A week ago I presented at 300 Seconds, a new series of lightning talks to encourage more women to speak at events. This post is the blog version of that talk.

I’m quite a busy person.

I’m a developer at Unboxed Consulting, I organize events at Geeks of London and (obviously) I write this blog. What this means though is that I end up attending a ton of events. Hackdays, conferences, PR events, conventions and meetups in all different shapes and sizes. Plus there’s the stuff I’ve got a hand in organizing too, like HACKED and BarcampBerkshire.

At most of those events I am Miss Geeky; my blog is my brand, my identity and my event persona. I’m constantly meeting and interacting with a lot of different people; promoting my blog, pitching my events and talking about my work.

So people are often quite surprised when they hear that I consider myself a massive introvert.

But why?

I realized that most people don’t have a good understanding of what introversion and extraversion is. Typically they think that being an introvert means you’re quiet and shy, while being an extrovert is seen as being social and outgoing. And that’s not exactly right.

For me, introversion and extraversion is all about energy: what recharges you and what drains you? Extroverts find energy in interaction: they recharge by being around people, by interacting with what’s outside themselves. Introverts, on the other hand, will get their energy from reflection: they recharge by looking inwards, by being alone. So this does mean that extroverts will be much more likely to be social and outgoing, and that introverts will be much more likely to be quiet and shy. But that’s not always the case. You can have extroverts that are shy. And you can have introverts that are social and outgoing.

My term for this group of social introverts: social caterpillars.

We’re like social butterflies, jumping from one event to the next, being social and outgoing, only: we have to work a whole lot harder for our moments of butterflyery-ness (that word works so much better when said out loud. And no, Autocorrect, I did not mean “butterfly princess”).

So how do you recognize a social caterpillar in the wild? For now, I’ve come up with 4 characteristics, but this is still a work in progress:

Cocoon

Every caterpillar needs a cocoon. At busy events, we will need a moment to retreat back into ourselves. Depending on the social caterpillar, this can manifest in different ways: a breath of fresh air outside, a long toilet break or even intensely staring at your phone pretending you’ve got something urgent to respond to (while you’re just checking Twitter). It’s all about having a moment completely to yourself, even if you find yourself in the midst of a crowd.

Antenna

We enjoy interaction, but this doesn’t necessarily have to happen face-to-face. Thanks to social networks, social caterpillars can move the energy draining activities to the online world. Plus it allows us to digest the interaction asynchronously, making connections before or after an event. We’ll also often be the ones live tweeting, photographing or blogging about the event, which as an extra benefit allows us to hide and retreat behind our gadgets.

Consume

Caterpillars consume their environment. My interpretation: social caterpillars will analyze their surroundings, using all their senses to their advantage. We’ll research the events we’re going to, figure out beforehand who will be there and what they do and who might be potentially interesting to meet. We’ll observe and listen until we figure out the best way to approach a certain situation.

Fly

We will have our moments of being butterflies. We’ll be social and outgoing, meeting and interacting with new people, talking about the things we love, organizing our own events and doing whatever we feel comfortable doing. And pushing ourselves to do things we might not fully feel comfortable with, like giving a presentation at an event and talking for 300 seconds about how you are an introvert…

So, yeah: I’m an introvert. And I’m a social caterpillar.

If you ever see me at an event and I’m running away in the other direction, don’t take it personally. I just need some space and time to become that butterfly.

I’m curious to hear from you now. Would you consider yourself an introvert or extrovert? Or somewhere in between? And all you social caterpillars out there: tell me your stories! What do you do during the events? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #SocialCaterpillars or leave a comment below!

Today Upcoming is shutting down. And I’m feeling nostalgic.

We all knew it was going to happen eventually; nobody has properly used Upcoming for ages. When I heard the news, I didn’t really feel sad; Upcoming had seen its best days, why continue on with a service no one is using? It must have been something like 2 years since I last used it, so why should I care?

But then I logged in.

Looked at my past events.

And realized just how many good memories had their origin in a simple click on an Upcoming page.

In 2007 I moved to London. It was a huge move: new country, new city, new customs, everything was different from what I was used to. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t know how I’d find new friends and people I’d like. I wasn’t really connecting with any of the other students at university, but beyond that I didn’t know where else to go. And then I came across Upcoming.

Thanks to Upcoming, I discovered the Girl Geek Dinners, the Geek Dinners, BarCamps, Hackdays and more. I found out about screenings, lectures and other cool things. When I visited Berlin for a few days, I found out what interesting things were going on.

Browsing through my old events, I came across the first Werewolf night I went to. It links to two videos where Ian is explaining me the rules of Werewolf, with the help of Tom, Sheila and Glyn. All four of them are good friends now, and it’s weird seeing that video of when they barely knew me.

I came across the first BarCamp I attended and remember how stressed out I was about presenting there. I came across the first couple of Geek Dinners I helped organize (and cringe at the copy I most probably had a hand in). I came across the first hackday I ever attended where I ended up creating a Torchwood swede. I came across the Girl Geek Coffee I organized, the first event I properly did on my own. And I came across the first BarCampLondon I helped organized, which kicked off all the event organizing I’m doing today.

Attending and organizing all those events have turned me into the person I am today, and I have to thank Upcoming for playing a role in that.

And that Upcoming list of all my past events? It’s the only real detailed record of my first 3 years in London.

Goodbye, Upcoming.

Thank you for all the memories.

There’s a new episode of Doctor Who tonight! I’m so looking forward to it; I loved the dynamic between the Doctor and Clara in the Christmas episode and I really want to see how they handle it further. Plus there’s the whole “what is Clara/Oswin exactly?”, why does she have multiple lives?

So to celebrate the return of the Doctor to our screens I thought I’d share with you guys some cool Doctor Who stuff I found online:

Tardis Ring – $12.50

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey – $19.95

Bigger On The Inside Scarf – $26.00

Gallifrey Cuff Bracelet – $28.00

Doctor Who Teapots – £42

Doctor Who Cookie Cutters – $6.50 (each)

I say this too often, but I need more geeky jewellery! I love this dinosaur necklace from etsy store Anoriginaljewelry; don’t you think it’s adorable?

The dinosaur silhouette is hand pierced/sawed/filed sterling silver and is then tumbled for durability. The pendant is then connected to a sparkling sterling silver chain and finished with a sterling lobster clasp. The dino pendant itself measures roughly 3/4″ high. It’s so cute ($55):

I also like this love potion necklace from the same store ($55):

And this camera ring ($85):

Almost all the items in this etsy store are cute, adorable and geeky! I’m tempted to get the dinosaur one…

For a while now I’ve had an idea that seems so obvious to me, I couldn’t understand why nobody had done it before. I always have my phone in my bag and so often miss phone calls or texts, because I don’t hear it go off. But what if I could wear a pretty bracelet that could notify me of all that?

I know there have been lately a lot of smart watches, but I honestly think those do too much. I’ve already got a smart phone I’ve invested in; the device on my wrist should simply notify me to check that phone. My own initial idea is a simple leather cuff that vibrates when your phone goes off, but it’s one of those projects that I wasn’t really sure where to start to kick it all off.

Well, it turns out I’m not the only one with that idea. There’s currently a Kickstarter project for just that: the EMBRACE+. It’s a bracelet that connects to your smartphone and notifies you by flashing different colors for different apps and contacts.

The bracelet isn’t exactly as I envisioned it, but it’s definitely the type of bracelet I’m looking for, so I’ve backed the project. They’re currently only at 13% of their target though, so I’m curious to see if they manage to fund it completely. Here’s their Kickstarter video:

What do you think of the smart bracelet idea? Do you think it could work?

Time to announce the winners of the latest two MissGeeky Giveaways! You guys left some great comments on both posts with your favourite scifi movie and the create your own movie challenge. So who won?

The first giveaway winner was drawn randomly and will receive two Babylon 5 DVDs: The Gathering and The Lost Tales.

Drumroll, please! The winner is:

Jane!

With the comment:

I once wrote to Patrick Stewart to ask him to do a book signing at the retail shop I used to run. He refused as he didn’t have the time but was so lovely about it. How could anyone not adore him?

With the second giveaway I was giving away two copies of Skyfall, one of which was for the “best”/most creative/fun answer and one of which was drawn randomly.

Drumroll, please! The first winner is:

Steve!

With his comment:

Easy. It would be about a chainsaw wielding gang of giraffes called ‘The Long Horses’ who run riot around London bumping into people without apologising, standing on the left of the escalators, asking for Big Macs in Burger King and so on. Turns out they are simply misunderstood and are protesting the lack of tall, edible trees in the city and they just want equality for all giraffes.

I’d have Tom Selleck play the lead giraffe.

And the second winner is:

Jo!

With her comment:

I’m no good at thinking up movie ideas – something kick ass and inspiring, something you could watch to cheer you up, or motivate you. Maybe something with FemShep

Congrats to all the winners and enjoy your prizes! For those of you that didn’t win, why not try out my latest giveaway for The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks?

Today’s “Cool Stuff” edition is a bit different: CharityBox is something I’ve been working on for the past 2 months! I think it’s a great idea (although I might be a bit biased) and wanted to share it with you all.

CharityBox is a browser extension that allows you to raise money for charities by shopping online. Links to online shops are automatically turned into affiliate links and if you buy something from that shop a percentage goes to charity. Beyond that though the extension also shows voucher codes giving you discounts and special offers.

It’s currently available in Chrome and Firefox, so try it out and let us know what you think! We’re working hard to get a Safari one up and running, plus we’re constantly adding new features. For now, we’ve chosen one charity to which all the raised money goes to (this month it’s Dogs Trust), but we’ll be adding the ability for you to choose your own charities soon. We’ll also be adding a more social element to it all where you can see how much your friends have raised and for which charities.

If this all sounds slightly familiar, you’re right: I’ve written about CharityBox before. Two years ago we won the second CharityHack with this idea and got flown over to San Francisco. Back then we couldn’t find the time to take the idea further and create a stable version. Well, now we finally have!

Do you like the idea of CharityBox? Go ahead: install it, try it, tweet about it and raise money for charities!

• Engineering the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony: It’s interesting to see a behind-the-scenes of the tech used during the opening ceremony.
• Mercator Puzzle: Simple browser game where you need to drag and drop the countries to their right spot.
• The Jane Austen Word List: Historical fiction author Mary Robinette Kowal wanted to get her vocabulary for the “Jane Austen” era right, so you created a spellcheck dictionary based on all the works of Jane Austen.
• Why I Play Violent Video Games: Interesting post by Maddy Myers about how she got into games. I came across the post through the awesome image “Gamer Girl” featured below.

• Presenting the Tron Basketball Court: My future mansion needs one of these. It’s a Tron-esque glass floor with embedded lighting elements. It looks awesome.
• The Panasonic Toughpad Press Conference: A hungover not-a-tech-journalist covers a tech press conference.
• The Cabin In The Woods Title Sequence: Interview with director Drew Goddard and main title designers Jarik van Sluijs and Pamela B. Green. There’s so much detail in this title sequence and it’s great hearing about how it evolved.
• Catcase: Is it bad that I want one of these? It’s a bookcase with internal cat shelves:

• 50 Amazing Photos from Cat Heaven Island: Continuing with cats, these photos are adorable.
• Birds on Twitter: Cool project where someone hooked up an old keyboard-turned-birdfeeder to a twitter account.
• A Pickpocket’s Tale: The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins.
• PokeNoir: I so want this to continue.

This marketing campaign from Lego is awesome. To celebrate Lego’s 55 year anniversary Montreal-based creative agency Brad has created 55 illustrations using Lego to represent movies, songs, books and more.

Geek In Heels has featured all 55 of them and I can recommend having a look and see how many you can figure out. Here are my six favourite ones:

Via Geek In Heels

The British Museum is one of my favourite spots in London. I’ve wandered around the exhibitions for hours and it’s high time I pay another visit. The most famous piece there has to be the Rosetta Stone. It’s definitely a favourite of mine; it’s just a perfect geeky artefact, combining ancient history and decoding.

So of course I’m completely adoring this cuff bracelet from Jezebel Charms ($40):

The only problem: I don’t wear bracelets. They’re too annoying if you’re behind your laptop the entire day, plus I never can find ones that fit my tiny wrists. I wish they’d make earrings or a necklace with the Rosetta Stone print…