Friendships, Funding, Feet …another F-ing blogpost

There is some kind of elusive rhythm to life. My sense of timing is somewhat eccentric and although I am really enthusiastic I don’t think anybody would class me as a good dancer. But occasionally I get it right and am able to cling on to the beat for a while and look as if I’m dancing to the same song as everyone else in the club.

I find it is the same in life – every now and again a path emerges from the fog and you get to see a bit of the way ahead and notice that many other people are going the same way. And isn’t it odd how several disconnected things often come to a head at the same time, and somehow connect with one another?

Reading has a well-attended Geek night which is organised by Jim Anning. Each month 3 people will give a talk on what geeky thing they are doing, and give the audience a chance to share in the fun. People have talked about the cinema, mobile phones, wool (any guesses who?!), audioguides, etc.

Last night was brilliant – Oleg is a wonderful enthusiastic guy who was talking about hackerspaces - places where artists, teccies, bike geeks, whatever – get together for the purpose of learning new stuff through doing. The fact that this happens excites me enormously – not least because it hints at a future route for Felix (artist) and me (IT geek) to do some exciting stuff together and build an amazing life. Another guy, Simon talked about a quirky database system that I found intriguing because it sounded similar to old-school technology of the early 90′s – when I was head over heels in love with IT. And the 3rd speaker was Alec, a security consultant and brought what should be a very dry subject to life by explaining how to have an affair without leaving indiscrete stains across your online life!

I love Geek night – it gives me great hope that there is inspiration and a growing hum of clever minds working on interesting things in my home town, and maybe a place for me to join in the fun.

Then, totally out of the blue Karl / Curly – one of my friends from my last contract has sent me an email this evening with a prototype Walk2012 app for my Android phone, plus the hint that an iPhone version might be on the cards too. How exciting is this!!! We have never talked about this being a possibility – he was writing an insurance system last thing I knew! …but how fantastic that he has done this incredible thing off his own bat. I am a) deeply thrilled and b) jealous as hell that he can just knock something like this up for fun! It is this same generosity of skill and time and sense of curiosity and play that is right at the heart of the hackspace world.

Speaking of generosity – today we tiptoed over the 10% mark in our Crowdfunder attempt to raise £3,000 to help make Walk2012 sparkle! Enormous heartfelt thanks to our funders!

The whole Crowdfunder experience has been a real eye-opener to me – I found out about the concept through something called The Noun Project, which used the crowdfunding model to raise money to build its website. They were very successful and I thought that it might work for Walk2012 too – especially as most people know about Walk2012 through this blog, Facebook and Twitter and so are online-savvy people.

To be honest, so far it hasn’t been the rip-roaring oversubscribed success of my dreams! I think there are some good reasons that I hadn’t considered, but I’m clinging onto the hope that its human nature to leave things until the last moment. Our appeal on Crowdfunder ends next week – so if you want to financially support Walk2012 and are the kind of person who leaves things until the deadline is upon you? – the time to act is NOW!

Thank you very much and congratulations to the WINNERS of the first batch of Walk2012 badges! A fresh stock of badge bits has arrived this week and Felix and I will be busy making the badges and sending out your goodies next week

A new addition to my kit list has also arrived – Powerstep orthotic insoles for my boots! Ok, probably not the coolest thing I’ve ever bought, but I am hoping they will work miracles and provide me with pain-free walking. Our plan to walk from the south coast to the New Forest on the next bank holiday weekend will give me the chance to road-test them properly and I shall report back with results.

I’m not sure I’ve persuaded Felix that @stourvalewalker’s tweet about Alastair Humphrey’s 24 hour Bivvy bag challenge is something we should do, but when she’s finished her latest project (KNITSONIK) I shall start badgering her. I love Alastair’s idea of the microadventure, we should all have more of them in our lives.

Cheers everybody – here’s to making friends, geeky curiosity and adventure!