Tuesday, November 29, 2005
When Bloggers Collide
I've had a few occasions now where my blog world has collided with my real life world. At last year's Oscar Party (to mark my favorite holiday) I was able to introduce a few bloggers who had previously only met through their posts and comments. Several bloggers were in attendance at our wedding this summer. Howard Bashman was one of the participants in the moot court portion of BC's recent conference on Rumsfeld v. FAIR.
A couple of weeks ago I attended an ACS regional student leadership conference at Harvard Law - fabulous day, by the way. Thanks for asking. Anyway, much of it was networking, so we were working on our schmoozing skills. Over lunch several of us discussed how it would be a great workshop to have - how to introduce yourself to people and get the conversation started at these networking things. Anyway, at the evening reception while we were waiting for Barney Frank to arrive and give his speech, I was working on my skills. I'm fine once I'm in a conversational setting, but I need work on the introduction and getting the ball rolling part. You know, when it seems that everyone is already chatting merrily in little groups, and you find yourself circling, looking for an opening. I'm working on it.
So I targeted a small group of people with whom I had not yet chatted during the conference, moved into their circumference, smiled, said hello and waited for a break in the conversation in which I could introduce myself. We all had nametags listing our names (obviously) and our schools. The woman next to me was being targeted for conversation monopoly by this frat house looking guy, and I figured out that they had just discovered they attended the same undergraduate school at the same time, and the guy was energetically going on about people and activities, etc. The woman appeared to have reached her max on the subject and was hoping for an out, but he wouldn't stop. Then I noticed that she was periodically glancing over at my name tag, then up at my face with a look that indicated she was about to ask me something, but just then Frat Boy would come up with the name of some other person or party or something, and draw the conversation back to himself. Finally she sprung at an opening, turned to me and said hesitatingly, "Do I read your blog?" I wasn't sure I heard her correctly, so I said, "I'm sorry - what was that?"
"Do I read your blog? Are you Rogue Slayer Law Student?"
*Pause, stunned* "Yes! Magic Cookie?"
Yes, turns out it was none other than chickenmagazine, accompanied by her husband Jugwine, authors of Magic Cookie. We had exchanged a couple of e-mails at the start of the semester, and she recognized my real life name on the tag. She was the only blogger I knew of at Harvard Law that is also a reader of my blog and would know my real name, so that's how I was able to hazard a guess. We had quite a nice chat.
Then today I was checking my e-mail and had a couple of notes relating to my new distraction, Athena's Web, which is the Bryn Mawr alum version of friendster. It's way cool - if you're an alum, surf on over and register. I'm registered in the groups for my class, for LGBTQ, for Law Students and for Harry Potter Afficionados. Those of us in the LGBTQ group are quite tickled that we're the largest group, currently with 128 members. Following up is Young Alums at 108 and Writing/Editing at 104. I've already heard from a couple of long-lost friends. Over the years I've been bad about keeping in touch, but I've found that I'm much better at it now. But back to the bloggers collide point of the post - one of the e-mails was from fellow blogger and Mawrter, Mirandala. Such fun!
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A couple of weeks ago I attended an ACS regional student leadership conference at Harvard Law - fabulous day, by the way. Thanks for asking. Anyway, much of it was networking, so we were working on our schmoozing skills. Over lunch several of us discussed how it would be a great workshop to have - how to introduce yourself to people and get the conversation started at these networking things. Anyway, at the evening reception while we were waiting for Barney Frank to arrive and give his speech, I was working on my skills. I'm fine once I'm in a conversational setting, but I need work on the introduction and getting the ball rolling part. You know, when it seems that everyone is already chatting merrily in little groups, and you find yourself circling, looking for an opening. I'm working on it.
So I targeted a small group of people with whom I had not yet chatted during the conference, moved into their circumference, smiled, said hello and waited for a break in the conversation in which I could introduce myself. We all had nametags listing our names (obviously) and our schools. The woman next to me was being targeted for conversation monopoly by this frat house looking guy, and I figured out that they had just discovered they attended the same undergraduate school at the same time, and the guy was energetically going on about people and activities, etc. The woman appeared to have reached her max on the subject and was hoping for an out, but he wouldn't stop. Then I noticed that she was periodically glancing over at my name tag, then up at my face with a look that indicated she was about to ask me something, but just then Frat Boy would come up with the name of some other person or party or something, and draw the conversation back to himself. Finally she sprung at an opening, turned to me and said hesitatingly, "Do I read your blog?" I wasn't sure I heard her correctly, so I said, "I'm sorry - what was that?"
"Do I read your blog? Are you Rogue Slayer Law Student?"
*Pause, stunned* "Yes! Magic Cookie?"
Yes, turns out it was none other than chickenmagazine, accompanied by her husband Jugwine, authors of Magic Cookie. We had exchanged a couple of e-mails at the start of the semester, and she recognized my real life name on the tag. She was the only blogger I knew of at Harvard Law that is also a reader of my blog and would know my real name, so that's how I was able to hazard a guess. We had quite a nice chat.
Then today I was checking my e-mail and had a couple of notes relating to my new distraction, Athena's Web, which is the Bryn Mawr alum version of friendster. It's way cool - if you're an alum, surf on over and register. I'm registered in the groups for my class, for LGBTQ, for Law Students and for Harry Potter Afficionados. Those of us in the LGBTQ group are quite tickled that we're the largest group, currently with 128 members. Following up is Young Alums at 108 and Writing/Editing at 104. I've already heard from a couple of long-lost friends. Over the years I've been bad about keeping in touch, but I've found that I'm much better at it now. But back to the bloggers collide point of the post - one of the e-mails was from fellow blogger and Mawrter, Mirandala. Such fun!
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 11:46 AM 
