The craziness that was SpinTO is mostly behind me after having helped organize the party that raised $15,000 for the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation. It was a heck of a lot of work to organize this project, but also a lot of fun.

Designing Projected Visuals
On top of the time I put into the project co-ordinating a large chunk of the Web property and the event itself, I had my hand at designing the visuals over the course of a few days that would be projected at the Mod Club throughout the night to promote our sponsors, illuminate the amazing work the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation does for this city and some interesting facts about the Friends for Life Bike Rally.

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Design shop AREAWARE has a wonderful selection of several bikes I’ve had my eye on for some time now. I picked up a new road bike since starting my training for the Friends for Life Bike Rally earlier this year and ever since I’ve been wishing I had a practical, comfortable bike for commuting around the city to compliment my speed-hungry Trek 2.1.

Above, the Amsterdam-designed Vanmoof features dual solar-powered lights for front and rear, and a beautiful, no-nonsense powder-coated aluminum frame with leather saddle and grips. The chain-guard and fenders make it uber practical for city riding but weighing in at 28 pounds, I wouldn’t plan on lugging this one up and down stairs at all.

The Strida bike has been on my radar for a long time. Featuring a unique triangular geometry, it has a grease-free kevlar belt and gives the rider a nice upright seating position. I saw someone using this thing on a trip to Boston and it looks super practical for a mixed-transport (subway/riding) commute.

The IF MODE folding bike looks like something from a sci-fi flick with a very minimalist design by Mark Sanders, the same guy who made the Strida, above. As opposed to most folding bikes which make for a very inefficient and awkward ride, the IF MODE is full-size with 26-inch three spoke sport tires and disc brakes in the front and rear. It’s a bit of a beast at 32 pounds, but it folds up in about 5 seconds flat as shown in a demo video from Taipei to make for very easy transport and storage:

Today my friend Mark Kuznicki and I launched SpinTO! SpinTO is a fundraising project that kicks off with a party on May 15 celebrating the Friends for Life Bike Rally from Toronto to Montreal in support of the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation. Tickets are now on sale for the event and we’re also looking for sponsors.

Speaking of the Bike Rally, I’m riding this year to Montreal! I’ve already completed a 40km training ride last week, and will be doing many more leading up to the Rally at the end of July. I’d be thrilled if you’d sponsor me.

My first spring in the new place! The condo has finally gone through the closing process which officially makes me a property owner as of this week. It’s a great feeling, made all the more better by the beautiful weather hitting the city.

The Presets put an amazing show at the Mod Club earlier tonight. Packed into the club and ready to get their dance on, I was thrilled to see a crowd with so much energy. Some photos are up on my Flickr stream captured with my iPhone.

It’s said that CityTV once called Dangerous Dan’s burgers in Toronto, “probably the most unhealthy restaurant in Canada.” What better place than to spend some quality time having dinner with my family? See more photos of Dangerous Dan’s on Flickr.

• 2:58 PM AdamSchwabe - Session Description: Your folks won’t understand it, but sometimes you just need to quit your perfectly good job and go to work for yourself. This panel discussion will seek to understand what it is that makes a good entrepreneur and what are the best first-steps towards being one.

  Bryan Mason – Small Batch Inc
  Ryan Freitas – Plinky
  Christopher Sacca – Lowercase Capital
  Laura Mayes – Kirtsy

• 3:00 PM AdamSchwabe - Session running a tad late, people stil filing in.
• 3:02 PM AdamSchwabe - Mason: Why now is the perfect time to give Chris Sacca equity in your startup or how to get laid off or fired.

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• 11:33 AM jmdickinson - Current panel: Curating crowd-sourced content with an all-star lineup.
  #sxsw
• 11:33 AM thornley - Curating the Crowd-sourced world panel has Gina Trapani, Dustin Hostetler, Nion McEvoy, Paddy Johnson, Jen Bekman #sxsw
• 11:36 AM AdamSchwabe - Jen Bekman of 20×200 talking. Love that site.
• 11:38 AM ruralocity - crowdsourcing: talking a little about “old guard” and elitism, vs. crowd sourcing. applicable to academia. #sxswi

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• 10:20 AM Japor - at Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet-Jonathan Zittrain
• 10:21 AM AdamSchwabe - More people fixing problems on Wikipedia than problems appearing on the page.
• 10:22 AM AdamSchwabe - Wikipedia’s existence is held up by ‘civic defense’ of people watching the barricades.
• 10:23 AM remarkk - Talking about the fragile nature of the civic defense force that keeps the internet what it is today. Anywhere in the world, somebody is waking up to maintain it. We are always 45 minutes from utter destruction. Whoah.
• 10:23 AM AdamSchwabe - Cats that look like Hitler!
• 10:24 AM Rathbone - #sxsw Future of the Internet — Nanog and Wikipedia are “amazing civic defense syst… – at South by Southwest Con… http://shz.me/4si
• 10:25 AM remarkk - NANOG (North American Network Operators Group) provides a forum for the exchange of technical information, and promotes discussion of implementation issues that require community cooperation.

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I met Geordi La Forge… er, I mean, LeVar Burton. I say that without reservation because I’ve never heard a Trek actor complain about getting typecast, and why should they? I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation a good five days a week with my dad and loved every second of it.

For myself and countless other geeks around the world, Levar and crew were and very much still are our role models. They made science not only cool, but also made it seem like something tangible and real for us to aspire to studying. Star Trek wasn’t so much about spaceships and phasers and Klingons, but about hope for the future and optimism – looking ahead with curiousity and excitement, and that’s something I’ll always aspire to. (Photo by Jaime Woo)