Admiral Ackbar joins Twitter

Per recommendation of @EternalCow I built a bot that puts a much needed appearance of Admiral Ackbar (@AdmiralAckbar_) on Twitter. He’s warning (as he should be) to all who will listen that “It’s a trap!”

This is funny, but the most entertaining part is the fact that people are replying back.

See below for a real time update of responses to “It’s a trap!”

I’ll soon have itsatrap.org up :P

A new social experiment

If you remember back I recently had #TweetDinner.  Where people a web site decided who  my “closest friends” were all got together for dinner and hung out.  It was a good time, I consider it a success.  It doesn’t hurt that they were cool people.

So I think it’s time for a new social experiment.

Currently I follow 340 people on Twitter.  Some of them are automated entertainment sources, many of them are out of the area.  So that leaves a good chunk of them as local Omahans.

I’m going to select people, at random, and ask them to hang out.  A drink, dinner, lunch, something.  My guess is many of them will decline, since this is admittedly pretty creepy.  But maybe a few will go along with this crazy idea, and maybe even have a good time.

So some stipulations: If it’s already a close friend of mine I’ll select someone else.  If it’s someone that’s not local I’ll select someone else.  If they decline I’ll select someone else.  If it’s not someone who follows me I’ll select someone else too.  If they don’t know who I am, I doubt they’ll want to hang out.

After each outing, I’ll vaguely blog about the experience here and post a picture or something.

I’ll probably start next week, as I don’t have a system in place to select a completely random Twitter user that I follow yet.  Stay tuned.

Interactions with people and communities, while not having an important common bond.

It’s no secret how much I respect my all of my peers in Omaha. Some of the most talented, most creative, friendliest, amazing people ever.

But as I learn more about organizations and people here I do see a thread that is often a strong bond between many of them.  And that is the Christian belief community here.

There are some really great organizations, from Core Community to inCommon.  Smart people in like minded organizations who in a very modern and effective way get together as groups  to learn and assist others.

As great as all of this is, I find myself second guessing myself.  I’m an atheist.  Often times a slightly outspoken one.  As the word itself means that I have no belief, I fear that people look at me different when they find me identifying as such.  Does my lack of belief in a higher power make people look down on me?

As I meet new people and I find they have strong beliefs I always hope that they don’t think badly of me.  The thought of losing new friends, relationships, business connections, or simply acquaintances due to this one item does worry me.

The word “atheist” is often a very strong one to people.  I’ve had people think I’m a bad person, or I have no values, or heck…  even think I worship the devil.  All it means is I do nothing.

It’s like not liking tomatoes.  Some people really love tomatoes and blog about it, grow them, and share them with others.  Those who don’t like tomatoes don’t think about it and it’s not a part of their lives in any way.  Once in a while they’re offered a tomato and they just kindly decline.  I see it absolutely no different, but I fear that others may.

What do you think?  Am I over reacting thinking about it at all, or am I justified?

Ice, Ice, Baby. Too cold.

Word to your mother.

Gabe performing Ice Ice Baby in Bellevue from Gabe Kangas on Vimeo.

Seattle trip recap

I had a nice trip to Seattle last week.  It was really for work purposes, they were sending me to F5 LTM training, but I knew I’d be able to make it into a fun vacation as well.  I had no plans when going there, but that rarely stops me from having a good time.

Thanks to Twitter, and my blog, you’re able to see a step by step recap of my whole trip by accessing my Twitter archive page for the week.  It’s really pretty cool, check it out!

I did the tourist thing, went up into the Space Needle, but that’s kind of where that ended.

I hung out with @dtorgerson and had some drinks.  We chatted about some of our ideas we’re working on, and he’s doing some great stuff.  Really exciting.  He also was kind enough to give me a ride over to the Sunset Tavern as I had planned on seeing Mark Mallman that night there.  Mallman puts on a great show, so I was excited to see him again.

Spent that night at the Sunset and talked to some pretty cool people.  A girl I met, Betty, wanted me to email her the photos I took. Plus it’s always fun to try the local brews of the area :)

Then I talked to @zria and she told me about the Capitol Hill Block Party, a music festival going on.  So Friday night I went there and met up with her.  The block party was pretty sweet.  Lots of great music and I got to mingle with my type of people.  The local music crowd.  Afterward she gave me a tour of the Capitol Hill area and then brought me to Shorty’s.  A bar that has a room full of awesome pinball machines.  It was a really great time.

The next day she brought me to Pike Place Market and I saw some dudes throw fish around.  We ate over a place overlooking the market, and got some yummy coffee.  We hung out in a cool local record store in the Queen Anne hood and later got pizza there.

There was a lot of neat stuff that I saw when there.  The first Starbucks, so much good coffee, little stores and restaraunts, you get the idea.  Typical local stuff in a big city.  But I was lucky to time the trip around the block party and be able to see a lot of music when I was there.  Built to Spill and Deerhunter were performing as well as local bands I never would have heard of otherwise.  Very cool.

As I was there for work purposes,  I had class Tues-Fri, 8-5.  It was a really good class, but I did fly through it.  I came off as the “know it all” in the class and people gave me dirty looks.  Oh well.  It gave me a chance to work with a couple instructors and talk about things that I do and would like to do with their products and really get an insight into the company.  Very worthwhile, F5 does very well with their training.

I put a photo set up on Flickr of all the photos I took on the trip, so check it out if you’re at all interested.  Some neat stuff.