I went down to OccupyPhoenix earlier today. I got there at 7am and stayed until 8:30am. OK, to answer an obvious question; I didn't stay long because I wasn't feeling too well when I left this morning. When I left I wasn't much better and when I got close to home I got worse but after eating some fruit and lying down I felt a whole lot better.

OK, enough with the medical diagnosis, OccupyPhoenix has definitely changed in a week. There is a better supplied medical center, a welcome station, an anarchist station, food station and media station. It is remarkable they were able to get all the items there and organized. It's kind of like a high tech camp, or as high tech as you could expect to get in a forest.

There were, and I'm being high on my estimate, 20 people on site, far less than were there the week before. I will say I was there earlier than last week and the estimate was for when I was leaving, so more people could have easily showed up. My reason for bringing this up was there was a lot of foot traffic as well as vehicular traffic at the time, with people going to work. I would figure if you want to get your message across, being out there early to greet those morning commuters might be a good thing.

Unlike last week, I was there less than ten minutes before I was approached by a woman asking if I was with the press. I told her yes and handed her my card. She told me about the tents in the area and to check them out, then she was gone. She was the only person to approach me while I was there. No one else asked why I was there, I don't know if they took my card to check out my site, nothing.

Like last week, people were very quick to talk behind my back, wondering what I was there for. I heard one couple, only a few feet away from me, constantly wondering why I was videotaping people. I will say again, all you have to do is walk over and ask. Is that so hard? Do people really think talking behind someone's back is not going to allow them to hear their conversation?

The police presence has gotten better I guess. Only three officers were there during the time I was there, but there was a slickness to them I was uncomfortable with. What I mean by that is on the welcome table there was a sign up sheet. They asked people, if they wanted, to sign in just so they, meaning Occupy Phoenix, had something they could show as to the level of support they had. There was also a volunteer list where email addresses were asked for. I saw one of the plain clothes officers, in front of someone inside the welcome tent, talk to the person while taking a long time to look over the list. When I saw the list I saw some people did use obvious fake names, so it is possible everyone on the list used a fake name, but it is just as possible people used their real names and if you are expecting to help in volunteering, your going to use a real email address. It made me cringe that sensitive information was out there for the police to see.

I saw today that while having a megaphone can help in getting your message across, giving it to certain people can have the opposite effect. There was a person who continued to shout into the megaphone, sounding like a street corner preacher. It was interesting for 10 minutes but the guy shouted, almost non-stop for the time I was there. When the protest group moved to the Municipal Court building, at the opposite end of the park, things got interesting. Guards got nervous, the sedate crowd of people that had business with the court were a bit shocked at the shouting protesters. You can see the footage of the protesters and the guards reaction here.

When the yoga class started, yes there was a yoga class, that is when I left.

I'm not sure if Occupy Phoenix is getting any converts or sympathizers. I think from a certain fringe group yes, they are getting support, but that would have their support no matter what. The 99% they are trying to get, to try and move their thinking over, is being met with shouting and a perception fostered by major media that is reinforced by the actions of a few. I've looked at the negative comments placed on some organizer's Facebook pages and while the criticism by those incredibly opposed to the Occupy movement, and these would be the folks who start their posts off by calling them bums and socialist, and it is tough to try to make the point that the vast majority of people are like them and they should come down to see what is going on when, as I saw today, all you see are people sitting around smoking, or a few people with signs yelling and screaming, and a few getting yoga lessons. Sure, I know many people are probably at work, or doing things behind the scenes, but when I check the websites, when I can find one close to being official, it's more of the stereotype tree hugging, hemp smoking, focus your chakra type of material. It doesn't make the person in the suit or the person with the blur collar shirt feel they have anything in common with the occupiers.