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When you hear the word ‘circuitry’, you probably immediately think of the inside of your phone, your MP3 player or even your computer. The circuitry is what makes it work, right? Those of us who are Geeks get so wrapped up in the hardware, how things work and why… that we tend to forget the human side of things.

Take blogging for example. How many of you blog strictly for the fun of it? Do you worry about “creating content”, pulling in followers, and monetizing your blog to its maximum potential? When your focus turns to these things, aren’t you then concentrating on the ‘circuitry’ of it all? It forces us to become almost automated in our thinking and actions. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with producing great content and being able to make money off of that. If you can, that’s wonderful.

What I’m talking about is the fact that we are so focused on what we’re doing, that we forget our human side. Humanity is a beautiful thing. It’s about passion, and love. It’s friendship and caring more about others than ourselves. Humanity is raising nearly $3000 in 90 minutes to send a young Cambodian woman to college. It’s about lighting a fire in others, to affect positive change. It’s remembering that together, we have the power to make a difference.

To me, circuitry is the inner workings of something… in this case, our minds. Humanity is what makes us reach out to help others. It stands to reason, then, that Human Circuitry is the use of our collective minds to make this world a better place.

Gnomedex 8.0 embodied the term “Human Circuitry”. We were empowered, impassioned, and energized. Each of us who were there is a strong person in our own rights. Together… we can accomplish amazing things.

My challenge to all of this year’s attendees is simple: take what you learned at Gnomedex this year, and keep it close to your heart. Remember the feeling you had when Chris read the total we had raised, or the one when you stood (possibly with tears in your eyes) and applauded Scott Maxwell… or even the euphoria we all had while spontaneously jumping up on stage to dance with Matt.

Keep that with you, and use it to create change in yourselves, your work, and those around you.

Chris, Ponzi, Stuart and Maryam: thank you so much for making Gnomedex such an amazing experience for us all this year. You brought out the humanity in us all, the passion to make changes in our own lives and others’, and reminded us we have the power to do so in a very big way.

The sense of community astounded me. There were more than 300 people in attendance, from all walks of life. We all had “geekiness” in common, yes. Beyond that… we were a very mixed bunch. That didn’t stop us from bonding, and feeling as though we all belonged together, if that makes sense. I know that I, for one, made some friends that I know will carry with me through my life.

The speakers this year were just phenomenal. I love the mix of what was presented. They brought out the absolute best in the attendees… from passion, to laughter, to debates, to even a few tears. Watching and gauging audience reaction was one of my jobs, and that made each presentation better for me. Not only did I watch them, I also was able to really focus on how the rest of the attendees (and the chat room!!) felt about each one.

My favorite speech, hands down, was Scott Maxwell. Not only does Scott have the coolest job in the entire world, he’s also one hell of a nice guy. I was able to sit with him on Saturday night at the speaker dinner, and we talked quite a bit. He’s a lot of fun, and just a very cool dude. Thanks for the conversation, Scott! Running a very close second to Scott is Ben Huh, of icanhascheezburger fame. Ben is a funny guy, and even autographed his business card for me to give my daughter. I even embarrassed myself by telling Ben how many hundreds of LOL Cats I have saved on my computer! I’m seriously addicted to those… can we say “12 Step Program”?

Raising money to send Camobodian women to college, impulsive dancing on stage by more than 200 people with ‘where the hell is Matt’ and Scott receiving the only Gnomedex standing ovation were my three favorite moments. Each of those brought tears to my eyes.

Before I sign off, I have to thank everyone from the live community chat room. You guys made the whole experience even better for me, for the speakers, and for the attendees. You guys completely ROCK, and I love you all. Thank you for letting me be a part of everything, for always cheering me on, and for having such a wonderful presence throughout the conference.

Ponzi and Chris, thank you. Words just cannot express what this trip meant for me, or how it impacted my life. You know I love you both, and I am already planning my next trip to visit.

After watching for awhile to see if there were any more, I was running late and had to shower fast. I picked up Dave at the ferry, and headed to the conference center. After guzzling some caffeine, slamming down a couple of hard boiled eggs, and getting “mic’d” for the day… it was time to rock and roll. Sarah Lacy was one of the morning speakers. I was able to spend time talking with her one-on-one quite a lot prior to this. She’s a great person, and such a sweetheart. She went out on a limb, and changed the format of her presentation at the eleventh hour. Her speech caused a lot of people’s tempers to flare… but to me, that’s a good thing. It sparked much debate, everyone was listening, and everyone had something to say. The entire audience was not only engaged, but also participating. That’s what it’s all about, and that’s what Sarah was aiming to do.

Lunch was again amazing, and a lot of my time was spent running around doing everything and anything. Over the two conference days, I made a lot of personal contact with all of our amazing Vendors… special shoutout to my buddies at HP. You guys were fantastic!!! Also, of course, I have to mention my friend from Sony… who totally made me nearly cry. Sony gave away eight DVDirect® MC5 Multi-Function DVD Recorders during the conference. I had mentioned to him how much I’ve been wanting to buy one, and he asked me why. I explained that I have a 15 month old granddaughter. My mom lives quite far away, and doesn’t get to see her often. Mom also has dial-up out there in the boonies, so she cannot watch videos we make of baby Jenna. With one of these, I could burn DVDs for her, and send them! So anyway, at the very end of the conference, Ponzi told me she had something for me. It was the last DVD burner!!!! The Sony guy had saved one just for me, and asked Ponzi to tell me thanks for everything I had done. Wow!! How awesome is that?!

I have to also shoutout my buddy Greg Birch at this point, too. Greg is a dentist friend of Chris’, as well as a Techie. He did a giveaway of an expensive Sonicare toothbrush. He had a second one for a giveaway, but changed his mind. I got that second one!! Thanks, Greg. You’re a sweetie, and it was a lot of fun hanging out with you.

My favorite speaker, by far, had to be Scott Maxwell. Hands down, Scott has the coolest job in the World. He sits in his office on Earth, and ‘drives’ the Mars Rover. How fricken awesome would that be?! Not only was his speech great, Scott is a great guy. I was able to sit with him at the speaker dinner on Saturday night, and had some good laughs, and excellent conversation. At the end of Scott’s presentation, he received a HUGE standing ovation… the only speaker to get one in all of Gnomedex history! Now that, is cool.

As I just mentioned, I attended the speaker dinner on Saturday night. That was attended by all the speakers (and some of their spouses), Chris and Ponzi, Joe and Judy Pirillo, Ponzi’s aunt and uncle, myself, Robert and Maryam Scoble, Stuart Maxwell (yes, Scott’s brother) and his wife, and a few other key people. It was relaxed and informal, with all of us circulating and talking with each other. I used the Flip Camcorder to take video reactions from everyone, telling me about their gut reactions and experience with Gnomedex 8. Overwhelmingly, it was very positive. Everyone who has attended previous conferences stated emphatically that this was the best Gnomedex ever.

I may not have been to any of them in the past, but I can definitely say this was probably the best one. The passion, the laughter, and the HEART that was displayed repeatedly during my time there was just… surreal. It was an amazing experience.

Saturday ended all too soon, and then it was over. After the dinner, I headed out to Chris’ house for awhile. I rode with him, and was able to spend a half an hour with just him and I talking. That was great. Ponzi rode out there with Preston and Stephen. We goofed around on the stream in the office for a couple of hours. By that time, I was beyond exhausted. Ponzi had forgotten her purse at the hotel, and had to go back. Keep in mind, that it was well after midnight by then, and I had to be up at 4:30 to head to the airport. I rode back into town with Ponzi, and left the Durango for the guys. (I miss that truck! I NEED one!!) I managed about two hours of sleep, checked out, and flew home.

I’m happy to be home again, yet sad. My trip was indescribable, and one of the most awesome experiences of my life. Thank you to Chris and Ponzi for bringing me out there… and for just everything.

Shoutouts to some of my favorite people, who are now ‘forever friends’: Eric Rice, Drew Olanoff, Maryam Scoble, Liz Strauss, Andru Edwards, Ben Huh, Duncan Riley, Francine Hardaway, Kathy Gill (how awesome was your birthday?!), Mark Bao (you are SUCH an inspiration!!), Mark Davidson, Matt Hartley, the Rosenfelds, Sarah Lacy (and her awesome assistant, Olivia - email me woman!), Shashi Bellamkonda, Stuart Maxwell (no… YOU rock!!), Todd Martini, and probably twenty others I’m forgetting.

YOU guys are what made this an amazing trip for me. I can’t wait to see you all again next year!

Picked up Dave at the ferry at 7:30, and headed to the conference center. Ponzi grabbed me right away, and informed me I needed to be “mic’d up”. Yep, I had to wear one of the six radios/mics all day both on Friday and Saturday. I was in constant contact with Chris, Ponzi, Stuart, Maraym Scoble, and Kate (who works at the conf. center). Some of Chris’ commentary in my ear throughout the conference was hysterical. The funniest moment was during one break on Friday when Chris was yelling into the radio, asking “Kat where are you?!”. I replied “making use of the facilities”. It was very quiet, and then Chris said “oh. my bad. See you in a minute”.

I made my home at the back of the conference room, over in one corner. Stuart was in the back at the other corner, Preston was down front in a corner, and Maryam was down front in the other corner. This way, we were spread out and could be available no matter what was needed. I spent my time working the live chat during speakers, running errands for Chris/Ponzi, keeping an eye on Twitter feedback, etc and so on. I also got to watch each and every speaker.

The speaker highlight of Day 1 for me was definitely my new buddy Ben Huh… you know, the LOL Cats dude!! His presentation was great, and he’s just an awesome person. I was able to spend some time talking with him at different points, and there will be a video I recorded of him coming later on Chris’ blog.

All of the speakers were great, and well received. Lunch was delicious. I sat with Chris, Ponzi, Stuart, Eric Rice, Mom and Dad Pirillo, and Ponzi’s Aunt and Uncle. If I could even come close to spelling their names, I would. No way I’m attempting it.

I didn’t have much free time at the end of the speakers, as we had to hurry over to the Showbox for the party. The highlight of this for me was meeting and talking with Robert Scoble. I had met his wife, Maryam, and been working with her throughout the conference. I went to introduce myself to Robert, and was speechless when he already knew who I was. Me. Holy crap! I was floating on cloud nine even more about a half an hour later, when he sought me out at the party to talk a bit. Had an excellent conversation with him, and realized he’s as much “just another guy” as Chris is. That’s what the “fan boys” don’t understand. Chris and Robert are not demi gods. They’re just regular guys who have a lot to say… albeit loudly at times. Robert was very friendly and down to earth, just like his sweetie of a wife.

I left the party early with my good friend Aryeh Goretskey. Aryeh works for an Anti Virus vendor, is a Msft MVP (we met in Seattle last April at MVP SUmmit), runs the Lockergnome Forums, and is a HalfOp in the live stream. Aryeh took me to dinner at the uber awesome Salty’s restaurant. That was the best steak I’ve ever had, complete with an amazing view of the downtown skyline at night. Thanks again, Aryeh, for a great dinner and fun conversation.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was exhausted. I felt so bad yawning through the end of dinner. I didn’t even bother with a shower (I normally take two a day, morning and bedtime), I was THAT tired. I put on my jammies, took a last look out the windows, and crashed.

And that, is my day 3!

When they finally arrived at my room, I had a blast meeting the tree that is Preston. Keep in mind, I am “short”… 5′3″. Preston is 6′6!! I then called upstairs to Stephen’s (Datalore) room, and had him join us. The four of us Ops from the live stream chat hung out for about an hour, laughing and talking.

At 4:30, it was time to head over to the conference center to help set up. We did anything and everything Ponzi needed to get rolling, and then the registration party began! For the rest of the evening, I ran around like crazy. I spent my time meeting people, making sure things were going well on the stream, seeing what I could do for anyone there, etc. I was exhausted by the end of the party, but it was a good exhaustion. I met some amazing people, and quickly became friends with them all.

When we finished up for the night, I dropped Dave off at the ferry, and went back to my hotel room to collapse. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep, I can assure you.

From the rental place, we headed over to Chris and Ponzi’s house. We got there at the exact same time as Chris’ parents, Joe and Judi. Chris came out to meet us all, hugs all around… and Pixie ran out for hello’s, as well. Wicket was shy, and hid for awhile from me, but Pixie and I made friends quickly.

We all spent the afternoon hanging out at the house, playing around on the stream (that was actually fun, and not as painful as I thought it would be!), planning out the rest of the week, and eating some excellent Mexican food. Joe is a huge Cubs fan, a retired Accountant, and loves to camp. He and I had much in common! Joe and Judy are both very nice people, and very funny! I had a great time at the house. Chris is just as much of a smart ass in person as he is on his stream, so there was a lot of laughing going on. Ponzi and I bonded immediately, literally. She and I have felt close from day 1, and meeting in person solidified that.

I got to my hotel in the late afternoon, the Edgewater. This place is simply amazing. I have a ‘water-side’ room. Outside my Windows is Elliot Bay… literally outside. I can open the window, lean out, and the water is THERE. I could jump out the window into it, if I was nuts that way. It’s totally beautiful, and I keep sitting in the comfy chair that I pulled from the fireplace over in front of the window. Don’t worry, I’m taking tons of pics.

There are pocket doors that lead from my room to my bathroom. Inside those is a huge oversized claw foot tub, which was excellent for a nice long soak last night. There’s also a huge glass block shower, with beautiful tile in it, and two showerheads! The decor in here is gorgeous… rustic style, with a 42″ plasma tv thrown in.

Ordered a pizza for dinner, and relaxed. Fell asleep a bit after 9pm, since I had been up for about 21 hours at that point. Slept straight thru til 7:30 this morning. I’m relaxing right now, and enjoying the gorgeous view. I’m picking Dave up from the ferry later, and then he is taking the Durango to the airport to pick up Preston (four_ones) for us. Ponzi and I have set-up and registration to do later, along with the registration party to attend!

So nothing ‘exciting’ happening yet, but I’m happy to be here. It’s beautiful, and I’m having a great time.

The lineup of speakers for this year is simply amazing. I definitely can’t wait to meet the people behind my “lolcatz” obsession. Learning about Scott Maxwell’s life as a NASA Mars Rover driver is going to be one of the highlights, as well. Since I work for Chris and have been doing blog write-ups for Gnomedex, I have gotten to read previews of most of the speeches and presentations. Trust me when I tell you that there is something to interest everyone, and you will be glad you were there with us.

I’ll be staying at the uber fabulous Edgewater hotel, where the speakers are all staying. The pictures of this place are breathtaking, and I already told Ponzi I may never want to leave the bathroom!! They have marble showers with those awesome “rain” shower heads.

My flight out puts me in Seattle at 10:24 on Wednesday morning the 20th. From there, I’ll be getting my rental van and heading to Chris and Ponzi’s. We’ll be spending the day doing last minute things to get ready. Yes, before you ask, I’m sure you’ll see me on the live stream at least once or twice.

I’m headed home on a 9am flight on Sunday the 24th. I have a 2 1/2 hour layover in Dallas TX on the way home… late afternoon I believe. If anyone is in Dallas and wants to come entertain me for an hour or two at the airport let me know!

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone at Gnomedex, hanging out and having a great time. See you there!

I cannot even begin to describe how outraged I am over the ‘treatment’ of this woman. I watched the surveillance video, and I think my mouth literally hit the floor. You can see the security guard come in the waiting room twice, look right at the patient, and walk away without doing a thing. Did he think she was stuck amongst those chairs and lying on the floor for the fun of it? He couldn’t take 10 seconds to see if she needed help? I mean, it’s not like she was in a hospital waiting room or anything.

Ms. Green is from Jamaica, and left six children behind. She had been working and living here, attending church, and sending money home to her family. I have a feeling she didn’t have traditional health insurance. She likely had state-paid ‘insurance’, or none at all. Yep, you guessed it. I’m going on a rant.

You cannot sit there and tell me people in this same situation are not treated differently from those who have traditional health insurance. I know for a fact they are. When I was divorced, my daughters and I received medical ‘insurance’ from the state for a couple of years. The place I worked offered insurance, but had I paid for it, we wouldn’t have eaten. I was also going to college full time in order to obtain a better job where I could afford it. I’m not ashamed of being on state aid. We needed it, and that’s that.

While we were on this program, we of course visited various doctors, clinics and hospitals. We were treated with everything from snide comments to outright rudeness and disgust. We were looked upon as “lesser” than people who paid in cash, or presented their shiny ‘traditional’ insurance cards. Is it my fault that the state is so slow about paying? I actually had a nurse one time comment to me that it’s “pathetic to see able-bodied people taking handouts”. I smiled at her sweetly, and said “I’m glad to know you presume so much about my life. Would you like me to dissect yours?”. I was humiliated, but I sure as hell did not let her see that.

Would Ms. Green be dead right now if someone… ANYONE… at the hospital had paid attention to her? That’s impossible to answer, of course. But, the fact is, we’ll never know. She may have been able to be saved quite easily for all we know. It’s sad and infuriating that there is no answer to that question. It’s repungent to know that because of lazy people who don’t obviously give a damn about others or their jobs couldn’t be bothered to come to the aid of a woman who so obviously needed them.

One of the fireworks had apparently landed on the corner of the rubber roof of the 3-store strip mall, and smoldered long enough to cause a fire. When he saw me outside on my porch, one fireman came over and calmly reassured me. He said that it was a small fire in the roof of the pet store at the opposite end of the mall from me, and that it would be completely contained “very soon”. He said to stay alert just in case, as there was a fireworks store attached to the pet store. I wasn’t really worried much at that point.

There weren’t even any flames at that time, just a lot of smoke. It was bothering my eyes and throat, so I came back inside. Within fifteen minutes, someone beat on my door and I could hear even more sirens coming. I opened the door to another fireman, telling me we had to “get out immediately”. What?! The fire had spread very quickly, and was threatening to get into the fireworks store at any moment. Our town’s aerial fire truck has a broken hydraulic system, and all we had were ground crews to fight a roof fire. They weren’t making much headway.

I grabbed my purse and shoes, and went out on the porch. I told the fireman that I was going back in to get our kitten. He grabbed my arm and started moving me to the steps. He refused to allow me to go back in to find Gomez, saying it was too dangerous and I had to leave. I tried to go back to at least leave my door open so he could run out. My mindset was that I’d rather have him get out and run away than have him burn in a fire. The fireman wouldn’t even let me go back for that.

They rushed me across the highway. I was directly in front of the fire, about 45-50 yards away. I watched in horror as the fire spread quickly, and flames were shooting out of the roof of the pet store and fireworks store, probably 10-12 feet in the air. The smoke was unreal. It was making my eyes, throat and chest burn, but I had nowhere to go. I stayed there for six hours with “onlookers”. Mine was the only house that was evacuated that long. You see, the wind was blowing north.. and my house is directly north of the mall. I had to watch as embers landed on the house, and smoke went pouring towards it. Most residents were allowed to go into their homes by about 6:30am. It was nearly 10am before I could, and then only after a fireman went through my whole house, attic and basement with a carbon monoxide detector.

I was video taping the fire when the big explosion occurred. You could see the flames shooting out of the fireworks store. Suddenly, you can hear me yell “Oh my god, the windows are going to blow”… two seconds later BOOM. A “fireball” of sorts had moved from the back to the front of the store, and out the windows. Since I was right across from it, I got excellent footage. My video has been shown on three television station channels now. There was only one news crew there at that point, and they were down the street, taping from an angle. I’ll embed my video at the end of this post.

I was terrified I would lose my home, my kitten, and everything we own. I kept thinking to myself “what the hell will we do? Where will we go?”. It was a horrible experience. I cannot imagine watching your own home burn… it was awful enough having to live through the possibility. The worst part was all the animals who died in the fire. There were hundreds of fish, snakes, rabbits, ferrets, birds (including the owner’s personal bird: a 20 year old Macaw who spoke many words), and 12 brand new kittens.

My 13-year-old daughter, Beka, is completely devastated. You see, she wants to be either a Vet or a Dolphin Trainer. That’s all she’s wanted to do since she was old enough to really talk. She adores animals, even snakes and rodents. The manager of the pet store loved her to death. She went over there nearly every day for the past five months. They let her help feed the animals sometimes. She played with the birds, ferrets, kittens and puppies (when they had some). She was totally in love with Niki… the Macaw. She keeps breaking down crying, and she keeps walking across the street today to stand in the parking lot, staring at the pet store and crying for the animals.

I am so grateful that my family, my kitten and our home is safe. I had to clean for a few hours to get smoke residue off walls, surfaces and floors. I aired out the house for two days now, but the smell lingers still. It’s hard to get “fresh air” in when the air outside is still heavy with the stench, as well.

This was a wake up call for me. I don’t have renter’s insurance. I guess I thought it wasn’t worth the expense, since I live on a very tight budget. This hit too close to home. We could so easily have lost everything. I called around and got quotes for renter’s insurance. I will be getting it the next time I get paid. Something else will have to wait. This is more important to me at this point.

Are you insured? Do you have escape plans in case of fire? Are you prepared? What would YOU do if you suddenly lost everything?