I hope you are all enjoying an awesome break and looking forward to 2012, I know I am!

2012 is going to bring in a slew of awesome conferences, lectures and hackathon to attend. As I am putting together our Hackdays hackathon schedule for 2012 I realized I have not told you all about Art Science Camp and since I am helping Jen Dodd (the managing director of Subtle Technologies) organize it, it is about time to remedy that.

Art Science Camp is an unconference organized co-presented by Hart House and Subtle Technologies (disclosure: I joined Subtle Technologies’ board). Every year Subtle Technologies brings us the Subtle Festival. For 15 years the Festival has been bringing people together to promote wonder, incite creativity and spark innovation across disciplines. The Subtle symposium, performances, workshops, screenings, exhibitions and networking sessions provide a forum to explore ideas and pose questions at the intersection of art, science and technology. I am sure you will want to attend next year’s festival! But in the meantime, join us for Art Science Camp.

So what is Art Science Camp: It is an Art, Science and Technology unconference. A two day conference which will peek your curiosity and broaden your interest by intertwining art, science and technology in a series of peer presentations.

Art Science Camp starts on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 7 PM and gathers artists, scientists, students, engineers, architects, designers and geeks. The Friday evening party is the venue for collaboratively creating a program of events to take place the next day. Everyone is encouraged to bring a crazy idea, a work in progress, or a vital topic for discussion, and to organize a session around it. Anyone interested a presentation or a discussion can claim a presentation spot on the schedule.

Last year, the first Art Science Camp included presentations by:
Eric Boyd – wearable electronics designer, Toronto Hacklab leader

Dan Falk – Knight Science Journalism fellow, popular science author

Michael Nielsen - quantum computation pioneer and author.

Like last year, Art Science Camp is going to aim at bringing together people who would not normally have conversations with each other, and create a space for surprising and serendipitous connections.

The first Art Science Camp last year sold out, and this year it is about to sell out, so if you are interested in getting a ticket, don’t delay. Registration is open and we have close to 100 attendees already.

We are also looking for sponsors to make this year’s unconference unforgettable. If you can land a hand, help with sponsorships, sponsor lunch, dinner or drinks, please get in touch. An awesome sponsorship which helps defray the cost of this volunteer event starts at $250.
If you have any questions about sponsorships or how you could lend a hand, get in touch.

•  Art Science Camp (#artscicamp)
• Date: Friday February 3rd at 7 PM to – Saturday Feb 4th at 6 PM
• Location: University of Toronto, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle
• Registration: Open
• Cost: $10.00
• Available for sponsorship

[Photograph (c) Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center]

Second consecutive day of running. Small success. Trail running in fall is awesome. The goal for the next 28 days is to run every single day to complete a 30 consecutive running day plan. So what has worked so far: something that I have been very reluctant to ever do: prioritize my running and get it out of the way first thing in the morning rather than plan for a run at the end of day which never happens!

Yes. I believe I can kick my running procrastination habit!

Fighting running procrastination this week. I am never going to finish that 50 miles race if I don’t start training. Today is going to be a 20 km run day. 5 km this morning while dodging Queen street traffic. Next 15 km trail run in Limberlost – looking forward to the rain and forest. The 2.5 hour ride to get there is going to be the killer on top of a full day of work!

Under the Sun, The letters of Bruce Chatwin

So we went to San Francisco which is so unlike anything else in the US it doesn’t really bear thinking about. it’s utterly light-weight and sugary with no sense of purpose or depth. The people are overcome with an incurable frivolity whenever they set foot in it. This doesn’t mean that one couldn’t live here. In fact I think one could easily, preferably with something equally frivolous to do.

“Ah, I see,” says George, “reporting for duty. It begins already, your double life.” He smiles and drains his cocktail.

“That is what you’re proposing, you realize?” he continues. “A double life. A divided existence, schismatic even. Let me give you a bit of advice about such endeavors: they are even trickier than they look. You must be careful. One half is always threatening to swallow the other, to consume it, to wipe it out. Sometimes a double existence is more than impractical; it is fundamentally an impossible feat- a folly- and in the end you may have to give one side up.”