2008 Northeast Blogger Gathering AAR

Okay... I'm writing this Sunday night, while the events of last night are still (somewhat) fresh in my mind. Some details have already been pushed out by the craziness of today with the fam, but that's a hazard that comes with being a dad... There's only a limited number of brain cells available at any given moment...

Let's see...

Company? Fantastic. The following people made the arduous trek to Martha's:

JD
doubletrouble
scotaku
Bruce
weer'd beard
Elizabeth
Bill
TOTWTYTR
wolfwalker
sci-fi & b
brad_in_ma & Mrs. brad_in_ma

Here's a relatively complete group shot:

And just to prove that I was, in fact, present:

(Some folks have justifiably expressed uneasiness at having their likenesses displayed over the internets and others I didn't think to ask, so I have erred on the side of caution and "hidden" anyone that I wasn't certain of posting their image).

And, lastly, we left a "missing man" foundation for those that couldn't be with us:

Venue? Excellent - the food was great, the beer was (I assume, I didn't partake) fine, and the wait staff was... well... delectable...

And it was truly our kind of place:

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Impressions...

Well, let's see. Write down the top ten things you think might crop up at a meeting of bloggers, people that hang out on the internet on Friday night as opposed to sports bars, I guarantee we covered them in depth:

Picard vs. Kirk
PC vs. Mac vs. Linux
.45 vs. 9mm
Not to mention quotes from The Blues Brothers, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park.

The evening started with duelling cellphone internet platforms, with the iPhone barely edging out the Crackberry for ease of manipulation (I had forgotten to write down my list of planned attendees, and had asked if someone could pull up my last update with the list from the blog). We started arriving promptly at 5 (I was the third arrival, with two of the three guys that came from southeastern MA beating me there!) and folks popped in and out throughout the evening.

There were lively debates over zionism, nanny-statism, whether or not MA is truly "liberal" or merely authoritarian/puritan with a few liberal leanings, some gratuitous gun talk, much gnashing of teeth over the price of ammo (and some theorizing that prices may be coming back to earth in the coming months, which I will believe only after I see it!).

All in all, I think a good time was had by all. This will become a more frequent event, I think - I'd even go so far as to offer to coordinate the next one, too. How does mid-spring, say mid-April sound? We could celebrate my birthday... ;)

That is all.