Meet me in Nairobi, Abjua, or Accra

going to Africa
How I roll in Africa

I’m headed to Africa soon for three weeks of meetings and trainings in Nairobi, Abuja, and Accra for Inveneo. I’ll be in each city about a week, and would love to meet up with loyal Belly Button Window readers if you’re around.

See, while I am a fanatic proponent of web-based discourse – I’m publishing at least six different blogs right now – I’m convinced that online discourse is an amplification of offline, in-person connections. In fact, I believe that online conversations are not possible without some level of face-to-face discussions between participants.

Or as a friend once said “meatspace has the highest bit rate” And I haven’t connected with that many Belly Button readers in a while.

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About Belly Button Window

Who are you to be writing this? The good life What would posses a guy to put up over a decade of his life now on the Internet for the whole world to see? Am I some freak exhibitionist? A narcissistic exhibitionist even? While I’ve been called both , I…

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Presenting Mrs. Amy Ross Vota

lucky me
Kissing the bride

Years ago, I saw a photograph of a joyous bride, a woman in mid-laugh and beamingly happy, being led to the altar through a crowd of wealth and stature, by a father swelled with pride.

In that photograph I saw a dream, a vision of a life I wanted to live, a moment I wanted to see with my own eyes. Yet, I never thought it possible. I did not have that wealth, and I did not know that bride.

Until today, January 12th, 2008, my wedding day. Today, after months of planning, weeks of preparation, and days of stress, I saw that joyous bride. That father filled with pride. That crowd of wealth and stature.

Today I saw that image, I saw that moment in my own life. No. I lived that dream! It is my life now.

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See Way More Wayan on Flickr Photos

One oft-heard complaint about my amazing, cutting-edge Belly Button Window is the dearth of photographs on my posts. With an average of one or two photos per entry, readers are always asking for more visual context for my writing content.

In the past, I was hesitant to put all the extra images online, partly due to the bandwidth costs and partly due to the lack of an easy, yet visually pleasing user interface. Now, with the advent of Flickr, both problems are solved.

Flickr allows me to host hundreds of photos at original size, with scaled down versions that can load quickly on slower bandwidths. And I’ve taken advantage of this service to the tune of almost a thousand images so far in a variety of photo pools.

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Over One Million Served

Nine years and six hundred or so posts later, and I just passed a amazing milestone. By my calculations, the humble Belly Button Window has just past one million readers. That’s one million people who’ve read about my life, many for just a few minutes of course, but others who’ve been following my adventures for years.

Thank you.

While I don’t write this site for others really, its just to remind myself of all my adventures, and let my friends and family know what I am up to, I am always amazed that others find Belly Button Window worth reading too.

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