11:31am saturday.

guy next to me on his table with his two kids 'be grateful for what you have' - then he loses the plot and says i'm 'sick of this bullshit' - he reacting to the reactions of his kids - rising to it, pushing his buttons - not really communicating with his kids, just facilitating them.

buying them stuff, keeping em quiet. i guess as parents we all have days like that - that was until his daughter just shouts 'fucking lune-a-tic' and that's when i stop, mortified as what his child just said. shocked and stunned and a reminder of the constant message a parent has to do to maintain intelligence, focus and a level of constancy to their lives.

been in preprep mode the last 48 hrs, getting the ark.me.dm site ready for when i get over to austin tomorrow evening. i've got an early start however so it's going to be a long day - the actual conference is three days but i've got an adjustment day either side of the conference to get myself together.

the flight is non-stop so that helps a lot because i'm in really in the headspace for airports and rushing around between them - hope i can get some rest on the plane. i've got a stack of ideas in my wunderlist i need to pad out and i can add more drafts to the wordpress blogs i'd like to have up and running in october.

i'm glad i managed to get ella last night and today i dislike being away from her for any length of time when i'm stateside - i sometimes wish i could take her with me but 'ontheground' events are really not the perfect place for a four year old.

we are off to conkers in the next hour or so - look at the spot the ark is going to go and have a nice walk around the site and dropping her back early evening to mummy. i've then got to get some clothes packed and pick up my kit from the lacemarket.

i best book a taxi.

it's an early start tomorrow morning - check out http://ark.me.dm and the little boxes at the top of the website to find the team to watch and locations we will be posting our content at.

if your going to #sxsweco please watch for us in the twitter stream (we would love to interview you) and also our tag of #arkeco

quicklink | ian dearman media and photographs

i had a taste today of how it might feel at the ark today.

i recorded some audio but without a wind guard on the zoom h1 it literally picked up everything - i should know better.  looking at guards now.  it's also made me realise how much money is a factor for making things happen at a pace that you want to run at.  i'm literally pulling together money for transport, flights, places, people, connections at a rate of knots recently.

i'm doing more and more media work than before, the verisign work is brilliant and the local bbc radio nottingham shows are always fun, being able to eat and do things again is fantastic - having so much support and meeting great people to co-work with.  it's just been very hectic but really encourgaging.  i'm always forcing myself to balance everything out.

but today, today i felt a grounding at the site.  i sat down with my ipad and zoom h1 and felt for the first time what sitting outside might be like with the sounds of the mini forest all around me as ian did some wide shots.

let me tell you it felt. amazing.  we should have some video edited tomorrow that i can post on my ulule campaign - i'll be putting out a link in the newsletter and i hope you can find a bit of spare change to chip in towards it.  i'm gonna be straight talking here - the sxsw eco event is a want not a need, if you support me in going thou it will amplify the project x100 more than i ever could with some my network as it will allow me to have those face to face connections 'ontheground' in austin in early october.  

it's a bit of a rush about but i feel the project deserves it.  heck, the national forest deserve it for the determination they are showing to get this off the ground.  it's given me a sense of place, purpose and renewed order to my day to day that i was missing i guess.

stability, place and rounding the purpose of being a dad by providing an interim space for me and ella to talk, play and be learning together.  these visual moments together will leave a huge legacy for her that she can look back on.  i'll no longer be chasing purpose and will feel complete in the achievement of laying a foundation i can be proud of.

signing my digital signature into the unknown future.

before kristina headed out back to 'the big smoke' we managed to record a bunch of videos about the ark from a variety of standpoints.  we are re-designing the website to be a lot easier to read and for us to be able to bolt on information easier.

i just had to give you a teaser of what kind of afternoon it was. ..

quicklink | visit conkers

during the first sunday afternoon at conkers i had chance to give the 360 app a proper test out.  i need to get a tripod and a way to automate the shooting of them to get the speed right based on the amount of time i should be moving but i'm pretty pleased with the initial tests.

please do click through on the occip links for the full 360 picture experience.  i'm gonna have a lot of fun making these.

outside the media centre with gerry
http://occip.it/pyh2wfwgj

the ampitheatre at conkers
http://occip.it/pyh3muyhpj

the carvery at waterside
http://occip.it/pyh2x7ymuj

waterside cafe area - awesome carvery
http://occip.it/pyh2ae4loj

a bunch of 360 from potential ark areas
http://occip.it/pygyvttbj
http://occip.it/pyh4rflvzj
http://occip.it/pyh7y2kyej 

looking out across the main centre area
http://occip.it/pyhsbf1auj

quicklink | gerrys posterous

after dropping ella back to sam yesterday i headed up to the heart of the national forest at conkers to meet up with gerry obrian, the ranger at conkers to discuss some locations of the potential ark project - http://helpbuildtheark.com (we still need your donations - and if your a business please ask us for our media pack) within the grounds as part of a year long project about technology, energy creation and consumption.

originally we had planned to put the ark at the university of nottingham which would have been fantastic for the internet streaming and give us great bandwidth but after multiple times of having that 'gut instict' feeling and general feedback from others (including the pr staff of the university indirectly) it made me realise that the eco credentials that a project like this deserves means that i need to concentrate on the actual context of the content output.  the ark and experience should be primary to everything, the streaming and tech side should come afterwards.

having to be creative in terms of getting internet (we have some wifi at the site) is actually quite a challenge and we went up onto the roof to have a look at line of sight and potential bouncing locations for firing a chunkier internet connection via radio or even laser alignment and bouncing that again from a higher structure into the ark. we had a really productive and planning afternoon.

i also totally forgot how awesome the carvery is at the waterside part of conkers.  honestly, if you fancy a walk in the countryside with a nice coffee and a lovely sunday dinner you should really go and check it out.   having this onsite is one of the many plus points to a location in or nearby the national forest.

i'm currently putting together a proper business case study and altering the media pack before getting together for a meeting and presentation at conkers about my social media journey and how the project could potentially bring in worldwide attention to the centre of the national forest.