Hawai'i Blog Con?

The Prophet suggested down below that we should talk about a get-together in "meatspace," as it's called over at the main Blog Con boards. With some notice, I can do it on a weekend afternoon. I assume most of us have obligations during the week, so that seems like the easier part. The hard part will be finding a (roughly) central location so no-one has to drive too far. Since we don't have all the profiles up yet (subtlety, yeah?) I don't have a good feel for which part of the islands the participants would be coming from.

Ideas?

Comments

With all due respect to those BlogCon folks, meatspace gatherings for escribitionists have happened before. (JournalCon!) And fortunately, I don't think we're looking at anything even one tenth as formal as either. I was just thinking of taking over a corner of Kapiolani Park for an afternoon.

Personally: A "meatspace" convention for HawaiiStories, I can handle conveniently. If this was for IsleTies, on the other hand, I would be a little more reluctant (and Ryan, I will have to email you about this...)

In any case, Linkmeister's time frame - after the 15th, in the daytime - looks good. That way there's a better chance of a lot of folks attending, especially if it's on a weekend. I'm usually free on Saturdays and Sundays, so barring sickness or anything too important, I'm up for it. :)

I was just sourcing my use of the word "meatspace." I'd never heard it before I heard it there. When you do research, sources are important.

Speaking of words, I just looked up "escribitionist;" Dictionary.com doesn't find it. Thus I've concluded it is a "portmanteau" word:

n 1: a word formed by joining two others.

In this case formed by combining the French noun form of the verb écrire--"to write" and "exhibitionist."

This digression brought to you by Hills Bros. Coffee.

Back to the subject at hand; I'm primary caregiver for a parent, so my time constraints are more stringent than they used to be. That's why I suggested the parameters I did.

About the term "meatspace": The word itself is new to me, but the concept of referring to humans as "meat" isn't - I was reminded of a story that I once read for my PoliSci/Futures Studies class (taught by UH's resident futurist, Dr. Jim Dator) in which two machines from a fully automated (ie. non-human-dominated) scoff at the prospects of working with humans: their point being that to them, we're just meat - and what's the point of dealing with "meat?" Just in the same way we deal with machines as just "parts" and not whole beings.

Errr, journeying into philosophical territory... must go back to making breakfast...

Ah, "escribitionist." A word I truly witnessed being born. Who knows. It might make it into the OED... someday. (It was coined by Erin of Treacle.Net, and many folks have sought to ensure its origins aren't lost.)

Ref.:
http://internettrash.com/users/shmuel/062399.html

"Meatspace" though _is_ in the OED (inducted in 2000), and many technical references include it with a straight face. At least as far as its use in geek circles, many credit it to EFF founders Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow.

Actually, an afternoon down at Kapiolani isn't such a bad idea, especially with Summer on its way. My family and I usually head down there every other week with my 17 month old baby and let her run around and burn up some her excess energy.

Sure, I'm up for it if I'm not busy...or crawling into the nearest dark space because of a migraine... :) I'm petty much free on the weekends as well...

I think if we leave lots of time for folks to plan ahead, we'll have a better turnout. How does the early afternoon of Saturday, May 18 sound?

May 18 sounds great - no pressing appts. on my end (so far), and by then maybe the Spring semester will (hopefully) be pau for the rest of us still dealing with school. Do keep us posted till then, 'k? :)

Sounds ok to me...could be combined with a trip to the zoo, since the idiotic idea of moving it to Barbers Pt. appears to have died.

You lucky folks, living in Hawai'i... I wish I could join you! Have fun! :)

I'm checking out our finances and hope to attend. We've only been talking about this for how long now??! Doubt that I'll be able to bring my brood with me but that might actually be a good thing.

And if you're all really ambitious, you can organize a regular monthly social get-together like us folks here in Austin ...
:)

Nemesis, that reminds me of a Gahan Wilson cartoon take-off on Armstrong stepping off the lunar lander:

"That's one small step for a gznargh, one giant leap for gznarghkind"

I.E. Let's crawl before we walk!

And if anyone is interested in Wilson's cartoons, he's got a web site under construction...

Y'all may not know him; his material is funny, clean, and bizarre.

yay! I didn't know Gahan Wilson had a site. Thanks, Links!

Actually, the idea behind the monthly Austin gig is pretty simple. The only thing fixed is time: first Sunday of the month, 3 p.m. We move it to accomodate holidays or if a quick roll call shows nobody might show up.

Whoever can make it makes it, and those who can't always have the next one.

Attendance fluctuates anywhere between four to nine people per month. And we usually meet at coffeehouses or restaurants to give folks the option of eating. Wrangling suggestions for where to hold a meeting is usually the hardest part.

But yes -- a few dress rehearsals would be prudent before staging something that requires a bit of coordination. Ryan has been a lurker on the mailing list where these meetings were hashed out -- he can attest to the rather casual nature of how these meetings are thrown together.

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