I should confess right up front that I am definitely, absolutely, positively 100% in the ‘Out’ camp. (Yes, I am a Scrooge.) My kids get plenty during the course of the year. We don’t really celebrate Christmas, and Chanukah is also really de-gift-emphasized. And, finally - I am lazy. After years of scrounging for just the right gift, scrambling to create festive occasions, well — I decided to opt out a few years ago, and haven’t ever regretted the decision.

I’m not totally anti-consumer, though. While I’ve cocked an eye at the Fred Meyer early-morning sock sale (I do love me some bargains) and don’t much mind crazy deals on electronics from the brand name stores, if I’m going to buy something — I’m going to buy local.

Which explains why this avowed “don’t leave the house on Black Friday” will be venturing out at some point to New Seasons to get the turkey she wants to roast (to make up for the carcass she doesn’t get when she’s a guest at someone else’s house.) I’ll be grabbing my coupons for next week’s Choose Local event while I’m at it. (Choose local starts November 29th and runs through December 7th.) And then, I’ll be dropping by MacForce.

See, they’re having a Black Friday Garage Sale. My daughter’s old G3 laptop has been acting up; it’s time to see if it can be fixed, or if I need to consider a replacement. If I have to spring for something else? I’ll check out MacForce. Or FreeGeek. Or Craigslist.

What shopping choices are you making this holiday season? Are they influenced by the sour economic climate? Do you make conscious choices about where you’re buying from? Or is this the kickoff to some well-deserved rewards for having survived the year thus far?

My friend Audrey wrote in and told me about a now-annual activity some friends of hers have put together. They describe it as follows:

Some friends and I are doing a collaborative live Thanksgiving website for the second year in a row, and we’d like our fellow Portlanders to join the fun online! http://TurkeyTracker.com

We use Ustream, Flickr and Twitter to create an interactive webcast of our turkey smoking. We have a camera (probably 2 this year) trained on the smoker, which broadcasts all day. We take pictures throughout the cooking process and post those as we take them, alongside a twitter feed that includes automatic updates from a USB thermometer rig (which got mentioned on MAKE, actually! ).

Because a big part of our goal is to connect with family and friends who are also enjoying the holiday, we have chat (via Ustream) and a Flickr pool that others can post photos to, which are then randomly cycled for display on the site.

Last year, we had 50-60 viewers, based entirely on word of mouth, this year we’re doing some more promotion, and hope to have a virtual Thanksgiving Day with hundreds of celebrants.

Links:
- Main Website: http://turkeytracker.com
- Our behind the scenes blog: http://blog.turkeytracker.com
- Invitation for the world to Join Us (also has FAQ): http://turkeytracker.com/joinus
(As you’ll see, the website is in it’s second year but the celebration has been going on for much longer.)

Anyway, feel free to join us and/or invite others. The more the merrier.

I’m in, I’m in! But I have just one question. What, no live-Twitter stream? Slackers…! I should have known they had it covered: Follow @turkeytracker on Twitter!

Friday night we holed up in the studio with guest Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read Write Web and a stellar studio audience: the Silicon Florist himself, our chat mistress MediaChick and Jason Smith (I will never call you Ryan again, I swear).

We started with this week’s tech episode getting to know ReadWriteWeb a little better, chatted about Job Wire, blogging and then ventured into the land of RSS feeds.  Take a listen.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb

With the arrival of afterhours we all kicked back a little more, grabbed another drink, discussed Unicorns, Pegasus and other mythological creatures like the Paid Blogger, Friend Feed Snobs and glitch free Podcast Streaming.

*Bonus: around 14 minutes into this episode you can check out what happens behind the scenes at Strange Love Live when the live feed dies.

Afterhours with Marshall Kirkpatrick

(for anyone wondering, Pegasus is both the plural and singular form of the word)

As always you can listen to the shows here, download them, subscribe or pick us up on iTunes so you can always be the first to know when we’ve released a new episode…

***

Join us Friday November 29st at 10 PM on ustream to kick off the holiday season with the 2nd annual Kaos Holiday song contest.  But since no one really needs to  hear what happens when Dr. Normal and I are left alone with the microphones for a couple of hours we’ll have Will Radik in the studio as our special guest.  Between his podcasting, sound design, photographs and other geekery we’re sure to run out of time before we run out of topics.

It was a long week here in the house of Strange Love Live as Cami fretted about her presentation at Ignite Portland 4 and Dr Normal Stage Mothered her within an inch of her life. When it was all said and done, when the house lights were down, every last attendee was finally home and in bed and the Bagdad was back to it’s regularly scheduled happenings we thought it would be a good idea to shoot for a little recap of the good time that was Ignite Portland 4. Josh Bancroft seemed like the go to guy for that recap since he was not only one of the organizers, but also took the stage for a talk. Take a listen:

Strange Love Live Episode 55 - Ignite Portland with Josh Bancroft

But we couldn’t stop there… I had to ask, I had to know… Why Josh, why bright orange Crocs everywhere you go? The answer to that pressing question and so much more on the most recent episode of NSFW Strange Love Afterhours!

Strange Love Live Episode 56 - Afterhours with Josh Bancroft

or to get the full visual impact of our Croc intervention check out the ustream:

Online video chat by Ustream

As always you can listen to the shows here, download them, subscribe or pick us up on iTunes so you can always be the first to know when we’ve released a new episode…

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Join us Friday November 21st at 10 PM with guest Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb. Have no doubt that I’ll ask him several remedial questions on various topics and then ask him to repeat himself as I take notes and try to learn some very important things…

According to KGW last night, Ignite Portland 4 was a ‘hipster event’ (cough, cough). Really? I had no idea I was now part of the hipster scene! But while we did have a fair amount of black on display, I’d like to think that the offerings were far more nuanced. I mean, really - a fat, forty-something corporate type talking about management using toddlers and/or Machiavelli as an example? Doesn’t quite scream hipster, does it?

toothpastefordinner.com

(Check this out for more fun graphics - thanks, @clarkus!)

Weeelllll-we all may not have totally lived up to our media billing (who can possibly compare to CamiKaos’s cleavage?), but if you were there, you know a rockin’ good time* was had by all. Even me.

As I told my young son — the unwilling star of my presentation — “hey, I didn’t suck!” His response? “Eh, whatev.” He also chose to disabuse me of my avowed ‘non-hipster’ status this morning: “You’re hipster-esque, but not in a good way.” Whatev right back at you, dude…whatEV.*

Now that I’ve had my five minutes of fame, though - it’s your turn. Ignite Portland 5 will be held on February 19th at the Bagdad; and they’ve already opened up speaker submissions almost four months in advance!

So if you want to join the “hipster brigade” — or, more accurately, push yourself to the limit while risking humiliation in front of 800 people — well, jump into the ring yourself.

I’m here to tell you that it’ll be fine. More than fine. In fact, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Right up there with giving birth to what will someday turn into a snarky, pain in the ass teenage son who’d rather die than admit that you might sorta, possibly, kinda be, um, cool.

* Note use of stilted and/or out of date slang in a vague attempt to be “cool” as proof positive of my non-hipster status.

(If you want to follow the Twitter stream from IP4 attendees, check this out. I’ll update this post later on to link to other presenter’s posts, video when it’s available, and more on IP4 throughout the day.)

Update - Post Roundup:

CamiKaos: My Bluff, Called.
Whoa - @linuxaid is already posting individual presentation videos via YouTube! Thanks, AJ!
Melissa Lion: Did We Get Married?
OnPDX: Ignite Portland 4 Hits but KGW has an Epic FAIL
Flickr photos from IP4. And the Ignite Portland Flickr Pool. Go tag yourself!
Rabbi David’s update: Life’s Busy But Good
Ignite Portland Open Thread: What Could We Have Done to Make Ignite Portland 4 Better?
Aaron Hockley’s Ignite Portland photoset on Flickr