Weblog Gather

Well, well, perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular fellow such as I am -- my friends get round me -- we chaff, we sparkle, we tell witty stories -- and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the gift of conversation. I've been told I ought to have a salon, whatever that may be.
-- Kenneth Grahame (Toad, in "Wind in the Willows")

Saturday, February 19, 2000
One year ago: Geeking Out
Two years ago: Review

Sometime when I was down at Westlake Center recently, I visited a "modern design" gift-y store, Chiasso. I wasn't impressed by the lucite bathroom accessories, but I did see some toys that I thought would be good for us to play with at Potlatch. So I stopped off there on my way to the big webloggers' meeting.

I got some cool stuff! A round giggle ball (no batteries needed!), bonz, exo-bonz, zolo, even motorized zolo! The salesperson packed it all up in a big acid-green shopping bag made of sturdy plastic, so I was able to haul it all around downtown.

I don't know what I was thinking about, as much as I already had to carry, but I bought a few books at Brentanos: another Bujold book, and Frederica by Georgette Heyer. I've read the latter many times, of course, but Harlequin is reprinting some Heyers, and I want to support and encourage them.

I was scanning the marked-down shower gels at the Nordstrom Rack when my friend Nick hailed me. I haven't seen him for a while! He'd finally been to New York, to see a woman he's interested in. Good for him!

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I was the first to arrive at the Speakeasy Cafe of course (because I have Neurotic Promptness Syndrome, and arrive on time or early anyplace, even when it doesn't matter), but Jessamyn arrived before I took more than a few sips of my mocha. It's a large space, with terminals and computers in one area, and tables, chairs, and couches scattered around.

I'd never met Jessamyn (or any of the webloggers to come) before, but soon we were chattering away like magpies. She and I know some people in common (Luke, Wally), even though I've never made it to one of her big parties. Soon the other folks trickled in.

Eric Soroos didn't make himself known at first -- he sat at another table from Jessamyn and me until he was sure we were the right people. Rebecca and Jesse arrived, both looking cool in black. Geegaw, Julia, and Jim Flanagan of Bubble Chamber also appeared. I think Clark in his Borsalino, and Dan Sanderson and Lwinn-Bird were the last to arrive.

We had lots of good talk and laughter, about many of the obvious topics and some surprising ones. One person asked if we got much abusive email, which startled the rest of us -- I know I haven't gotten much, or any! We did discuss the current car wreck for a bit. Ugh! I call it a car wreck because I can't look away, even though I know I'd be happier if I did.

We had at least three digital cameras present, so we took turns with the photography. I handed my camera over to Julia to get this hot shot of Rebecca and me. Clark gave us all copies of the new print version of MISCmedia.

We found some surprising connections between us all -- Jim Flanagan asked if anyone knows Jon Singer, but I was the only one who did. I talked quite a bit about fannish things, because when I gave the tagline for Potlatch ("a small literary-oriented science fiction convention with a fannish flavor") every term needed to be glossed! What does lit-oriented mean? What sort of sf convention is this? What does fannish mean? I talked about Cacophony, too -- it turned out that Jim used to be an electronic subscriber from before we put up the web page.

I teased Dan and Bird about coming out swing dancing. I really think they should try it, but I don't know if they will. I'd be worried that I dominated the conversation too much, but that wouldn't be possible with Jessamyn there. She makes herself heard! I liked this expression of hers: "Shut up!" meaning not "stop talking," but "go on, tell me more!" with great enthusiasm.

She also polled us periodically: Who lives where? Who has pets?

I brought a few of the toys out of the bag. The giggly wiggly ball was very popular! It works on the same principle as those "tubes of gloom," but because of the different way that the ball moves, it sounds much cheerier. I also unpacked the Pop Zolo building set. I really liked that also. I'll pass these on to my nephews after the convention.

At the end of the afternoon, the sun was going down and we were drained. What a blast! I really enjoyed myself.

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