Last Sunday we boarded an "aeroplane" and headed off to nerd summer camp in San Francisco. And because we basically use the Nations as a diary and because Kent hasn’t figured out how to override our author clearance on the site you are about to hear all about it.

Come on it’s summertime – you gotta read about something right? Right.

 

Your ol’ pal Wanye – pictured above – is a pretty nerdy chap. And despite the absence of any schooling on the matter and not having worked for an actual tech company we have been a part of starting three internet companies now.

The Nation Network – an identity stealing phish site masquerading as a bunch of hockey blogs. 1dollarteetimes.com – a discount golf website that tries it’s darndest to convince stingy Edmonton golf courses to get involved. And finally In-House Tickets which white labels ticket software allowing our clients to sell their tickets online and stuff.

Since 2007, we have tried to learn as much as we could about everything internetz related. We have watched very talented people build products and sites while we played Words with Friends. We have tried our hand at selling advertising. We have attempted partnerships with media companies like the Edmonton Journal and Astral Media. We have 11.2 billion tweets under our belt. 

But we have been losing momentum of late and so now it is time to take things to the next level.

We have plans see. Grand plans. Plans so epic that pitching them in conversation usually illicits blank stares of non-comprehension and comments like "You still love the computers then. Can you sync my iPhone to my bluetooth to my VCR?"

 

So with that in mind we applied for an Entrepreneur camp called YouNoodle several weeks back. 

Sounds pretty sick right? How they let a guy who listed his profession as "unpaid virtual Oodle Noodle spokesman" into the camp is beyond us but we have been here for a week already learning, listening and walking around with a dazed look in our eyes. Everyone here has been super nice and it is an honour just to be allowed to attend.

We would liken it to being an unsigned free agent showing up at a WHL camp. Nothing is guaranteed and they could send us home an emotial wreck with shattered dreams. If we do make it to the next level and begin a new startup company you ain’t makin no millions – it’s couch surfing and Subway sandwiches every other day.

But it is one HELL of an opportunity and a big step in the right direction in following one’s dreams. We are going to work like we are the Nuge trying to reach the top shelf in the pantry to eat delicious cookies. Harder than all the other kids have to and never giving up. Ever.

You can follow us on twitter if you want to see tweets from the grind and the after parties which we seem to be quite adept at sniffing out.

We will see how this goes.*

Don’t think that just because we are sitting in a classroom in California that we didn’t notice that the local backup goaltender has become a trillionaire in our absence. Despite the logic of Jason Gregor in his great article we can’t help but think that this is such a laughably bad contract that Steve Tambellini is trying to follow Tom Renney to Detroit by any means necessary. 

Dubnyk – by all accounts a super nice guy who is improving year on year we will grant you that – is now making big smoke despite not being a starting goalie and letting in more than the odd shaky goal. We aren’t cheering against the guy we just can’t believe this is the contract that it took to keep him around for the next two years.

For those of us keeping track at home let’s get this straight. We have $7,000,000 committed to goalies next year. And those goalies are a 39 year old Russian with a wonky back and an 11 foot tall poster boy for Capital Power. Good thing the team is gonna be sick. If this affects a single dollar of Jordan Eberle’s new billion dollar contract* someone is gonna get a punch in the grill.