davidmm

So quite a while back I RSVP'd to go to Refresh Miami in June--today--which essentially covered some good practices on making web apps viral. Nathaniel McNamara of HIG and YASNAP presented and that's about all I know.

I attempted to make it to the event. I mean why not, I'm trying to get my foot in the door of the tech industry in some form or fashion, but from the outset I had a strange foreboding come over me. I was puzzled by my fear and and could not explain it until after I finally got in the car, turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened. I immediately went for what I thought might be the problem by replacing the car battery with the backup that I purchased a few months earlier and carefully stored in my trunk. Nope, didn't do the trick. The security light was on, and shouldn't have been, but I didn't know how to undo it. In fact, I don't know what causes it to pop on in the first place--this isn't the first time that this has happened--but when lit, it prevents my car from cranking.

So I proceeded to turn the ignition with nothing happening repeatedly, going against my reason, until suddenly the car cranked after I opened the car door. Weird! I could suddenly hear my mother's voice in my head, "Saying you shouldn't go," but I reluctantly got in the car , buckled up and headed to Miami.

Fast forwarding, I had driven on the Turnpike and merged onto I-95 to finally arrive to my exit. Upon leaving the interstate, I was floored by the poverty of West Miami. It's a total ghetto, literally a ghetto. Poor, poor, poor! While still taken aback, fearfully I hunted the venue down with my iPhone's fake GPS and arrived successfully without any hitches. Not being from Miami I was very afraid of my surroundings--barred windows and high gates everywhere, in addition to shuttered up buildings, stores, and self-owned restaurants on every street--an area also marred by empty run down buildings that seemed to have lost business within the past 20 years. To me it all screamed, "unsafe" and "theft". I immediately became concerned about my car and my safety. Crazy maybe, but the warning in my heart coupled with a screaming conscience told me on this particularly day I needed to take a raincheck and go home. Oh, and I failed to mention that when I made a stop for snacks at gas station several miles away from the venue, my car hesitated to start--this brought a scary scenario of stuck late at night in the middle of scary Miami with no way home.

I took myself home and have mostly no regrets for my decision. I'm safe, my car is in tact and I've had a light dinner.

Oh, and did I say that this is the third or fourth internet/tech related event that I planned on attending where something completely out of my control has occurred--I kid you not. I don't believe that I am destined to make any event in that city. I officially hate Miami!!