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You probably noticed already, what with mailings, tweetings, that thing normal people call “talking to others” and whatever other means you have of communicating that all tickets for BathCamp have now sold out. This is great news for us (an awesome 70ish people have signed up!) but not so great news if you didn’t manage to score one in time.
Although we’re absolutely not allowed to sell tickets on the door, there is a glimmer of hope: chuck your name in this form and we’ll get in touch if/when we have drop-outs. It’s on a first-come, first-serve basis but you never know.
What do you do in your day job?
I’m a freelance web developer, running my own wee company, NSTW Design (yes, terribly out of date!). I mangle PHP, JavaScript and some other front end nonsense into things that help power businesses and egos (mine included). In folk song stylee, I tell some of the perilous tales of my glamorous developer adventures over at Seventytwo, where I team up with a designer deviant named Alistair to help keep our respective minds sane. It might just be working so far.
What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?
As I don’t have a boss and I also have some very pro-active clients, I’m able to spend quite a lot of my time researching new tools and services that I can use. I consider this rather bloody good luck, as it allows me to pitch some mental ideas that are sometimes mad enough to get implemented. I’m finding that I’m spending more and more of my time coding and writing about web stuff when I’m not working, so it really kind of all blurs into one. I’m personally riding on a second wind of passion for the web and often feel compelled to exclaim, “Darn, this Internet rubbish ain’t ‘alf bad now!” (When Twitter works for example, oof…)
What are you passionate about?
I live for music and it’s rare that you’ll ever find me without some tunes at hand. Prog rock is my poison of choice, as well as some nice lo-fi art rock-esque happenings. In the past couple of years I’ve reignited my early teens passion for cycling, so I try and get out for a nice ride at least once a week to make sure my muscles don’t atrophy from so much time in front of the computer.
I’m currently planning an epic 3 month bunk-off at the start of next year to go snowboarding in Whistler, Canada. Apart from imbibing heroic quantities of the local culture, I plan to work on some super secret web apps whilst I’m there. They’re so super secret that even the government doesn’t know about them, but that’s probably a good thing.
Also, jQuery and Zend Framework are so freakin’ good it hurts.
Why are you attending BathCamp?
I predict that the collective brainpower at BathCamp will be mind blowing, so I definitely want to witness that. I haven’t been to many geek events lately and all the ones I’ve attended in the past (dConstruct, Future of Web Apps) have been a great experience and I’ve met some really cool people. I like the idea of a more DIY, “people powered” event where everyone can get involved. I also prefer sleeping bags to duvet covers, so it’s really going to be a win-win event for me.
What would you fill a bath with, and why?
Ritz Crackers. They’re just so damn moreish, and with all that salt you might be able to pull off your very own Dead Sea. Tasty AND practical! For too long Ritz Crackers have been underrated by the cracker community and I think such a foolish stunt might convince people of what they’re missing out on. Perhaps.
About Simon
Simon blogs at Seventytwo.co.uk and occasionally shares some visual delights over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/allidid
What do you do in your day job?
I work for the Institute of Physics Publishing in Bristol, my official job title is “Information Systems Developer”. I just am just reminded that I have worked here for seven years (shocked). Originally I was hired as a ColdFusion developer but have ranged across a variety of different technologies. Currently I am almost exclusively working in Java and towards the back-end of web applications, which I enjoy.
What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?
I am not sure I actually get as much as 10% thanks to my three sons. However they need me less and less these days so the situation is improving, mostly is has got to the stage where they want to overpower me physically or mentally (which will happen sometime soon). Much of my free time is taken up with learning Chinese and other language learning related activities at the moment. I have been looking around for a European language to learn and settled on German so that is likely to keep me busy also.
Some of my 10% time at work is spent secretly doing things that I think are work related but that my bosses may not. I guess many of us are in that position, there is always some new technology or approach to investigate, I never feel I have time do enough investigating.
What are you passionate about?
Recently that would have be learning. I work in an industry that requires continual learning and my hobbies usually involve some kind of learning. It seems that modern technology and the Internet are providing opportunities to learn things faster and with less overhead (effort still required though). I am still exploring new ways to learn and becoming increasing despondent about how little these changes are reflected in the way that my sons are educated. When I can I have started trying to repair some of the damage.
Why are you attending Bathcamp?
Mainly because it sounds fun and interesting, I haven’t attended this kind of event before. Of course it helps that is it is very local and that I actually know at least one person who is going. I spend a lot of time on the back-end of web applications these days and it seems some of the more creative types (dangerous to pigeonhole I know) have more fun. I guess I need to get out more. It would be a real bonus if there are any native Chinese speakers or learners there of course.
What would you fill a bath with, and why?
Dorset Naga chile peppers (the hottest you can get); completely pointless as there would be enough heat and flavour there to last many lifetimes, but it would be rather beautiful. This is typical chile-head mentality which goes something along the lines of “Wow I grew three plants of that really hot chile this year and had more more than I could possibly use, next year I will grow ten.” I am prone to chile-head mentality unfortunately.
About Chris
Chris blogs at Chris on the Web and Friedelcraft and Tweets at chris_english and chris_mandarin.
Alistair MacDonald dropped us a line with a simple idea:
“As a complete experiment I have been adding a car pooling section to the wikis of the BarCamps I am attending where I can share part of the journey. It might just not work, but you don’t know until you try I guess.“
I think this is a great idea. If you’re travelling to BathCamp (from however far, even Bristol!) then chuck your details in to the relevant section of the BathCamp wiki page. Thanks Alistair!
