Special Guest, Mayor Sam Adams

The final Friday of our 2nd anniversary celebration is here. So far this  month we’ve given away lots of free booze and cool stuff (courtesy of @AlaskaAir, @SexyNurd, and @DarkHorseComics) to record-breaking numbers of Beer and Bloggers. Even the staff @LaughingSquid stopped by to join in on the hoopla. Sweet!

Have you been enjoying yourself so far? We hope so!

And now, for our final Friday celebration, we’ve managed to work our way into the schedule of a very special guest who’s heard good things about Beer and Blog and wants to come and celebrated with us: Portland’s own Mayor Sam Adams!

We’re honored by a visit from the Mayor of the city we love so much. We believe it’s the spirit of community that Portland, Oregon is known for that has kept Beer and Blog humming along, growing steady and strong like we have the past two years. Portland is Weird, it’s awesomesauce, and a visit from Sam Adams is pretty much a Seal of Portland Approval in my eyes.

Please join your fellow Beer and Bloggers this Friday at the Green Dragon for the final round of cheers in celebration  of our 2nd year. We’ll start gathering at 4pm as usual, and expect the Mayor around 5:30pm.

A very special W00t! to long-time Beer and Blog supporter Faddah (@yuetsu on the Twitters) for coordinating the introduction to Mayor’s Office

RSVP on Upcoming or get the 411 on Calagator

This Friday at Beer and Blog, Alaska Airlines will provide free snackage for everyone and two drink tickets to the first 40 people who arrive. As usual, our event begins at 4pm at the Green Dragon, so if you have a hankering for freebie booze you should show up close to start time.

Special message, just for Brian M. Westbrook: A sincere bottom-of-our-hearts thanks for making this happen! You rock!

But the Alaska Airlines-sponsored fete isn’t all that’s going on this Friday night.

Almost as if it was fate (and who am I to say it’s not?) the Laughing Squid crew is in Portland this week, and they plan to join us at Beer and Blog for a spell.

What is Laughing Squid? It’s an online resource for art, culture & technology that also provides web hosting services. The Squiddies are having their own party — a PDX Drinkup — this Friday at 7pm at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub, just down the street from the Green Dragon.

Coincidence? Or FATE?

So, after we’ve exhausted our wonderful Beer and Blog server Lexie, we’ll trek a couple of blocks down to the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub to meet the the Laughing Squid team at their PDX Drinkup.

I hope to see you at Beer and Blog and later on at the PDX Drinkup. Come and say hello!

RSVP on Upcoming or get your deets on Calagator.

So, what did we do last year? Here’s a little run down of blog post titles we published last year:

End Bloglessness – A half day workshop to get your blog up and running
We had 3 End bloglessness events last year! Down with bloglessness!

FREE Redux: Win hosting for life at Beer and Blog
Several beer and bloggers are hooked up sweet now!

Heard AboutUs? They’re 3 (and They’re Buying Us Beer!)
We helped AboutUs celebrate three years of stellar web indexing by helping them drink the beer they bought. Awesome!

Off-site topic: Intellectual Property
I attended this event and walked away with a copy of Facebook’s patent application. Purr!

What the Shit? Twitter. Dramatic. Reading.
We had two What the Shit?s last year, Melissa Lion’s very popular dramatic Twitter oration. Frakking hilarious! We hope to do more this year!

Free Beer for Twitalyzer’s Top 100 Influencers
There was a huge, jovial turnout (and a teensy bit of controversy) for this summer patio party. Awesome!

Enter to Win a Beery Big Prize this Friday
(This is my favorite headline.)

Cyan PDX is hosting this Friday’s meet upThis one was super fun for me…it’s where I met my lit agent.

Drupal Magic Animal Farm
I enjoyed writing this post about my friend Nate “Dante” Angell. <3

The Women of Beer and Blog
This one got 10 comments! Wow!

End Joblessness – A mini job fair
About 70 people showed up for the mini job fair and several people made contacts that led to employment. Wah-hoo!

It’s a very impressive list for a two year old community based on the premise of bloggers helping bloggers over beer, don’t you agree?

To celebrate our accomplishments we’ve secured the best in entertainment for our beer and bloggers: SexyNurd!

Join us, won't you?

This Friday, January 8, Comedian SexyNurd is performing at 5pm at the Green Dragon. For US! Not only that, he’s giving away tickets to his “RockStar Trapped in a Nurd’s Body” show that starts January 22 at Curious Comedy Theater.

SexyNerd is such a rock star that the paparazzi will be there, of course, to capture him mingling with us beer and bloggers. Pose with SexyNurd in your best Sexy or Nurd and you’ll end up in the tabloids and on the SexyNurd blog. You’ve been warned!

That’s not all we have lined up in January to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary. For your beer and blog entertainment:

• 1/15 – Alaska Airlines is sponsoring food and drinks
• 1/22 – GoTime is sponsoring
• 1/29 – Mayor Sam Adams appearance

Yes, you read that right. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you! Mr. Adams will be in Beer and Blog attendance on January 29. Stay tuned for details on this historic event.

On the cusp of a new year, and on behalf of Justin and Christine (Mr. and Mrs. Beer and Blog) and the rest of the Beer and Blog crew, I wish you prosperous experiences in 2010!

See you Friday at the Green Dragon after 4pm!

It’s that “cockamamie scheme concocted by Cami Kaos of Strange Love Live and Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist” in which they vow 30 consecutive livestreamed hours of online auctions and entertainment to raise money for charities like Free Geek, Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for cockamamie schemes. All of us at Beer and Blog are! We want to help make 30 Hour Day a landslide success. That’s why I’m very happy to report that after much begging and pleading, Rick and Cami have agreed to let us help!

This Friday, when you come to Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon with an unwrapped toy or non-perishable food donation, you’re in for a 30 Hour Day treat: a live video feed, anchored by Mr. Brian M. Westbrook, that connects us to those cockamamie schemers Cami and Rick!

Now…here’s the part that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside: the first item on the block is the apron I handmade and wore for the 2010 Get Naked for a Cause calendar. (I’m July, of course!)

With the apron comes a mediaChick-autographed copy of the calendar. (That’s me!) Many of the models in the calendar will be there to scribble in Sharpie, including our Ms. Cami Kaos and her man Doc Normal. (They’re October, of course!)

Mr. Westbrook and I will be on-air together at the Green Dragon for the apron/calendar auction at 5:30pm. Bid high, folks. It’s for charity!

Cami and Rick ring the opening bell for their live online charity auction this Friday December 18th at 4pm on 30hourday.org, and they’ll be accepting bids even before livestreaming begins. You can find more info on the online auction via 30hourday.org.

BONUS FUN! After Beer and Blog there will be a 30 Hour Day karaoke party with @MizD and @ChefChopper. We’re still encouraging people to bring down toys and food.

And PLEASE don’t forget to bring a new, unwrapped toy and/or non perishable food to Beer and Blog. It’s important!

I’ll see you on Friday!

P.S. You know you want that apron…

What’s in store for the month of December

12/4 – Gift Giveaway

The perennially awesome Verso has acquired several Pokens to giveaway this Friday. What’s a Poken, you say? Only the coolest contact gadget on the planet! People use them at conferences and meet ups to trade contact information by giving each other a high-four with their Pokens. Once you get home, you pull the cute lil hand off and reveal the USB port that you can now use to download the contacts you met. Really cool. I have one and Verso has one, so now we need y’all to have em so we have other people to high-four. The Tokyo Chapter is really into them, naturally.

We’re working on a couple of other gifts to give away, but you’ll just have to wait to hear details about them.

RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator »

12/11 – Festive Drink Bar

We’ll share more details about this one when we get final confirmation, but the idea is that we’re going to have a drink sponsor that will not only provide drinks, but also fun mixers and treats to make our own festive drinks. Each free drink is like a little present for your mouth. Ok, that sounded kinda dirty, but you get the idea

12/18 – 30 Hour Day

As they put it on their site:

“30 hour day is a cockamamie scheme concocted by Cami Kaos of Strange Love Live and Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist. The concept? Livestream for 30 hours straight in an effort to raise money for charities like Free Geek, Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots.

Join us December 18 and 19 for 30 hours of entertainment, interviews, and interesting goings on—while helping some very worthwhile causes. All from the cozy warmth of your own Web browser.”

We’re helping them kick off the event by holding Beer and Blog on location for 30 Hour Day at PIE. Probably will get a beer sponsor for that one. Hell yeah!

12/25 – Christmas

There will be no official BnB this day, and I suspect not even a Blog and Beer. So we’ll just have to make the jokes about seeing each other next year at the 30 Hour Day event.

Taptu

One Friday last April, Jason Harris came to Beer and Blog to demo Taptu’s “super-fast entertainment search engine for your mobile” to a nice crowd of app geeks wanting to see it in action. This Friday Jason is back to conduct a focus group at the Green Dragon (check to see if you qualify to participate) and to buy us beer.

Yes! FREE BEER!

This time around Jason is also bringing some stickers, a few little cuddly teddy bears, and a Taptu cohort Chris Moisan, VP pf Market and Product Development, who is visiting from London. Jason wrote a nice post about Taptu sponsoring Beer and Blog Portland on the corporate blog. If you come and partake in the complimentary beer, be sure to thank Jason and Chris for their generosity!

I hope to see you from 4-6pm this Friday at the Green Dragon, and remember to come closer to 4pm to take advantage of the free beer.

Sunday, October 4th from 12:00-5:00pm

Format

Each session will be 1 hour: 15 minute presentation and 45 minutes of assisted help. During assisted help, attendees can raise their hands to get help from one of our assistants. Assistants are folks from the Portland tech scene that have done this process before who can help you with your questions.

Agenda

• Session 1 – Sign up for your blog 12:00-1:00pm;
• Session 2 – Dial in the settings for your blog 1:00-2:00pm;
• Session 3 – Intro to posting on your blog 2:00-3:00pm;
• Session 4 – How to promote your blog 3:00-4:00pm;
• 4:00-5:00pm will be an open help time to ask help with anything you’d like.

What to expect

We are focusing on WordPress blogs for this workshop. We chose WordPress so that if your blog is going well enough and you need to graduate to a hosted blog, you’re data and experience will be compatible.
By the time you leave the workshop, you’ll have a blog that is ready to go and some direction on how to connect with other local bloggers. We are expecting people from all skill levels, including the technically challenged. Everyone will be treated with respect and will be encouraged.
We’ll be hosting the event at Webtrends. There are some computers available to use, but we highly recommend bringing your laptop if you have one as there likely won’t be enough computers for everyone.

Help us get the word out!

Most of the people we’re hoping to reach are either to far outside of our social circles or are offline completely. We could use your help in letting people know about this free workshop to get a blog up and running. We don’t care if your motivation to blog is personal, professional, or political; we’ll help you get one up and running.

• Tweet the link to this page http://bit.ly/ufsYL
• Email this page to a friend
• RSVP on Upcoming and Calagator
• Tell someone in real life using your voice. Crazy, huh?

Why is this free?

We’re hoping to make new friends and be good citizens. We don’t want to be an insular group, so we want to enable others to join. And, because we’re Portlanders inspired by other Portlanders to DIY and that Yes We Can.

Help out

If you have experience with installing WordPress, we’d love to have you help answer people’s questions. Please leave us a comment below if you’re interested in helping!

HOLY CRAP! EDIT: OK, I realize this is just a rumor (but quite honestly, if Silicon Florist aka @turoczy sees it fit to publish said rumor then I have to give it some clout) it appears that WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg will grace the Beer and Blog crowd with his open source-lovin’ presence. Oh! My! God! Now where the hellz is my autograph book?!?

Tickets have been sold out for weeks (great job Aaron, Betsy and Dale!!) but if you were lucky enough to get your name on the attendees list I congratulate you on your good fortune! Last year I didn’t get around to buying my WordCamp ticket before it was too late, and it was torturous seeing my twitter stream inundated with remarks of camp joviality, WordPress “Ah-ha!” moments, and links to flickr images of the smiling faces of my fellow bloggers. (OK, fine. I’ll admit it. I simmered in silent resentment at some of the more active tweeters at last year’s WordCamp Portland. But all is forgiven now. Mostly.)

Whether or not you’ve got yourself a ticket, please join Beer and Blog in extending a warm welcome to several WordPress speakers (and many attendees) for beers and conversation the day before the camp starting bell rings. We’ll be at the Green Dragon. I’ll be there, too, trying not to rub salt in the wounds of the ticketless. I feel your pain…and I’ll be thinking about the pain Ill be inflicting while I drown my twitter stream in bragging, gleefull tweets with the excessive use of the #wcpdx tag.

You’re welcome.

RSVP on Upcoming or get thee deets on Caligator…

This Friday we’re thrilled to give away MORE stuff, and this time the odds of winning are much better! Courtesy of Network Redux, the first 50 Beer and Bloggers that want it will get 1 free shared Internet hosting account FOR LIFE. That’s right, for a lifetime. AND the first 100 attendees get beer koozie, modeled here by Network Redux’s Director of Communication Laura Gonzales.

Get koozie with Laura and Network Redux

Handy and stylish, yes? And that’s not all! To sweeten this amazing FREE giveaway deal, Network Redux is also paying the tab — up to 300 buckeroos — for our beer. That’s right. FREE BEER. We know how much you like free beer. It just tastes better, doesn’t it?

Starting at 4pm at the Green Dragon (on the patio, of course) a sign-up sheet will be available for the free hosting program. After that’s done you can celebrate your lifetime of hosting by ordering a complementary beer and picking out your stylish beer koozie. Will you choose the black one…or the black one? You decide. FREELY! Ha!

If you want more info, head over to the Network Redux blog where Laura explains a bit more. And remember: as awesome as free is, eventually what’s free is all gone. Don’t take your sweet time getting to this Friday’s Beer and Blog or you’ll miss out on the goodies!

Hope to see you there!

And don’t forget to RSVP on upcoming or get yer details on Calagator

Win this bad boy at Beer and Blog

The plan is to collect names in a pitcher and then pull a name from it. We’ll choose a name at 6pm and that person will be given the 4G card on the spot with contact details to get the 6 month plan activated. One thing to note, is that we hear this card is not compatible with Macs. Don’t whine, it was a free giveaway and we want to encourage more companies to send us goodies that we can pass on to y’all.

RSVP on Upcoming or get your deets on Calagator