while waiting for babes

I’m pregnant, yes I am. Our baby, who we call ‘babes’ while in my tummy, is due around the 23d of November :-).

Even though being pregnant means being very tired, I have done quite some geeky things meanwhile. Like visiting London with the Girl Geeks (I only had the suspicion back then that I could be pregnant), like going for an @twunch lunch, like attending the interesting conference ‘Social media in Belgium: building brands via social media and blogs’. Like announcing on Twitter that I’m pregnant. I loved the reactions. Some wished me luck with ‘our tweep’ (Twitter person), so babes already has a nickname: tweep.

While in my tummy, babes has already visited a lot of places and met a lot of people. That’s why I started a set of photos on Flickr, named ‘while waiting for babes’. Too bad I haven’t taken more pictures, but there are still 5 months left 🙂 .

The pics (with comments in Dutch) can be found via this link or you can have a quick look at the slideshow here:

Vodpod videos no longer available. 

How to turn your girl/boyfriend into a geek? Please fill out the polls

It went like this: I wrote an article about the book ‘A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek’. Which made Steffest say:

“If you ever find a book like “How to get your girl to be more of a Geek”
DO let me know!
I’ve been trying for over a decade to do just that and have made no progress whatsoever …
Not giving up though !!”

So there we are: Barcamp Ghent coming up next weekend and Steffest did not forget. Can’t escape so I’ll have to give a presentation concerning the topic. That’s why I have already questioned some people. Not about how to date a geek, but about how to make a geek. I believe that Facebook (as opposed to eg Twitter or Flickr), is the easiest platform to start with and therefore a possible first step to geekiness. Therefore I would like you to answer the followig poll:

When you are a geek who turned his or her partner into a geek as well, please let me know how that went. What did your partner fall for? How did you start? How long did it take to use which tools? Is Twitter a bridge too far? Do you have to be born a geek and will some partners never turn geeky? One mailaddress: dorienaertsATgmail.com or the comments above this article. Thanks!

A few (free) November events

Apart from the Belgian TechCrunch meet-up that was sold out in no time, there is a lot going on the next weeks for bloggers and geeks.

-9/11: Blogboat 1.0 in Ghent. With citizen journalism expert Dan Gillmor. Registration via this wiki.

-12/11: BrusselsGirlGeekDinner in Hasselt. Subscriptions via this wiki.
Topic: Music and technology featuring Audiocubes demo by Percussa.com’s Bert Schiettecatte.

-17/11: Mobile Monday in Brussels. Subscriptions via this website.

Program:

18.30 Welcome – Wim De Waele (IBBT) http://www.ibbt.be/team#wim

18.40 Mobile Advertising what can we expect in Belgium- Fabian Tilmant (Cleverwood) http://www.cleverwood.be/blog/

19.00 Start-up case – Jean-Paul de Ville (Pumbby) http://about.pumbby.com/

19.20 Debrief of MobileMonday Stockholm session – Tanguy De Lestré

19.30 Drinks and networking

And the really nice part? The three events are for free! They cost nada, nothing, rien du tout!

How to date a geek?

Via Thinkgeek.com I found the opposite of what I was looking for. “A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek”.

“Because they are special

Geeks are human, yes, but sometimes they seem like a different species. They have social interactions that don’t resemble anything else found in nature; they have language aspects and conventions that go against rational thought; […]. And we need people to understand us so they can date us. This book helps.

It asks the reader “Are you dating a geek?” If so, find out just how geeky he is in “The Geek Test.” Learn how to cope with his geekiness in sections such as: “Getting What You Want” and “How to Exercise Your Geek.” Also, discover how to plot revenge, diagnose common geek ailments, and find the perfect gift for your geek. Take a deeper look into the world of geeks with “My Life Among the überGeeks” and “My Life Among the Gamers.” Read case studies, examine graphs, peruse the Geek Dictionary, and more in A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek.”

What I was looking for? A Boy’s Guide to Dating a Geek. More and more girls are geeks and have boyfriends who just don’t have a clue. Like mine – a bit. He has never heard of Twitter, Technorati or Google Android. So a geek dictionary could be nice for him, and a perfect gift guide as well. Anyone else interested in an opposite version of this book (we could start one?) ?

First twunch in Hasselt

Yesterday we had our first twunch in Hasselt. Twunch, I beg your pardon?

Twunch is a fusion of ‘twitter‘ and ‘lunch’. Which means, in non-geeky words, that I went to lunch with my Hasselt Twitter friends. In Antwerp and Ghent, there have been quite a few twunches already. So high time for a Hasselt edition 😉 . It’s nice and easy: somebody ‘launches’ at Twitter that he’s feeling like lunch, and who wants to join, joins.

For this first edition in Hasselt, we were with 5 ‘Twitterers’. We talked about stuff like iPhones, a next mobile webcamp, other Twitter initiatives (soon I’ll tell you more about a fantastic Twitter project I got to know!!!), but we also discussed holidays, work, the high oil prices,…Conclusion: I like the initiative, and I liked the conversations. 

About Girl Geek Dinners, Barcamps and Spacecowboys

Hmmm, much too long ago since I’ve written an entry. Which is my fault. Completely. And which makes me realise there’s quite a lot I haven’t been talking about on this blog.

So, back to the past.

1. Yesterday. Girl Geek Dinner number 5 already. I’m a geek not a freak. Out of the 5 Brussels Girl Geek Dinners, I have attended 4 till now. Luckily I missed out one, otherwise I couldn’t defend myself anymore when people call me a freak 😉 . Anyway, it was great to see some ‘usuals’ back like Clo and Smetty ànd to meet new people like Pimpajoentje. Moreover, we got ‘speculoospasta‘ in the goodie bag. I’m staring at it right now with hungry eyes 😉 but I am patiently waiting for the right moment to try it out.

2. The 6th and 7th of May. A friend of mine organised quite an interesting event for people who are involved in arts and culture. During this so called ‘hybrid spaces’ event, the participants were challenged to think, talk and work around four thematic issues:

• local/global,
• private/public,
• narrative/creative
• visible/invisible.

Those ‘borders’ can be looked at in many ways since the coming of ‘new media’. More information on the Spacecowboys website.

3. Way back in time, at the 29th of March. Barcamp Ghent and Girl Geek Dinner number 4. Apart from meeting lots of interesting people in Ghent, I was very proud that I had been able to pursuade some colleagues at City Live to join me there. And very relieved that they enjoyed the event and came back with new contacts and great ideas as well 🙂 . Furthermore, I discovered the wii. Which wasn’t only very funny, but which brought me into contact with two great people: Ywein and Filip. Ywein was my opponent, Filip the one taking pictures while we made a fool of ourselves 🙂 .

After the Barcamp in Ghent, the fourth Girl Geek Dinner took place at the offices of Netlash. Not only again a nice place to meet interesting people (at or in between the cocktails and French fries I met Britt and also Bart), but also the place at which I won…YES, I won…a microsoft webcam. Thank you!

Me? A geek?

Never really thought of myself like that, but being @ the Barcamp in Ghent, live twittering and blogging on this blog and the CityLive blog, I guess skolgen is right when he’s naming the picture below (with me on the right)…

 “geeks doing their stuff”

 ouch 😉

 By the way: all the barcamp pictures via this link. Enjoy!

Blogging dentists and Belgian harmony at the second Girl Geek Dinner

The second Girl Geek Dinner. Unlike the first edition there were no television cameras in the neighbourhood and I must admit it made me feel more at ease. Like that I could chat with the other girls without caring too much about my hair (does it still look good) or my expressions (oh no, the camera went by and I was just yawning) 😉

So now the serious stuff. I enjoyed myself at the second girl geek dinner. Not in the least because of the topics we discussed. Sexuality and the internet, being the only girl on the work floor and how to cope,… And as a matter of fact, there were French, Flemish and English speaking people and we all connected. Maybe the political divide in Belgium brings people even more together (?) Well, let’s hope.

Two ladies I especially remember are Ann and Marina. Ann is a very dedicated dentist and mother and she blogs about things in her life. I really love it that not only marketeers, it’ers, web designers or journalists have a blog. Marina is actually French, but has been living in Belgium for quite a while. Four years ago (!) she decided to start with corporate web writing, in other words writing content for the websites of companies. Now, lots op companies work with people like Marina, but four years ago Marina must have been one of the first with an idea like that (?)

Pictures on the Girl Geek Dinner can be found via this Flickr-link. Thanks to Emich, one of the male participants. What boys can be good for 😉

Why a cold won’t stop me from meeting geeky chix

Tonight I am going to the second Girl Geek Dinner in Brussels. I’m stuck with a nasty cold, but it won’t stop me from going.

For several reasons:

1. I promised to bring a beamer. So without me, no beamer and thus no presentation. Waw, am I important 😉

2. The presentation will be about sexuality and the internet. Quite interesting, don’t you think?

 3. A lot of the attendants are ‘new’, which means they weren’t at the first Girl Geek Dinner. New girls and in other words new conversation topics and insights. Will be interesting, I think.

By the way, thanks to my company we can also add a gift to the goodies bag. Each girl will receive a cute picnic blanket from us. Too bad it’s almost winter. But since friends of mine recently put up their tent in the living room (they really did), I can imagine that a Christmas picnic at the fireside isn’t that far fetched. Anyway I hope everybody will enjoy 🙂

The first Brussels Girl Geek Dinner

           The whole article:  geek-girls.pdf

So I went to the first Brussels Girl Geek Dinner on the 17th of October. Curious about who was there, and who wasn’t? Consult the Flickr-pictures then.

To be honest, I was very excited about the event. And I didn’t want to get over-excited 😉 because then things never turn out the way you want them to turn out.

But as a matter of fact, I had a great time. I finally saw or met some people with whom I had already corresponded, but who I never saw in real life. One of them is Ine Dehandschutter, an independent photographer ánd blogger. She managed a project in Israel a few years ago to bring Palestinian and Jewish school children together via the internet. Like that, there was more understanding and the children could see that they didn’t differ that much from each other. That’s how we started corresponding some time ago. 

We also had a speaker: graphic designer Veerle Pieters, CEO of Duoh!. Her blog has 17.000 readers each day. 17.000!!!She provides tips and tricks about design matters on it. She also talked about a new project of hers, called Geeky Chix.

I can go on like that. But I’ll finish this entry by mentioning that there was above all a very good atmoshpere and that it was really interesting and fun to speak with the geeky girls. Since the attendees list was full in no time, there is a second edition coming up. And since it’s not all about ‘new media’, the newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen was there as well and made us shiny and hot, see article above : -)

By the way: my good deed of the evening was to bring blogger Maarten in. Boys could only get in accompanied by a girl. He had a great time, he told me. So I was happy too 😉