I've hit the ground running once back in San Francisco and attended the Social Media Camp, which was a BarCamp style event last Tuesday.       The turnout for the event was decent, but from walking in on the first speaker Erica O'Grady it was apparent that this was going to be more of a concept camp and not a topic camp. By that I mean that there were a lot of buzzwords tossed around, but little technology or real dirt behind all of it like I want to see. This isn't a bad thing though. For instance, my mom could learn a lot from a camp like this. Marketing people would also do well.       The one gleaming exception was David Cohn who has become one of my new local heroes, despite his beard. I hate exaggerating, but this guy could truly change the face of media. He knows his shit and he's working to develop Spot.us which is a platform to facilitate community funding of journalism projects. In some ways, it's similar to ChipIn (also a cool project for crowdfunding) but takes it to another level. The talk he did shows that he's thought a great deal about what he's doing. Even if his system doesn't take off, one like it will. It really is the future of print media, which is dying a miserable death currently.       The rest of the event fell in to two main categories, which I will quote from the Cohn: "a. Meeting good people b. everyone selling a startup" It wasn't that it was bad by any shot, it's just that it wasn't insanely engaging with a good number of people really trying to sell things, like Yoono which is a decent idea, but nothing that I would ever install.       I'm realizing quite quickly as we move more in to Maneno that we need to pull together a PowerPoint presentation to keep at the ready on the X40. It makes a great deal more sense to be ready to present than just sit in the back and attempt to ask as smart a question as I can think of so that the presenter doesn't get bored.

The broccoli is finished. Return your trays to the upright position, the trip is over.       The Catalans have any number of genius phrases based around food, but this has to be my second favorite, meaning that whatever your talking about is finished. I'll do a whole article at some point as they have some genius food-related sayings. But that's it. This 2008 adventure through The Europe has drawn to a close.       I saw a lot of new locations and wrote a lot more than last year. I also went to Africa for the first time, which was a bit of a big deal. Then of course there was the whole wedding as well.       It was an eventful couple of months (at the end of one hell of an eventful year) and now it's good to be back home. I do have to admit that I've been back home for a few days now and the blog is a bit of a temporal liar, but I can't bring myself to rush articles or put them out of sequence. That and I left out the whole Global Voices Summit which I still need to delve in to in depth as there was a lot of meat put on my plate there.       My biggest and most pleasing shock in all of this is to find out that people really do read my blog and were surprised to find that I was in Hungary when I was because the blog said I was in the Czech Republic. The fact that this hobby project actually has some use is thrilling. It almost makes me want to start using Twitter for updates when I'm in net-less regions of the world, except that Twitter is about as reliable these days as a drunken carrier pigeon.       But anyways, it's good to be back and enjoying San Francisco during the absence of art students in my neighborhood. It's like how I used to remember the place when I moved here half a decade ago. Ah, the good old days. Now where's my broom to start shaking at people who bother me...       Oh yeah, if you're curious, check out the new direction that #1 Fan and I are taking in to the world of the non-profit. Our Watotees line is getting in some new, cool items today that folks might like to check out.

As one might be able to tell with my coverage of airports, I've flown far too much, through too many countries over the last couple of months. While nothing compared to some business travelers, I had the joy of logging in 16 flights during this period with four of them being intercontinental to three different continents.       But, I bring this up to possibly (although most likely not) soften my rancid criticism of Heathrow's new Terminal 5. This multi-billion dollar expansion of the airport is nothing short of a huge flop. Sure, it will continue to be massive transit hub for the future, but one that no one is going to enjoy the use of. Let's put aside the whole baggage disaster from back in March. These things happen. It was painful, but let's move on to bigger and better problems.       For instance, arrival. I flew in to Heathrow from Budapest on British Airways. One of the primary reasons that they built T5 was to better house BA, so in a sense, this is BA's home. For some reason, when I arrived at this brand new terminal, on time, at the right terminal, I was dumped out on the tarmac and had to use one of the movable stairs to get off the plane. How is it that at a new terminal that's not even being fully used yet, the primary airline of this terminal is parking jets out on the tarmac? This does not bode well for the future.       After getting off the plane and getting wet from a touch of the London trickle, I made my way on to the transport bus to go to the proper terminal. Luggage wasn't an issue thanfully. That came up quickly and it seems that the snafus with the luggage system have been worked out.       The main issue in luggage retrieval was that after ripping off my tracking tags I couldn't find anywhere to deposit them. I looked high and low for a trashcan, but none were to be found. A docent saw me looking around like and idiot and asked if I needed help to which I asked him where a trashcan was. "Oh, there aren't any. They didn't put any in for security purposes." What?!! No trashcans in the whole damned terminal. So, I guess everyone should learn from this and dump their garbage wherever they're sitting. It's what T5 wants you to do. Think of it as modern trash disposal in a world where no airline passenger has trash.       Then there came the issue of getting to my connecting flight. Looking at the sign, my flight wasn't coming up. I later on found out it was at Terminal 2, which I had forgotten. I don't really understand how it is that something I can look up on the internet can't be broadcast on arrival and departures boards. They are digital after all and this wouldn't take much to have all the flights at the various terminals shown. But, once knowing where to go, moving on to the other terminal proved tricky as well, since the signage in T5 is abysmal. Trying to figure out where to go is not a simple process. Naturally, I did find the way and got out of T5 quite quickly, hoping to not set foot in it anytime soon.       Overall, I got the feeling that much like Barajas in Madrid, so much more work went in to finding fancy shops and having a good look to the place than making it usable. That and there seems to be some kind of arrogance on the part of BA that there is no possible way you'd be flying in to T5 to not be flying out of T5 as well, even though the British do this all the time with budget flights. Suffice to say, the airport has a long way to go before it's a sensible place and I wonder if the Queen ever feels that she cut the ribbon a little too soon on the whole shebang.

I wrote previously about an encounter with the shelf toilet and how I was quite disturbed by the matter and the realization of how this toilet worked. There's no need to go back in to it, but if you're curious, read the link. I give the goods in there.       Needless to say, I knew that that wasn't the last I'd see of Mister Shelf, so naturally, when making a quick stop to a restroom at a cafe in Budapest, I ran in to my old friend again. I was perturbed. I was confused. I was scared. I took a photo of course. Countries should really put down a mandate to get rid of these things. They weird me out even more than the restroom in the N'Djili Airport in Kinshasa, Congo, which has to be the most sordid room I've ever made the mistake of entering.       But while the Shelf is getting to be a somewhat common encounter throughout my Eastern European journeys, one item I ran in to was even stranger still, which was the Advertising Urinal. I encountered this new bastion of marketing in the restroom in a mall near Moscow Square in Budapest. At first, it doesn't seem all that strange, but once it detects your presence, it lights up a message on top of the urinal. It's a wee bit unnerving. If an establishment must, putting advertising on the wall above the urinal is one thing. Putting said advertising with back lighting on top of the urinal is something altogether different and unholy. I have no idea how this came about and I hope that it stops where it is lest fleets of illuminated urinals spread forth across the Western World. Watch out ladies, or the backlit toilet dispenser will be next.

Prior to going to the airport for Budapest, I heard many accounts about how great the taxis or minibuses were. "Just a mere 24€!" some people said. Locals told me that taking a taxi out to the airport was the best way to get there as well. But, with taxis costing about 5,000 Forint (20€) for two people (if they felt like being honest) I thought that there must be a better way.       Yes, of course there is a better way, but naturally it involves public transportation which an amazing amount of people loathe. I don't know why as it's generally about as fast as a taxi, much cheaper, and eschews the whole issue of having to deal with taxi drivers who are, the devil.       So, here it is. This is how you get from the center of Budpaest to the airport on public transportation. If you can take the #3 line directly to Kőbánya-Kispest, then you don't need to transfer and the whole trip will cost two people, 1,000 Forint or 4€. If you do need to take two lines and transfer at a station like Deák tér, then the trip will run you 1380 Forint or about 5.50€. Once you get off the #3 Metro at Kőbánya-Kispest, then you take the #200 bus out to the airport and get off at your respective terminal.       That's it. It takes between 45-75 minutes depending on if you hit the train and bus connection right, but otherwise, it's incredibly simple. Just know which terminal your flight is at (this really only matters if it's 1 or 2A/B) and you're set. Taxi avoided. Flight reached. Money saved. It does help if you buy your tickets at the ticket window in the Metro. Just say, "airport" and they'll give you what you need to get to the airport from the station where you're buying the ticket.