[blogher, california]

I'm here in San Jose at the BlogHer conference sitting poolside with a friend's laptop. The two day conference is coming to a close (it is 00:40 after all and even blogHers need to sleep!) and I'm feeling strangely guilty for not blogging about day one right away. If only I have a proper little portable laptop...next purchase after the web cam etc...

I arrived here Wednesday night and crashed as soon as I found the bed. That was such a relief after delayed flights and crazy 30-degree US customs (what the heck I'm Canadian!!!???). Sue thought I'd need a day to recover my jet lag so I was lucky and had the whole of Thursday to myself. I enjoyed an amazing breakfast buffet in the hotel cafe (my very first public meal on my own!!) with the Wall Street journal for company. I thought I'd be lonely but in fact I met a local architecht an a silicon valley lawyer. Whew. That was enough to convince me to venture outside into "downtown San Jose." I made my way to the light rail station and as I was fumbling with change and trying to get a ticket out of the machine I met a fellow blogher! Her name is Adrianna and she works and lives in New York. We decided to ditch San Jose and train over to San Francisco. The train ride over was a sign of the adventures we'd "enjoy" the rest of the day. We had a crazy guy wave to us from the upstairs seats throughout the trip. Then we had another guy who billed himself as a construction worker who has lived all his life in California and hates gay people and thinks gay marriage is the devil's work and wants a woman to propose to him and thought I was married with my engagement ring...and the craziness goes on. The train conductor came through the carriage looking for tickets and that scared off this crazy boy.

We arrived in San Francisco ready to see the sights. Instead I just saw a sea of homeless people. This is something you do not see in Toronto (most areas), you do not see in Burlington (ontario - we my folks live), and even areas of England like Hindhead and Haslemere where I live. It was a real shock. Especially when we're all crammed on a tram because we didn't want to trek up the massive hills in the heat and we're all leaning into one another and a crazy guy with massive dreads listening to loud LOUD rock on his ipod starts screaming to the "bitchs" blocking his (imaginary as far as we could see) bike! Bizarre. We managed to enjoy the rest of the day taking in sights and avoiding other crazies.

Day One of Blogher was devoted to all things techy. This was the day I was most looking forward to. After both days, I feel most disappointed by this day. Before the conference I rated myself as pretty mediocre vis-a-vis techy know-how and was ready for some advanced blog primping and tips....nothing. We were taught how to upload flickr photos and add calenders to blogs. Useful for some but because I thought it would be more advanced I was slightly disappointed. Also, I expected more use of the word women and gender and in day one I didn't hear it once. Of course there were lots of positives and seeing all these women here all interested in blogging and creating and maintaining a strong online community. This is where day two was extra wonderful. We actually talked about women blogging and how it has changed some women's lives and their economies etc. Very thought-provoking and this is what I'm still thinking about. The closing keynote was amazing and as it's getting late I'll finish up with a quote from Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post: "Women's greatest fear is failure. I failed lots and lots and nothing happens." I think, if anything, this is an important lesson for women, perhaps most so for women involved with technology. It's ok to make mistakes, they're learning experiences and it's not the end of the world. More on this later...