I got an email today from the Obama campaign, letting me know that I'm at most, $1100 from the personal contribution limit for the primary.

"In only four days, we enter the general election and can no longer accept donations for the primary. Our records indicate that you are at the most $1,114.87 away from the individual contribution limit for the primary. Before I accept the nomination on Thursday, will you go all in?"

Emphasis theirs.

So no, I won't be going 'all in'. I'm sure I'll donate again during the general campaign, I still want Obama to win the white house after all, but I'll admit, I'm a bit bummed by the campaign right now.

2x, the campaign has put out a call, "donate any amount and you might be able to have dinner with the Senator, or be at the speach at Invesco"

2x I've donated, not expecting to win, but surely hoping.

2x the campaign has picked the most token constituents I can imagine. I'm sure those folks are great, but not a one of them seems 'average'. single moms, vets (the war kind, not dog dr kind), entrentprenuers helping the poor, etc, etc.

I realy more than anything else, hope that Senator Obama had no hand in picking the winners. I hope it was the wonks in his campaign (though I think his campaign should be wonk free, but that's probably too much to hope for, based on what I've seen), picking the people most likely to "resonate" or some other PR bull isht reason.

So no, sorry Senator Obama, no more money from me for a while. If the campaign turns too "washington" maybe no more at all, I'm watching.

So I'll admit, I'm only about 1/2 through the book, but one would think by that point the greatness of the book would be shining through.

I'm not seeing it. I'm reading my waste of paper Wired issue and there's an article in it about Neal Stephenson being a "Sci Fi Superstar" which one, shows me how much of a schill wired magazine is, but I just don't get it.

I'm a big reader of Sci Fi, and so far Snow Crash ain't gonna have a spot on my book shelf.

I'm not giving up on it, but some one please tell me it get's better.

This week should be interesting. I didn't head into downtown today, we were busy doing stuff around the house, but we did head down to 16th st last night.

It was crazy packed.... with cops. every block had some. In full tactical gear no less. We went down for a walk, and to find a blue mailbox, since Nicole had a book that she had to mail to someone.

We walked down to 16th, no mailboxes, walked up and down it, no mailboxes. Lots of cops however. We grabbed a Starbucks, and were in front of 3 Aurora PD officers stocking up on caffeine. Then all along the street, cops everywhere, they even moved the busses on 16th so they could zip by, lights and sirens going full tilt.

Then we saw them a block later, backing into an alley, no clue what was up. I certainly felt secure if not under a bit too much watch.

Back to the mailboxes, finding none around 16th or on the way to 16th, we headed for the post office. None. Turns out they're all gone, at least the ones we knew about. At the Post Office, the bolts were clearly cut. Incredible!

We'll try again tomorrow to find one, maybe the one on the way to the old gym is still there, it's pretty far from downtown.

So I finished reading Watchmen this afternoon. All I can say is, "I don't get it" People rave and go bananas over it, and the movie being made, well I'm pretty sure some Watchmen fans wet themselves.

I don't get it. The story, not that great. The characters, kinda weak. Now I'm not even comparing to like Batman, the X-Men, etc. Just in general, they weren't overly interesting. Dr. Manhatten, who turns blue and decides he's not human and above all things human? Because he's blue?

I'm not as big a comic reader as I used to be, but man, I'm definitely hoping that the movie (which does look promising) is WAY better than the comic.

Anyone in the market for a read once copy of Watchmen?

A full wrap up will be on the 360|Flex site, so I'll spare my non techy readers :)

But suffice to say, w00t!

1. we sold out, and then some 442 registrations.

2. only 20 unclaimed badges. We see typically 10% no show rate, so that's great!

3. Sponsors loved it!

4. attendees (as usual) loved it!! Tom and I had a great time! We still had our usual rough spots, but but each event sees us smoothing a few out, so that's good.

We're aiming our next "revamping" at sponsors; how we attract them, what they get, how we treat them, etc. We want it to be a better experience for them, seeing them get more out of supporting us.

5. Oh yeah Money. We made some! We cleared 70k. Give or take. The best part (getting paid is great don't get me wrong!) was that we could give back! We hosted another Charity Flex Code Jam, and while they worked like fiends to wrte and app for Second Harvest Food Bank, we were able to give 1,000 for the organizer to purchase prizes for the coders, and 7,000 to second harvest directly in the form of cash money! We're told that will purchase 14,000 meals, so that's awesome! We hope they enjoy their new food locator app, and all the best doing the good work they do!

6. New job... more later.

7. Now that 360|Flex is behind me, I'll be focusing 100% on Ignite Denver!

Time to fly home!

I got an Email today, telling me that I as not one of the 75,000 people chosen to witness Senator Obama's acceptance speech live. It kinda pisses me off, since the reasons weren't explained, nor was there any explanation given.

Unfortunately, there are only a certain number of seats in the stadium,and we cannot fulfill every Coloradan's request to attend the event.

Due to the high demand for Community Credentials, you have been placed on a wait list.

We may be distributing more Community Credentials in the comingdays, but we cannot guarantee that you will receive a credential. Wewill update you as we approach the beginning of the convention.

Barack's acceptance of the nomination will be a truly historicmoment, and there is another way you can make sure that you enjoy it.

Yeah isn't that number 75,000? It is according to Wikipedia. I've no doubt thousands and thousands want to take part. What makes me upset really is this:

1. How many Coloradans will be let in? I suspect a small token number of "community credentials" were alotted and while I know this isn't a "Colorado thing" we're the host state, I think it makes sense we get a little something.

2. What's the break down of credentials? How many big donors? How many big politicos, etc. I know they have as much right as anyone, but seeing as how Obama is billed as "Changing the current political 'thing'", i suspect the lions share of those watching the speech will be part of the "old system", which kinda sucks.

I suppose part of me knew it was slim, but the other part kept saying, "This is the campaign about not being just like every other campaign" so I expected the doors to be flung wide and all peoples welcomed to witness history in the making. Turns out that first part was right, bummer.

I've been busy as all get out, good and bad.

Ignite Denver is coming along slowly. That'll change after next week once I'm done with 360|Flex San Jose. We sold out, so that's a huge weight lifted!

I also got an iPhone. No not a shiny 3G one. I ebay'ed a 1st Gen. Works great, no contract. I'm really digging it as a mobile deivce. as a Phone I've only slightly used it.  As a mobile computing device, it's great. my Omni Focus tasks are right there, my evernote notes are right there. even over EDGE, the web is SWEET. since it was EDGE slow on my crackberry, the speed isn't an issue, but at least now it's the real web, not some WAP shit!

Tom and I are also working on 360|Flex Camp NJ, so that's there. It too will get more attention now that 360|Flex is wrapping up. Which is good. Ignite and NJ are both in September.

I've been trying to spend a bit of time each night, learning Obj-C so that I can build some iPhone apps. I really want to build a schedule viewer, and session survey app that people with iPhones can use at our conferences. We have an AIR app, but shit, if you got an iPhone might as well use it!

I'm hoping to get back to more regular blogging as some of the many threads in my brain start to thin out and calm the F down.

I saw this on CNN the other day, and was like, "really? CNN? You thought this was news? You thought America didn't know this was coming?"

While the deficit would be a record in absolute dollar terms, Nussle said it would be below the 2004 deficit, 3.6 percent of GDP, and the record deficit of 1983, 6 percent of GDP, when compared with the size of the overall U.S. economy.

Oh well that's ok. I mean it's bad, but not THE WORST. That's a good marker of success. I did my job poory, but not as poorly as it could have been done. Wowsa, I can't wait until November.

"We do think the plan was the right one, and it will have an effect," she said. "And the best way to help reduce the deficit is to make sure you are keeping a lock on spending, but also that you can also try to help to build the economy. So we hope this will help us pull out of the economic downturn over the next few months because of the stimulus package.

The right one? You mean giving everyone a check that the smart one's put in savings or paid down their debt, and the dumb ones used for Lasik or to buy a new Explorer. Great plan team!

I can't wait for November.

This morning, Nicole and I ended Terrance's fight with just about everything, his health had taken a drastic turn about a month ago. Nicole documented his struggles, so I won't recount them. Suffice to say, the small respite we all got the last two weeks, was apparently just a minor break. Two days ago Terrance lost his appetite again, and lost just about all strength in his hind legs. Unable to get up from laying down, or traverse the stairs it just got too unbearable for us.

We had talked about this day a few times, thinking it was coming, and each time being given a few more weeks, but despite having (I thought at the time) come to terms with the idea of him not being with us much longer, this morning was the hardest thing I've had to do in my life. I've lost loved ones, grandparents, etc. I mourn them all, but sitting with my friend in the vets office this morning, was the worst thing I've ever experienced.

Even knowing it was pain free, it could barely keep it together. Hell typing this I'm barely keeping it together. I think deep down, he knew it was time, about a month ago, when this all started, and this most recent flare up of problems, was his last straw.

I knew as a pet owner, that this day would come, sooner than I liked, and Terrance had 10 years to bring joy to my world, he and his brother have been my best friends since I met them.

Sitting here it's hard to believe he won't be sitting by the window watching the outside world tonight while we watch TV, or hopping up down the stairs like a bunny when we get come home.

I'm gonna miss you bubba, I really am, I already do. My life was all the better for your being in it.

Terrance is survived by his brother Philip, who misses his brother very much.

so I've been waffling back and forth on getting an iPhone. I've said it plenty, it's got a lot of pluses, and a lot of minuses.

I tried to check a few ATT stores, that was fruitless, then read that pretty much whatever stock was coming in was going to Apple store's not overly surprising.

So I started looking at that option. I found a cool site that uses Apple's JSON feed for iPhone Availability, which was helpful.

I still wasn't sure whether I wanted an iPhone or not, whether it was worth the money, etc. then I was driving today, towards an Apple store that according to the site, earlier in the day, had stock.

I was using my blackberry, trying to reach www.apple.com/flatironcrossing, simple enough. I wanted the number of the store to confirm stock prior to driving 30 minutes.

After about 5 minutes the blackberry browser threw a Java Exception about the page being too much for the browser to handle. Great. Plus one for the iPhone, the browser, is a real browser, not a poo pile like what the Crackberry offers. How whack.

We get to the apple store, a few minutes before the mall closes, walk in ask if they've got any iPhones, only to find out, 16gb White is all that's left. Ok never mind, thanks, see ya later.

I get home check the site, and...

As you can see from the feed at the time I got home.... the only modelin stock was, "16gb Black" LOL. go go figure.

Oh well I'll try again another day.