#smh allos get better

[finalgrillwillgraham]

“this character isn’t aro” oh yeah? then why are they wearing green?

[sinnersandsaints-linwrites]

Hypocrites if a cis person say they're uncomfortable around queer people it would be a bad thing, smh I don't hate queer people for what they are I hate them because they're selfish hypocrites

Nah I'm gonna pop off here because I just read a post where some random person talks about how ace people don't belong to the queer community/lgbtq community and shouldn't be in queer spaces because they don't go through the same oppression that other queer individuals go through and I just blocked them because it pissed me the fuck off because I've often had my asexuality been invalidated by the types of people like this anon. But anyways imma just rant on here about what this anon has to say because i disagree and I'm tired of queerphobic people. First of all dear anon it's not all about you, cis heterosexual and all people have been getting representation for ages now. There's barely any media that shows queer rep that isn't embedded in stereotypes, such as in a lot of Hollywood films etc.. Also you do know that there are also cis people who are queer right? Anyways the queer community is a spectrum of diverse people just because we want to see ourselves represented doesn't mean we are a threat to you. We make up a small percentage of the population in a cis het allo majority. Wanting some rep for ourselves isn't selfish its human because we almost never get representation and if we do it's often either a harmful stereotype or a side character who doesn't have an important role in the story that 1/10 times they kill off in shows. I think you should do some reflecting in your perspective, talk to some queer people make some queer friends. Engage in discussion and try and see the other side of the coin before judging us. I'm gonna also say that we are not a monolith we are a group of diverse individuals and I think not only you but also others like you and also other people should do well keeping that in mind because your mindset is extremely harmful and toxic. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I'm so sorry Lin for rambling. I was just pissed off and seeing this anon made me even more annoyed. I feel better now. 😅

oh no, don't apologize, i like reading the ramblings and i ramble as well! <3

also all of this ^ 10/10

[damaramegido]

pinned worm time :)

basic info

what up i’m acey jane aka anna cassidy [last name redacted] and i’m your friendly tmbg mutual from hell

gender-nonconforming cis woman (she/her), i identify strongly as Girl but societal expectations of what that should mean are fuckin bullshit that i refuse to follow!

allo lesbian and monogamous (she’s single and horny ladies!)

i’m 28 years old (2/18/1993), minors can interact but please don't get weird or age-inappropriate!

(YES I KNOW I LOOK SUPER YOUNG I HAVE GENETIC BABYFACE, BLAME MY DAD, I AM A GROWN-ASS LADY)

white (german and irish so pearl only half hates me i guess)

autistic and mentally ill, also a side helping of chronic physical illness bc fuck my life i guess

left-wing democratic socialist (albeit definitely who tries really hard to avoid political discourse online because a lot of it is Really Bad)

norcal girl, ask me for weird info about the greater sf bay area because believe me i have Stories (and an accent apparently)

lowkey definitely a they might be giants groupie (14 shows and counting!), please talk to me about tmbg because i love them more than life itself

winner of the Best Homestuck To Mainstream Fandom award (source: self)

captain of the pearlrose garbage barge, which is on fire

not the original owner of the damaramegido url but i've had it since 2015 so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(yes i'm using my canon homestuck url for a tmbg/steven universe stan blog, what of it)

fandoms and interests

steven universe

they might be giants

homestuck

gravity falls

the owl house

pokemon

animation in general

language

shitposting

fanfiction

horror and general morbid shit

true crime

internet/fandom culture and history

other cool things

other notes

i'm in a horrible friend group chat called the shitpost crew and our shenanigans are fucking legendary. (yes that link is required reading, just so you know what kind of horrid goblin bitch i truly am)

i try extremely hard to avoid discourse because it's annoying and i have better things to do. don't drag me into that shit pls...let me wallow in Trash Hell in peace

i'm generally willing to tag things for mutuals and friends, and i try to tag fairly comprehensively in general! my tags page can be found here.

i really love being sent/tagged in things, if you see something and think “hmm this seems up acey’s alley” please feel free to send it my way!

i’m also always down to make new friends in general--if you ever wanna hmu feel free to shoot me an ask or a message, i promise i don’t bite! i’m also generally willing to give my discord out, but please ask off anon if you want it so i can give it privately. c:

i'm a filthy shipper from hell and always have been, though of course i tag appropriately. here’s my shipping wall!

my blog title is a very obscure tmbg reference

yes i have a homestuck tattoo. no i do not regret it

i have a tmbg tattoo too why does no one talk about THAT?? smh

i fucked up some shrinky dinks once

i purble

john hlans. burg bi sexu

icon by @disinvited-guest, check her out for that good tmbg content!

(no my icon is not ebony dark’ness dementia raven way but i do understand why you might assume it is)

links

writing blog

art blog

ao3

twitter

deviantart

instagram

spotify

listography 

dedicated tumblr links page

[shades-of-grayro]

i really hate how the aspec community is at each other's throats lately but i feel like it's such a recent thing. a year ago this just wasnt happening and then suddenly this person comes along and starts pitting alloaros against aces. before the blog quiet-times was around no one had any issues and then suddenly theres all these problems magically appearing out of thin air. i've identified as aroace for 3 years and been on tumblr for much longer (1/?)

and i NEVER saw any of these issues that they bring up constantly. i think that yeah some people are terrible but at this point it's a such a small portion of the community that it just doesn't matter but they make it seem like its everyone but they're just trying to get tumblr discourse points. it doesn't help that theyre so violent towards aces and constantly attack anyone who disagrees with them. (2/2)           

sorry for the rant but i just had to get this out and you were the only person i felt i could tell this to. and i didnt want to post about it on my blog because i'm genuinely afraid of them attacking me and sicking their deranged followers on me            

I can definitely relate with not wanting to directly confront that particular user. To be fair, I don’t think they genuinely hate aces, but they do seem to see everything as black-and-white, and when they say “aces” (as in “aces shut up”) it does tend to mean “people who disagree with me”, as they seem totally fine with aces writing to agree with them (and not okay with allo aros disagreeing, the couple of times it’s happened).

--

I will say that when you say “a year ago this just wasn’t happening” that’s not actually true, though I believe that’s your perception of it. A year ago this was actually at its height, and I took a two-month hiatus from tumblr exactly because this was happening (see: Feb. 2019 Carnival of Aros). Though the voices that used to be the loudest and angriest are much quieter now, I think because they’ve gotten a bit more involved in activism and have found a productive outlet for that (understandable) frustration.

I’d say this current environment has been building for about the past two years, though the lack of allo aro representation within the aro community has been an issue that’s been on my radar since I joined this blog five years ago. So I think the feeling of “this is just popping up now” is probably just that you managed to avoid noticing it until now, not that it wasn’t happening.

--

I also want to affirm that there are significant intracommunity issues that allo aros face, even if you aren’t seeing the ones that quiet-times is complaining about. I’ve personally heard other aces say some nasty things about allo aros. Honestly my biggest criticism with the issues that are brought up most often (by everyone, not just quiet-times) are that they’re like... the least serious of the issues that could be addressed?

Like, the kind of issues I’ve seen are aces saying things like “well allo aros have hookup spaces like tinder and dances so do they really need aro community spaces?” and “If we invite allo aros into this space, then it’s going to turn into a hookup space and I won’t feel safe”. I kid you not - other than the paraphrasing, these are real things I’ve heard irl aces say.

But then the issue I see talked about most is mistagging which is like... 1) no longer an issue, 2) it’s mostly non aces doing it, and 3) half of the posts they target aren’t mistagged they just don’t get it. Why is this what they’re focusing on? (And sometimes straight-up made-up issues like “aces stealing aro terms” that were created by aces in the first place smh.)

And this weakens their argument in the eyes of people like you, because when all the things you see them complaining about are questionable at best, you stop believing them.

--

Then my second issue is that they (and again, I mean multiple people here), act as though being allo aro makes them immune to being acephobic, or that since they perceive aces as oppressing allo aros, it’s not possible for them to be acephobic, which just... isn’t true (and I think they know that?).

Like a lot of the criticisms of queeragamic were uncomfortably close to the classic “asexuality is tmi; don’t tell me about your sex life.” Which... you can complain about the word without... saying that? Thanks?

Speaking of queeragamic, there was also a lot of generalizing that ALL aces will immediately flock to that word. Which, if they stopped telling aces to shut up for one minute and engaged in a conversation with them about the term, they’d realize that the vast majority of aces (at least within the circles I talk to) dislike the word queeragamic, meaning they’re fretting (and harassing people) over nothing. And it’d be a whole lot less stress on them honestly.

--

I will say that whatever nonsense has been happening lately with allegedly ace people trying to join allo aro community spaces is pretty messed up. I say allegedly because it’s so ridiculous that I have a hard time believing that the people pulling this actually believe the things they are saying - it just seems like they want to make allo aros feel unsafe and/or stir up community drama. Which seems like something that a non-ace/aro aphobe would be as likely to do as a misguided/hateful ace person.

--

Lastly, I highly recommend just blocking people or taking a break from tumblr. I don’t take my own advice when it comes to ace and aro intracommunity issues (until someone devolves into sending me anon hate), but I really recommend that you do so. It will be so much better for your mental well-being.

[mingi-bubu]

Watch “Love O2O” with Me!

Episode 2

and we’re back with episode 2 !

i have my cereal, i have my water, my phone is plugged in even tho im not using to watch but some habits die hard/i was charging it anyways

as the man who makes me want to be the best version of myself mark lee would say, lezgeddit!

ok so episode 2 starts out immediately where e1 left off with wei2 being called from the bridge by yixiao naihe

who again is looking stunning in his white robes

she really thinks he wants to gossip too i love it

she deadass asked him if his account was hacked

i hate that im like *eyes emoji* at him sitting down next to her

who cares why you get married just do it

ooh she said yes and lets go rn

and hes like lmaoooo as if we gonna have a bigass wedding meet me there in 3 days at 8

KING

SHIT

not to be all im perhaps in love with him but

the set designers really went out of their way to ensure that we know this is a guys dorm

plaid shirt boy i love you

mirror boy youre lame as fuck i love it

SEMPEAJPOEJAWE SPTEMBER 24 WHYYYYY

kmea;lksdfj;akls

bitch is claiming yiran is interested in him im sreamign

her computer’s broke and she wants him to fix it lmaoooooooooo

i love all of them and their 0 braincells

nevermind hes being creepy :(

asksjdf;laksjdf call out his roommate why dont you

lmja;lsdkfjawe; bHES REALLY SAYING I SHOULDNT FIX SOMEONE ELSE’S COMPUTER BC I HAVE AN INGAME SPOUSE AND THAT HES A FMAILADIY MAN

WE HAVE TO STAN

irl is named xiao nai

im propoising

oh my god

his roommates are surrounding her in game to “interrogate”

get you a ride or die like that

they may be be led by their uh,,,,downstairs brian

but you do gotta love the fact they love their roommate

like again, ride or die

not at how september was roasting mirror boy aldkjflasdkj

but xiao nai introduced them as his teammates and they all irl immediately started to fix their outfits

nerds

oh mirror boy is fuckign cutting to the point incredible

OH SHIT HE REALLY BE SAYING THINGS LIKE A GOOD HUSBAND IM

al;dskjfa;lkdjfalsk;djf;laksdjf;alksdj

NOT AT HOW THEY ALL POINT AT MIRROR BOY

september really said i am ride or die for nai and you will see it happen

the roommates seem like guys who like the actors definitely loved being in the in game costumes

BAMBOO MONSTER I STAN YOU

OMG THEYRE FUCKGIN POWERS ARE SO COOOL WHAT THE FICK

LOVE TO SEE IT

bitch really be sayign everything

im porposign

september and i would be bffs i know it

oh wei2 is in class

and this is why we dont hold our phone like tht

her roommate really just stole her pohone

XAI NAODIFJEIOW

XIAO NAI IS THE PLAYER THAT EVERYONE IS FANGIRLING OVER IN BASKETBALL

OK BITCH ME TOO THE FUCK

EVER GIRLS CRAZY BOUT A SHARP DRESSED MAN

if i propose then i propose

ugh an eco conscious man too im so in lvoe

xiaoliang is defintiely into or dating the guy who was holding their seats lmaoooo

dazhong

tht’s the guy

aldkfjalskdjfaslkdjf NOT AT HOW DAZHONG IS DEFINITELY INTO XI

THEY ARE DATING IM SCREAMING

ok lowkey i do love it for them that theyre dating but also unfortunate that hes so

ooooohhhh dorm boys are allo sharp dressed

i like nai better when his hair is less formal

erxi has the subtlety of a screaming child

xiao nai is supposed to be aloof but hes so in love already

im love himmm

wei2 just got asked out by this guy on the basis of whether or not he wins

iconnic

so xiao nai is a senior then which explains his reason for being at this tech expo

techspo

oh i guess that this guy is supposed to be ummmm....importatn?

oh it is sad how people are leaving but really really sweet of the girls to cheer for them t.t

oh i do NOT like the vibes on this guy at all

or this guy either

they aint even going to set any specific time for anything???

“many” bitch it was 2 people smh

alkdfjasldk not at how wei2 runs so awkwardly

lets go weiwei lets goooooo

mirror boy takes care of teh goldfish

fish boy?

mirror boy?

fish mirror

oh so he lives at his own place and the dorms???

im confusion

oh theres acrowd for the wedding wowowow

awwwww thats really cute that people who naihe’s helped are there to cheer on the couple T.T

oh she took the sick fucking sword from him too AND OFFERED HER DOWERY

HES SAID SHES ALL HE NEEDS BITCH

HES SUCH A ROMANTIC

I

BA DA BUMP BA BA IM LOVING IT

158,999th couple to get married aldkfaslkdf

omg the dorm nerds are so funny

talk about a dope fucking parade y’all

damn he look good in red too

how do they make her irises look so goddamn big in this game

THIS MAN REALLY JJUST CALLED WEIWEI A HARLOT IM ABOUT TO THROW HANDS

september and fish mirror are so ready to throw hands for the newlyweds we love a ride or die

W O W THE TEA IS SPICEY AND DAMNING

he looks good in that button down is all im gonna say

oh damn he is tHAT MANS

fish mirror just needs to find an outlet for his uhm...

SMILE

BITCH HE SMILED

I AM

SCREAMIGN

i really am ride or die for xiao nai after 2 episodes dammn

new record i think?

but anyways

theyre in a hot air balloon what the fuck and hes mPLAING MUSIC FOR HER WHILESHE PICKS HERBS

I WANT ME A MAN LIKE THIS

OH MY GOD

CUTEEEEEE

HE IS FUCKIGN NOT GI

HE LITERALLY GAVE HER A FLOWER I HATE IT HERE

THEYRE SO CUTE FUCKING ME UP

I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE

hes so adorablleeeeeee

xiao nai i AM proposign right the fuck now

whose collegiate backpack is that empty after class what the fuck

oh shap its weiwei’s picture

wei2 does have the right idea with eating first, revenging later

literally no ones side profile should look that fo

LIGHTWASH JEANS IM IN LOVE WITH A MANN

oh no

oh no no no no

oh NO

FUCKING NOOOOO

PLEASE DONT TAKE THIS TO HEART XIAO NAI

but also hell yeah for wei2′s doxxing skills

im erxi

I AM ERXI

OH MY GOD ITS PHOT BOY

i mean like we knew this

BUT STILL OH MY GOD

one of y’all should go with her

erxi is a good bff if shes following wei2

oh so they just leaving their bikes anywhere

im the two foreign language nerds

photo boy isnt cute but thats just myne opoinon

is uh a lot of people at this

im going to fight him right the fuck now on GOD

ohhhhh she a bad bitch BAD BITCH

not at me also about to propose to her

kasjdflkasdj erxi and i are single braincelled

if she has the power to doxx him she should also have the ability to remotely take down the post imo

oh shit whatddup at the heavenly palace

OH SHIT I AM RIDE OR DIE FOR XIAO NAI

HE REALLY TIED UP THE GUY WHO CALLED HER A HARLOT TO LET HER TORTURE HIM

LAMOOOOOOO

girl why didnt you already have your headphones in

smh

oh shit yikes

i am simping for him

he really said if y’all dont want to die you best get to stepping oh my god

this whole thing is corny as fuck ut i love it

god why i cant find me a hot rich senior in college who has job prospets and is imediately ride or die as soon as he talks to me

talk about unrealistic expectations huh

i wonder if we get a sick fic episode

i really need to stop enjoying the ending credits as much as i do but the song slaps and so do the ending credits

also what basketball team just

HOLY SHIT WAIT IS NAI GOING TO THREATEN POHOTO BOY

IS HE USING ERXI???  I WILLL *KNIFE EMOJI* HIM IF HE IS DOES

wrapping this up the amount of attraction i hold for both nai and naihe is disappointingly sad

but i will go on a reblogging spree at some point for this show adlkjafsd;lkjf

anyways thank you as always for reading!!!

stay safe and stay healthy <3333

[roinaochieng-blog]

Google I/O Highlights

Ever had those mental trips when you’re watching a YouTube videos, especially the festival and event highlights and you picture yourself there? In crazy details, I mean what you’d pack, how you’d feel in the plane en route, the pictures, the people, the experiences? I had that moment a while back in my second year about Google I/O after attending Google I/O Extended at my university.  Watching Sundar and all the updates was great but seeing all the developers coming from all over the world coming together, united in their passion for technology took my heart. I got the ticket came in confirming my attendance in April, major déjà vu hit  me (I’m totally underplaying how excited I was here). I’ll definitely update you more in-depth on the more technical aspects of the sessions that I attended during I/O however this post is simply a first timer’s perspective on the event and all the mind blowing moments I had. Hoping this gives all my readers perspective on the event if you’re planning on attending and are wondering, “Is it all it’s pegged out to be? Is it worth the trip to San Francisco?

How to get there?

First thing’s first, tickets!

It’s always great to be on the lookout for the release of I/O tickets anytime from early April, the range for a couple of hundreds to a thousand dollars. This year’s tickets went for around $700 to $1200. It’s a three day event so when you get the dates, go ahead and sort out accommodation. This year’s was at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, so your best bet is to get a hotel in Mountain View or San Jose to avoid the commute you’d take if you were staying in San Francisco, it’s a pretty long drive. Besides, you have plenty of accommodation options, spend some time on Air BnB checking out shared living options especially if you’re on a budget. I’ll be putting up a separate post on finding a great space on Air BnB and the hostel options and experience.

Up, up and Away!

I’d say that simply put, for any developer, enthusiast or designer, Google I/O is our version of the pilgrimage to Mecca, except it’s mountain view. It’s a 8 to 9 hour trip to Amsterdam, Schipol Airport from Nairobi, Kenya for a 2 hour layover  (you already know how essential a neck pillow and a good playlist and book is for this type of trip). It’s a super busy airport so making your way to the other gates is a trip in itself especially if you have to pick up your luggage before the next flight. Then you hop on a flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco for 4 hours. There’s a whooping 10 hour difference between Nairobi and SFO so brace yourself my friend, THE JET LAG IS SO REAL.  Coming from a pretty predominantly hot country, the wind weather was calm but pretty chilly, have a light jumper in your carry on bag just to be safe.

Views at dusk or dawn from NBO to AMS.

Over the antarctic en route San Francisco from Amsterdam.

Checking In.

I was super blessed to have traveled with a large group of my friends and colleagues in the  developer ecosystem in Nairobi and Sub Saharan Africa. We got there two days prior to the main event because of the Global  Google Developer Summit which was luckily at the same hotel that we were staying at. The hotel was electric with hundreds of developers pumped up about the summit and I/O. That aside, checking in for Google I/O is pretty simple, you’re required to get to Shoreline Amphitheater with some form of identification. They give your tag which is NFC enabled. The tag gets you into practically everything. For the keynote, your sitting rows are on your tag and they’re actually super strict at the entrance, but only from the keynote (unless you have great friends like Anie does 🙂 *inside joke). To check in, you’ll need a form of official identification or the ticket that the send you a couple of weeks before the event.

Pro-tip: There’s a whole bunch of events on the night before I/O officially begins, so keep an eye out on email groups for them. Lots of great opportunities to mingle and network.

That Key Note though!

We happened to sit really really close to the main stage as GDG Leads so we had a really great view of the keynote. My biggest highlight had to be the animation before Sundar’s speech, the idea. An amazing story about collaboration, hard work and determination in making ideas happen. Super motivational, like Life of Pi kind of motivation. It set the tone for the rest of the day for me.

Biggest highlights from Sundar’s speech for me were:

There are over 2 billion Android users as at the day of the conference and the numbers are growing rapidly

He emphasized the use of machine learning in products such as street-view and smart replies in Google Allo. He announced the release of smart reply on Google Search and Gmail too for over 1 billion users. This was great to hear especially because a lot of local tech communities have redirected their efforts towards machine learning. In Nairobi, the Nairobi Women in Machine Learning and Data Science go all out on interactive sessions in the field. It’s exciting to think how they can use the current libraries and come up with other innovative uses of machine learning to solve African problems.

The improvement of the accuracy of voice recognition even in noisy environments. The use of deep learning to recognize multiple different sounds on Google home. This allows us to create very minimal infrastructure to have very accurate results even in Google photos.

He announce Google Lens, an epic feature on Google Photos and Assistant. It’s a computational vision based functionality that understands what you are looking at and allows you to make decisions on that information. So here’s how it works, let’s say you go to the dog show and see an interesting breed of dog that you don’t know. You can simply point your phone at it and it’ll be able to give you information on what it is and more! I couldn’t help but think how deep learning can be such a useful tool for developers to build accessibility functions and learning tools for communities. The potential is truly limitless.

Here’s the entire keynote, let me know what your favorite part was.

Codelabs.

For anyone who’s been to the Google Developers website, you know that codelabs are step by step tutorial on how to use certain functionalities on different Google technologies. Day 1 is definitely not the best day to do codelabs because the lines are outrageously long. I’d advice to go for office hours sessions and talks on day 1 then go for codelabs on day 2. Office hours are sessions where the amazing Googlers who work on specific technologies, take time to give you feedback on your projects and help on how you can make them better.

The best codelabs for me were the Android things codelab which after completing two, you would get a pico maker kit. The tensorflow codelab was also great. The best part about these codelab sessions is that even if you don’t attend all the ones you wanted to, you can access all of them on the codelabs website. You’d want to attend the codelabs that need special hardware or software to access. It’s also great to go for codelabs because you have professionals who can help you when you’re stuck.

Office Hours and Sandbox sessions.

I’d have to say my favorite sandbox was the Android Auto one and the IoT drink serving robot. There was a real life-sized and functioning car at the Android Auto sandbox where you could go and experience first hand the future of the automobile industry. There was also really nifty robots that used IoT and Machine Learning to make and dispense beverages. I got really inspired by on of the office hours sessions during the second day, thus the birth of my start-up Hypo. If you’re working on a project, you should definitely check out the office hours sessions for help and perspective.

Pro-tip. Download the I/O app on Playstore and the IoS Appstore and make sure your register for the sessions that you want to attend. Most of the talks have really long lines so if you want to be on the fast-tracked line, register in advance. They will turn you away if the sessions are absolutely full, which they are in most cases.

The Freebies.

You’ll have to be up super early if you want to beat the traffic on both days of I/O. Trust me the line can be super long. But worry not, breakfast is covered. There’s loads of coffees and teas when you get to the amphitheater, plus massive amounts of pastries and snacks. During the day, there’s snack stations all over the place so there’s really not a moment that you’ll be starving. Make sure you have your tag at all times. This year, we had NFC enabled tags that they scan when you pick you your freebies. Look at me getting ahead of myself with food when I was supposed to be talking about freebies, smh.

So this year, all attendees got a Google home, a nifty little bag and a steel water bottle. You might want to take your freebies towards the end of day one because it can be bulky carrying it around all day when you’re up and down in sessions.

Back to the food, hehe, if you’re a really picky and healthy eater, I’d advice you to sign up for the kosher meals. The breakfasts are super nutritious and healthy but the list is specific for people who are listed. So  pay attention to the regular emails and sign up for that list.

If you have some extra cash on you, you can bag cool merch there too. There’s a whole lot of other freebies on offer so keep an eye out. There was an Android Pay Givaway where you could get Android bot dolls and so much more.

Fun and Games.

There’s something for everybody at I/O. You’ll probably be exhausted after a long day but a great way to unwind is to stay for the after hours stuff. I can tell you for sure it’s completely worth it. You’ll get to play amazing games at the arcade, dance parties, concerts, live performances and drinks galore. It’s a great place to mingle with people across all fields and it’s just the right atmosphere to make friends for life.

The concert this year was by LCD Sound System and it was so mind blowing some people cried! Tears of joy guys, it was awesome!

Tips for new attendees.

Here’s everything I wish someone told me before Google I/O.

Uber and Lyft don’t take debit cards so either carry a credit card or buy a prepaid card. I used the American Express pre-paid card which was great fro the rest of my trip.

Never leave your valuables in the car. My friends and I had an incident on Folsom Street in San Francisco during a Google Launchpad event. We parked on the street and someone busted out the windows of the car and took my bag that had all my travel documents. Trust me, having to take a trip to the police station in the middle of the night isn’t a great start to the trip. It all turned out well in the end. But that’s a post for another day.

Bright and early. Be up at around 7 am and out by 7:30 am on day 1. I can tell you the traffic will be insane all the way to Shoreline. You can grab breakfast when you get to the venue.

Bring business cards! I had a whole stack of business cards but I left them at the hotel. Big mistake because I was stuck writing down my emails on peoples phones Smh.

Embrace cultural liquidity. It was my first time in such a big conference. I learned so much just by allowing myself to be curious about others careers, cultures and challenges. It’s a great thing to be able to do that in a selfless way, without thinking, “what’s in it for me?”.

Hope this article helps anyone getting ready to attend Google I/O in coming years. I know it’ll be changing every year but I’m hoping it’ll give you perspective.

Check out more highlights.

Thanks for reading.

  This has been on my drafts for quite a while. Hope it helps anyone thinking of attending I/O/ Ever had those mental trips when you're watching a YouTube videos, especially the festival and event highlights and you picture yourself there?