The inaugural GameCamp Boulder took place last night (and the day before). It was a two-day "unconference" devoted to all topics related to gaming (whether digital or board games), organized by myself, Chris Vieville and Jeremy Tanner.

We followed an unconference format, which eschews planned speakers and sessions in favor of a make-it-up-on-the-spot approach that lets attendees determine the subject matter. It turned out extremely well. Here's a peep at the schedule, as rendered on the ubiquitous whiteboard:

Topics included the ascent of independent game developers (bolstered by the iPhone), gamification/game theory in marketing, game design and game genealogy. We also looped in live demos of local tech from Jason Sosa's Immersive Labs and a test drive from the crew over at Orbotix.

Quite a few peeps commented on the energy in the room. I like to think that the mental titans in the room should be credited for generating such an electric environment, but it may have had more to do with the vast quantity of energy drinks available from our sponsors:

The gaming community in Boulder/Denver isn't as "together" as it should be, so I hope this was a baby step toward making it more cozy.

HUGE thanks to GameCamp Boulder's sponsors: Oogave, Brain Toniq, Monster, Popchips, Pavlov Games, Able Planet and Boulder Canyon Natural Foods. Our crowd was absurdly appreciative and delighted with the caliber of snacks and drinks we were able to offer them. THANK YOU.

(Technical difficulties - this finally posted. Sorry for the delay!)

Ef Rodriguez and Jeremy Tanner celebrate marriage, show off new sneakz and doggedly answer the question: If you were in prison and had to have 3 same-sex cellmates, who would they be?

SPOTTED: At the grocery store across from work. Old Yeller Dog Food!

I didn't know that Old Yeller (a pretty classic movie that I remember weeping about as a kid) is now a brand of dog food. Interesting branding move by Disney that, frankly, I kinda like.

I want Beauty and the Beast hair conditioner.

Where The Fun's At (aka WTF@) is a video podcast started by Andrew Hyde and Jeremy Tanner. While Hyde is out wrestling exotic bears, I'm filling in. The podcast focuses on stuff we like, stuff we fear, Boulder and the lives of its hosts.

This episode deals with energy drinks, sneakers, getting married, Las Vegas, airlines, BlogWorld and the notably dressier Ignite Boulder 13. Enjoy!

I want to learn video editing, so I started with iMovie last night. Here's what I put together after an hour of clicking around.

Kerkstraat
Southern Amsterdam
5:34 p.m.

We spent most of the day running from the cops, pausing only to swap out SJB's gauze. "I don't want to get an infection," she said. "You need to learn how to dodge bullets," I replied. We saw this boat while vaulting over the hood of a car.  

I moved to Boulder 10 years ago. In September 2000, I put some CDs (gross, I know), shirts, pants and some Lucky Strikes* (gross, I know) in a single backpack and hopped a Greyhound from Dallas to Denver (gross, I know) before hitting Boulder an hour later. And I never left.

Here are the highlights and lowlights from a decade of life in the Boulder Bubble:

Highlights

• Seeing Wesley Willis live at Tulagi before he passed away and the venue itself shut down.
• Earning a degree in journalism from CU Boulder without punching a poli-sci major in the throat.
• Singing and playing guitar before sold-out crowds at the Boulder Theater and Chautauqua Auditorium.

Lowlights

• Getting stranded in Gunbarrel during the blizzard of 2006.
• Watching some of my favorite spots disappear (Masa Grill, Tom's Tavern, Penny Lane).
• Working as a waiter for a day at the Ramada Inn, getting yelled at by a customer re: his toast and quitting on the spot.

I love this town because it carved a small hollow in its heart for me when I needed it more than anything. Saccharine!

 *I quit smoking the first year I was here.

Twitter announced its website revamp yesterday. In its wake, all the social media experts are blahblahblahing about what it means for the internets, how their expertise foresaw it and why you should download their white papers. 

Lost in the shuffle is the sole casualty of Twitter's evolution - the "More" button:

We had some good times, baby.

As someone who favors Twitter's web interface over more feature-heavy apps, I'm certainly excited about the changes. Making multimedia accessible without leaving the page is a huge step forward, don't get me wrong. But the announcement that the More button would be removed in favor of a bottomless supply of visible tweets was a rude awakening.

I'll miss using the More button, that friendly gatekeeper that rested quietly at the bottom of the page over the years, beckoning me to read another 20 tweets with its velvety voice.

"I really should head to the gym..." I would say.

"Awwww - c'mon, Ef!" replied the More button. "Give me a little click, there's bound to be some not-to-be-missed updates from your favorite strangers."

"Well, I guess a few more tweets couldn't hurt..."

I'll miss you, More button. Not for the tweets that you showed me, but for what you showed me about myself.