assumed the teenager walking beside him was his son.

“I’ll bet he’s going to the Flickr party.”

Sure enough, he led us straight there — the spot clearly marked by a bunch of pink and blue balloons.

It only occurred to me today that I didn’t see Scoble inside the party, or at all after that, so I went over to his blog to see if he’d written anything about it.

Lo and behold, he did. In fact, he said a lot of things, most of which centred around his staunch opinion that Flickr had done their users a major disservice by throwing the party at a venue that is 21+.

I RSVP’ed on the Upcoming.org event page, so I already knew that they would ID at the door. It was also covered in the Flickr Turns 4 group, which was advertised on Flickr’s homepage for weeks beforehand. Scoble says he didn’t see any mention of it on his emailed invitation.

After I showed my ID at the door and we went inside, it didn’t occur to me that Scoble and company would likely not be permitted on account of his son being a minor.

After reading the comments and discussion that followed on Scoble’s blog post, I can see how it might look to a parent. Why not make it all ages? Many of the photographers on Flickr, including those who have photos displayed on the walls all over the venue, are under 21 years old.

Part of the problem is that the U.S. legal system deems their citizens of legal drinking age at 21, which makes no sense in light of the fact that young people under 21 defend their country in war. (The drinking age in New Zealand is 20, but as far as I could tell while I was there, enforcement is not a priority.) Most of Canada is 18, some provinces are 19.

California is especially strict about enforcing the drinking age, I’ve noticed. When I first rolled through California by myself in 1991, I was 19 and couldn’t get in anywhere except when I was with my friends Rob and Eric, who were 10 years older, and we went to the local pubs where bartenders were more lax. People get carded all over the place, especially in southern California. So I can imagine the licensing and insurance and security must be tricky business.

Scoble argues that Flickr could’ve chosen a venue that allowed minors, but that would’ve meant either not serving booze or obtaining some sort of special event license, although I don’t know if such a thing exists in California. Alternately, 111 Minna Gallery would’ve needed an onsite restaurant to offer that type of liquor license, which they don’t have — it’s an arts venue, a 4,000 square foot warehouse space. As well, the party officially began at 7 o’clock and everyone had to leave by 9 o’clock to make way for a Burning Man fundraiser (if you know anything about Burning Man, it is not exactly a kid-friendly event, either).

In the two-and-some hours of the Flickr party, there was free food (although not much, which I expected, which is why I had a proper dinner) and two free drink tickets at the door. The space filled up pretty quickly, the booze was flowing well beyond the jump start of available tickets, and I’m guessing the closest thing to a meal that most people had eaten to balance out the booze was a Flickr cupcake or two. Certainly not a place I would bring a child, what with occasional trampling by the alcohol-fuelled brides of march (yeah, I got kissed on the mouth by a man wearing a wedding dress!), getting poked in the back by a telephoto lens or blinded by flashguns going off left, right, and centre. The venue was seriously full at one point; it’s incredible none of the photo walls toppled over (that I could see, anyway).

Having said all that, it was still fun, but adult fun, not a place for children or minor-minors (as opposed to college-age kids who are still considered underage in the U.S.). As for Scoble’s argument that Flickr isn’t “family supportive” (his words), Stewart Butterfield has spent months away from Flickr on paternity leave, and I didn’t see Caterina there so she was likely at home with the kid. Because you know what? Kids and drinking don’t mix. Drinking = fun. Kids = fun. Together? No. Maybe a glass of wine at Christmas dinner or a beer at a BBQ, neither of which resembled this event at all!

Interestingly, Scoble also takes the opportunity to promote Smugmug, which is a site I’ve visited a few times but I have always disliked the interface. (I never liked the name, either: smug mug?? Neither of those words have any appeal or positive connotation whatsoever. Sure, Flickr looks like a spelling mistake, but at least it doesn’t conjure up visions of a Jack Nicholson character, mugging all smug-like.)

When I first checked Smugmug out years ago, I thought it was big on cutesy and the navigation drove me bonkers. Now I see it’s got a page on fleeing Flickr, but even Smugmug’s lowest price point is $39.95, substantially more than Flickr’s Pro Account at $24.95. (My account is free because I subscribe to a cable internet service that is partnered with Yahoo, which owns Flickr.) Scoble says he’s not writing the post for the purpose of pimping Smugmug, but it sure doesn’t sound that way. He says nothing about their service that motivates him to move his photos away from Flickr, only that he had a good interview with the CEO and strongly implies (practically assures) that Smugmug would never DARE make a user-unfriendly move such as throwing an adults-only party.

Hmmm. See what I mean about this post not being about technology?

Possibly related posts:

1. Flickr Turns 4 It’s 5:30 in the morning Pacific Time, and I’m the...
2. Friendly Donkeys Friendly Donkeys[photo by Cat Faery] Courtesy of Cat Faery’s photostream:...
3. Toronto Flickr Meetup @ Gypsy Co-op I was starting to exhibit recluse behaviour this past week,...

It’s 5:30 in the morning Pacific Time, and I’m the only one in the house who hasn’t gone to bed, including the cats.

It was a day of photography on Saturday, that’s for sure. Kevin and I hit Treasure Island for photo ops before heading over the bridge to San Francisco for the afternoon and evening, to attend the Flickr Turns 4 Party at 111 Minna Gallery. We arrived early, which was a good idea since more than 500 people RSVP’ed on Upcoming.org and the venue maxes out at 500.

Since Kevin works for Flickr, I was introduced to other “workrs” at the company and met a bunch of local Flickr users as well. If any of my contacts were there I didn’t notice, except some were in costume, so maybe I just couldn’t tell!

A few people looked very familiar, but I must’ve stumbled across their profiles elsewhere on the site.

I even got to inspect tychay‘s Nikon D3 — a monster of a camera — up close. First of all, that camera is 10x the price of the one I shoot with — it’s worth more than my car. But amazingly, Terry generously let me (and others) shoot with it, switch lenses, and play around with it. He even has a Leica M8 and more equipment than I’ll ever buy in a lifetime. But Terry was amazingly casual about letting other people try it out. Especially people cashed in on their two free drink tickets at the door and made frequent visits to the bar!

I submitted this photo for the photo wall, but I couldn’t find it! I looked EVERYWHERE, but almost 3,000 photos were printed, so maybe I just didn’t search hard enough… the photos that were on the wall looked amazing, though. These weren’t even curated, they were just ones submitted that met the size criteria by the deadline.

Stewart Butterfield (in pink) co-founded Flickr with his wife Caterina, and his memory amazes me. The last time I saw him was nearly three years ago, at the Flickr Farewell Party in Vancouver, May 2005. With Caterina and Stewart.

I spotted Stewart talking to someone so I waved, and he recognized me and gave me a big hug. My name tag had already fallen off, but he remembered my name, anyway, and David’s story without any memory jogs from me. I was so impressed, but he said he remembers the original Flickr folk (I joined in 2004, before I met David). Still, that’s impressive!

After everyone got booted out of 111 Minna at 9pm to prepare for a Burning Man fundraiser, people headed in all directions. Kevin and I went to the House of Shields with other Flickr employees, and that group splintered off when the international Flickr employees wanted to go to a place near their hotel and the rest stayed. I didn’t want to drink anymore, just take photos, so I went on a photowalkabout for a couple of hours downtown and met up with Kevin again by the parking garage where we left the truck. It’s been YEARS since I drove a standard transmission, but I got us home safely with Kevin giving me directions and now it’s time to hit the sack before the sun begins to rise again…

The Flickr Turns 4 pics uploaded thus far can be viewed as thumbnails, a slideshow, or in the PictoBrowser:

Possibly related posts:

1. It’s a Flickr Baby! Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield by caterina Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake,...
2. Confirmed Yesterday: Yahoo! Bought Flickr my feelings on hearing the news… Uploaded by evilcoffee. Yesterday...
3. Toronto Flickr Meetup @ Gypsy Co-op I was starting to exhibit recluse behaviour this past week,...

For the Pennsylvanians who read this site, here’s Obama’s PA photo collection.

Possibly related posts:

1. some Flickr faves for Friday helen Originally uploaded by jperkinson. D018 Originally uploaded by MIU!....
2. Flickr Going Away Party martinis all ’round! Ludicorp, the company behind Flickr.com, threw a...
3. PictoBrowser+Flickr Plugin For WordPress For any WordPress users out there who would prefer to...

Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, founders of Flickr, had a baby girl!

Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield
Born July 10, 2007, 6 lbs. 1 oz.

Congratulations!

Life with Sonnet by caterina

Technorati tags: Flickr, Caterina Fake, Stewart Butterfield, Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield

Possibly related posts:

1. Confirmed Yesterday: Yahoo! Bought Flickr my feelings on hearing the news… Uploaded by evilcoffee. Yesterday...
2. One Day Old “Why are you waking me up?? I just got here!”...
3. Congrats Caterina and Stewart! Go Flickr! Look! Article in Time’s “100 People Who Shape Our World”:...

I can’t keep my eyes open for much longer after early-morning flying, visiting, driving, an afternoon party, and an impromptu trip to the hospital to see a friend who landed there yesterday. If the weather co-operates I’ll fly again in the morning before a meeting with the estate lawyer, wait for my new camera to arrive by FedEx, and set off for Toronto again.

Possibly related posts:

1. Different FedEx Guy… … who delivered my spare Powerbook battery this afternoon, the...
2. Even More Snow Today! Oy! What’s with the snow! I just returned from lunch...
3. Whiteout Thursday Today started out rather nicely, but in the early afternoon...

Click on the picture for the answer. Thanks to blynaffit for letting me use her picture.

See also David’s description of his city from the Flickr group “Praise and Curse of the City” two years ago:

I love that my immigrant grandparents made a life here, and my memories of their house across from the park and the museum, and hearing my grandmother’s Yiddish as a child. I love the railroad tracks and the boarded-up coal mines and the slag heaps. I love the careless accents and the affability of my neighbors’ voices. I love that there are soaring cities to the east, and endless forests to the west. I love that we still have our original chrome diners and our wonderfully awful newspaper, and one remaining human elevator operator. I love that Harry Chapin sang a silly song* about our town.

I hate that so much was lost when our city fell ill, around the time that I was born, and the youth and optimism that bled away over the years. (I love that health is returning, though.) Sometimes I hate that my city isn’t quite big enough, so that foreign films and foods and people don’t find their way here. I hate that the nearby farms are turning into housing developments, gated communities full of New Yorkers, wealthy and imprisoned. I hate the inept, corrupt and – worst of all – unimaginative public officials.

I love and hate the idea of leaving it, someday. I am Scranton.

*30,000 Pounds of Bananas.

Technorati tags: Scranton, Flickr, Harry Chapin

Possibly related posts:

1. Praise and Curse of the City David posted in a Flickr thread called Praise and Curse...
2. The Office We’ve seen the BBC series The Office in its entirety...
3. The New Office I’m in Sechelt again for two days. Can’t wait ’til...

Dad, if a two-year old can use a computer, you can, too.

Via kewlchops, aka George Oates, of Flickr.

Technorati tags: videoclips, kids

Possibly related posts:

1. “Your face will freeze like that, you know…” Miss Megan (almost 3) and I try and outdo each...
2. Scraps o’ Steel Pentax K-1000 September 9, 2006 Richmond Steel yards More photos...
3. Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me Pentax K-1000 September 5, 2006 English Bay, Vancouver A rather...

Uncanny!

Technorati tags: baby photos

Possibly related posts:

1. Winter Solstice Sunset, From a Cessna 172 Flying over northeastern Pennsylvania December 21, 2006 This is straight...
2. Smuggler’s Cove Restaurant Tannersville, PA. More on this later. Technorati tags: Pennsylvania, restaurant,...
3. The Five Ms, Christmas 2006 The silly version that I made with the Flickr Christmas...