aka the Horace Phair

Columbus Day Weekend
every year


The Salad House, the Newhaus, big pink: even before we've settled on a name, we know we want you to be welcome. In 2004, there's even a backyard. More details as the date approaches. After all, Columbus Day is in October!

I am a Chinese language student. You may wonder what that has to do with either this node, or our party plans. Be patient, I will explain it.

At Portland State University, our first year Chinese textbooks were written a few years after the Cultural Revolution, and are chalk full of socialist realism goodness, including Ali, the foreign exchange student from Arabia touring China and learning about constructing socialism. As such, in my first year of studying Chinese, I learned how to say "Touring the industrial exhibitions gave me a good understanding of the progress of the Chinese people towards socialism" before I learned to say "I want to drink a cup of coffee".

Well, somehow that dorky socialist realist attitude stuck, and although the only industrial exhibition in Portland is the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, I still would like to introduce our out of towners (and in of towners) to Portland's unique social, political and environmental situation. Given, of course, the beauty of Portland's environmental treasures, touring Powell Butte, West Hayden Island, Jackson Bottom and the like will hardly be a boring educational chore. I would also like to educate people about the importance Portland puts on Mass Transit, the current situation with Dignity Village, and the Portland Development Commisions (gentrification\revitalization) of North Portland, just for starters. So who wants to learn about these things? For some, it might be a star attraction, while for others, it may be like the 30 second lesson tacked on to the end of the wild He-Man episode that the weekend will be.

Damn ye cruel fate! Alas, time and space have conspired to make my attendance highly unlikely. Take many pictures, write many nodes, drink many drinks and eat many poop you cats for me.

Ye olde info below is for last year, left here for posterity's sake.
Even further info: MightyMooQuack has generously offered his N64 for Goldeneye goodness as well as his large collection of PC games.

Further info: So it looks like the LAN's going to be set up at Chez 1337 courtesy of je weasel rather than the former generous offer of casa de qousqous. Anyone who wants to should bring a computer (presumably a laptop if you're coming in from a ways away), and we'll supply power and hubs. Also, any who have truly old school games that require gathering about a single terminal should definitely bring them.

The Avalon is sounding better and better with the promise of Skee Ball and DDR for the more physically arcade minded. And P_I is apparently a DDR fiend, so the truly inactive should still find enjoyment in his prancing and dancing about.

In non-CRT related events, Frisbee has been proposed and seconded, so bring your running feet and catching hands!

Everyone loves games, so let us gather together to play them, as they did in the days of yore. Work is proceding on creating a LAN for Old School Games, New School Games, and Somewhere In-Between Games. Also, there is a possibility of Gamecube gaming featuring Super Smash Brothers Melee, and Turok: Evolution. Finally, a trip to the Avalon is in order, which features a slew of arcade games for a pittance of what modern arcades cost, as well as movies for cheap. Come one, come all and

Let the games begin!

(very brief)Aftermath stuff is at the end.

Download mp3's of the readings at http://phonophilia.com/times/nodeslam/


!!TEH NODESLAM!!


* * *


!!WEBCAST!!

TEH NODESLAM will be webcast! Simply tune your radio dials to http://detritus.net:8000/e2 at about 7:15 PST this evening to hear every moments of sparkling noder brilliances! I hear teh Joneses down the block will be listening in! Don't be left behind!


* * *


When I try to explain e2 to my friends, they always ask something like "So what's so cool about it?". What do you say to that? "Well, there's this really cool experience and leveling system that I dig a lot. It's so much fun trying to level up - once I hit Acolyte I get to see who created a nodeshell, and it works in ANY theme! Also, there's usually a lot of petty bickering and arguing about how things should be run, and people getting disproportionately pissed off about really stupid things, and you know how much I dig that. Plus, I'm in this usergroup edev and I get about ten or fifteen completely worthless messages per day that I get to go and delete. It's a real blast!"

No, seriously.

All bullshit aside. I've been on e2 a year and a half now, reading a lot, writing occasionally, talking, and so on. All this time, and the only one-sentence description I can give you that even scratches the surface is that e2 is so complex it defies easy description.

But the essence of e2 is apparent from day one, the moment you step out of Everything University. E2 is here, and we are here, for the quality of the people and the quality of their words. So it seems, to me at least, that the nodeslam is sort of the essential e2 experience. We get the people and the words together.

Anyway. Enough about our collective navel. Let's get this going.


Q. So, how exactly is all this going to work?
A. This is how I see it breaking down. You will stand up and walk to the front of wherever-we-are. You will smile at the audience. You will introduce yourself and say a few words about the piece you're going to present, as a means of giving us a bit of background and maybe shaking out those nerves a bit. You will read, and everyone will listen raptly. You will suddenly find yourself filled with a oneness and kinship with your fellow man that is unlike anything you've ever experienced. You will finish reading, and everyone will applaud. You will smile, and take your seat, happy to have given something.

Q. Say, I want to suddenly find myself filled with a oneness and kinship with my fellow man that is unlike anything I've ever experienced! What do I do?
A. Terrific! Just send me a message listing 4-6 nodes that you'd like to share with us. I'll let you know which you'll be reading. And while you're at it, why not vote for which nodes you'd like to see other users read?

Q. Voting? What's that all about? I already voted on half these nodes! And why am I sending you 4-6 nodes? I thought I was only reading one!
A. This is NOT standard e2 voting, this is a special selection process. To vote, just fire a message off to me listing which TWO writeups you'd like to hear most from each listed noder. If you'd like, you can just vote by number to save time (e.g. /msg Unless ideath 1 2 Walter 3 4 Unless 5 6). I'll tally all of these votes up and let each user know what got the most votes; this is what you'll read. If you haven't caught on yet, the 4-6 nodes you send me will be the ones I list as nominees for you.

Q. Why even bother with this voting business? Why not just let me read what I want?
A. The voting process is in place to help select those writeups that your fellow noders would most like to hear. As Walter says in his other-Columbus-gathering writeup: "In a way, [the voting-for-nodes system] made the difference between scanning the C!ed wus list and the New wus list. Not so much an assurance of quality as a guarantee of material that others would find interesting."

Q. Can I vote for which of my own writeups I want to read?
A. Sure. You get two votes for yourself, just like everyone else.

Q. Can I us both of my votes on a single writeup, if I really like it?
A. Sure.

Q. Can I change my votes later if I change my mind?
A. I'm afraid not.

Q. What if I'm not reading a node. Do I still get to vote?
A. Yes! VOTING IS OPEN TO *ALL* E2 USERS! Please vote!

But really, why wouldn't you want to read a node to us?


Q. Well...I'm a bit nervous, to be honest.
A. What, nervous about getting up and reading something you wrote in front of forty of the smartest people you've ever known? How silly.

Have you seen the movie Three Kings? I like it a lot. There's this great little exchange:

Archie Gates: You're scared, right?
Conrad Vig : Maybe.
Archie Gates: The way it works is, you do the thing you're scared shitless of, and you get the courage AFTER you do it, not before you do it.
Conrad Vig : That's a dumbass way to work. It should be the other way around.
Archie Gates: I know. That's the way it works.
That is the way it works.

Here, E2 will imitate life. You'll do the thing you're scared shitless of, and then you'll get the courage. You'll see what I mean when you get here.


Q. Well...I'm kinda worried about peoples' reactions.
A. In addition to having giant, squishy brains, noders are also rather nice. I'm sure that the reaction to your peace will be enormously positive. And, in fact, I'll make sure of it by personally laying the smackdown on any dissenters with my Vengeful Golf Club of Flaming Retribution. Word.

Q. Well...really, this sort of thing just doesn't seem like my cup of tea.
A. It may seem that way now. But believe me, when you're there, in the moment, watching this amazing thing happen, you will want to be a part of it. It is best to start preparing now.

Q. Well...I don't really think I have any (or enough) nodes worth reading.
A. Bollocks. If you have four writeups, you almost certainly have four that someone will want to hear. Aside from lyrics and other things you yourself didn't write, absolutely anything is fair game. Certainly essays, prose and poetry will be popular choices, but I personally am very interested in hearing any factuals you may have that are especially well written, or that you are particularly passionate about. Reviews are excellent also, and hearing about something can give you a much clearer picture of what it's like than reading about it.

Q. I still don't wanna do it. What are you gonna do about that?
A. All I can do is harass you incessantly and hope you change your mind. And I will do this.

Q. Alright, you've got me convinced. But when and where is this gonna take place?
A. NOTE THE CHANGE! The reading will take place Saturday evening, ~7:15 pm, at IWW hall (6th & East Burnside). Shortly after dinner, that is. There is a nominal fee associated with using this venue, which we'll attempt to defray by selling coffee and/or passing the hat around. Don't worry about bringing a printout of your chosen node (unless you really prefer using paper to a laptop).

Q. Is there anything else I need to know about voting and nominating?
A. Remember that you will be speaking to an audience. You may be surprised at how large the change in feeling of a writeup will be when making the transition from text to spoken word. Try to select (and vote for) writeups that you think will work well read aloud, not just those that you enjoy the most.

Q. Help! I've got more questions!
A. Feel free to message me with any questions, concerns, etc. I consider myself very personable. If you have any questions at the event itself, just hunt me down: I'll be the 65-year-old woman with the blue hair.




* Unless

  1. The Survivors
  2. When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?
  3. Don't encourage people to read
  4. Saturday Market
  5. Turing Intelligence
  6. Shoot for the stars *

* Walter

  1. Duran Duran
  2. Liz
  3. My new way to get there *
  4. This must be the night when I remember how to fly, when the breeze catches my weight at last

* icicle

  1. E2 Celebrity
  2. Woody Guthrie
  3. This song I wrote about Sheila
  4. They hum like angels *
  5. I don't care. I like who I am because of it.
  6. The Icicle Melts

* Roninspoon

  1. To the man on the hill
  2. Why I stopped shopping at Best Buy
  3. Two stories of the pistol *
  4. The ultimate zen node *
  5. How prom nearly killed me.

* fuzzy and blue

  1. Red Tide *
  2. Every time I look at this picture, I feel a little more in love
  3. monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey
  4. The Auditorium
  5. Reading Rainbow
  6. Mr. Stupid, or Learning to Write

* dTaylorSingletary

  1. zeppelins on the empire
  2. chinatown
  3. narrator (in question)
  4. I Like Ike
  5. reality incompatibility matrix *

* ModernAngel

  1. On Losing My Strip-Club Cherry *
  2. My First Wedding
  3. The Great Divorce
  4. You May Be a Noder, But You Ain't No Dancer
  5. A Elbereth Gilthoniel
  6. anode

* ideath

  1. game of essences *
  2. eating out alone (as a composition)
  3. Love Letter of Housekeeping
  4. October 20, 2000
  5. famous circle of friends
  6. Dear Willa (from Portland)

* MightyMooquack

  1. Bus door mechanism *
  2. Quake shareware CD
  3. Cockpit
  4. Morrowind
  5. the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

* Pseudo_Intellectual

  1. Even though I sleep terribly with another body in the bed
  2. i was expecting it to hurt like a fuck
  3. Address to Malkin Bowl
  4. I Swallow With Eyes That Eat *

* grundoon

  1. another being's life
  2. you are going to need to get a big princess type dress. I CANNOT fight for the honor of someone wearing cowgirl pjs
  3. Mother's Day
  4. butterfly soup *

* panamaus

  1. Cold heart, bitter coffee *
  2. Don't Give Up
  3. Damn everything but the circus!
  4. changing your sexuality
  5. May 1, 2001

* thyme

  1. Big Sur
  2. Desolation Angels
  3. Bug zapper
  4. Orwellian *
  5. Ebola
  6. The Grapes of Wrath

* misuba

  1. Story for an Advanced Child *
  2. games vs. rituals
  3. How to get lost
  4. Snoopy and the Red Baron

* jasonm

  1. Bumper Stickers about Kids who Beat Up Honor Students
  2. sometimes, all you can do is be a friend *
  3. Don't lie. Ever.
  4. plankeye
  5. M&M's standard operating procedure for bored engineers
  6. Night Shivers

* steev

  1. groundtruthing *
  2. gracie's bird cage
  3. Guy Debord
  4. intertextuality
  5. Appropriation

* Ourobouros

  1. The Big Four
  2. dust bison
  3. Predication *
  4. there's something there

* srkorn

  1. Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
  2. I'm never getting drunk again
  3. Deconstruction of every single television advertisement, ever *
  4. polyrhythms
  5. March 26, 2001

* Jeeves

  1. restless
  2. April 12, 2001
  3. pack rat *
  4. September 9, 2001
  5. high fructose corn syrup
  6. heat

* conform

  1. Popular wisdom to the contrary, it's not always the right time for sushi
  2. avisodomy
  3. The Miracle Worker *
  4. Honey, if you love me won't you please please smile?

* Pseudomammal

  1. Monterey by Cobra
  2. Port Townsend, WA
  3. Pachelbel's Canon
  4. Jumping off a cliff * (read by vruba)

* RevPhil

  1. Guess What?
  2. I am a victim of hate crime and Pabst *
  3. Flo
  4. Bike Maul

* Eos

  1. To be noble in an average life
  2. You can bear arms, but you can't bare breasts
  3. Beware of finding a Jesus entirely congenial to you *
  4. I'm going to be a Dad
  5. Thule Society
  6. ignorant evil

* Glowing Fish

  1. The time you live in is the time you die in
  2. Error correction : A cross cultural methodology *
  3. A libertarian paradox
  4. The Cosmic Carrot
  5. The conceptual difference between a food and a drug

* qousqous

  1. What were you before you were anything at all? *
  2. The Mall of America
  3. Hlavní Nádraží
  4. Zauberbär

* aphexious

  1. God Algorithm *

* lawnjart

  1. Words of advice for young noders *

* dann

  1. Everything is a Family *

* Igloowhite

  1. Everything, Kansas: A Manifesto *


First and foremost, I must express my eternal gratitude to Suzie, Steev, and (of course) Laurel, without whom the nodeslam would have been an infinitely bumpier ride. Thank you so much for your help.

Thanks, also, to everyone who shared a writing with us, and to all those who participated in the voting process (more or less the same group). You are all rockstars.

The list above now includes an asterisk after the title of each node which was presented.

The nodeslam was an amazing and, hesitantly, changing experience for me, both in organizing and experiencing it. There were many amazing and wonderful moments which, true to form, I cannot now adequately explain, and which I can only describe in the sort of mechanical prose reserved for microwave heating instructions. A few, nonetheless: hearing grundoon describe herself as a tower as imp/buddha treated her like a jungle gym; sitting up front and seeing the trembling hands of the most confident readers; watching a whiskey bottle change hands around and back again, tracing slowly growing concentric circles; reading first and barely breathing the whole way through. Too many more even to remember. Seriously, you guys gotta try this.

The Miscomplication of d. Taylor Singletary

It is sometimes very difficult to provide levels of separation for the neuroses of a given a person, especially from an introspective perspective. In what ways do I create my own madness, a prison, and in what ways do I alleviate my self? Do I build every brick from mortar and ice, or is it built around me, from tertiary parties and unnamed goons-- hand me downs from generation to generation. At what point do I cease to make sense to others, at what point to myself? Is this sense-making my own undoing, is the nonsense-making my own salvation? Why'd I even start with thinking about this road, the comparisons to roads, the striving for metaphor, the limitation of experience through the degradation of comparison. I'm like Joe, and I've got a brain cloud. The forecast is woozy, and the temperature so cold, stark like death's last throes before madness. For even death can go mad. This is no way to start a node in celebration of the meet that was our Columbus-Day-Gathering. Well, it's one way. But there are other ways, just as their are x endings to A Confederate General From Big Sur. Some days they drop like flies.

I had fun. I limited my self to the single evening of Saturday to be associated, for reasons of my own, eroneous, but in some ways adding a golden star to my life. I met numerous peoples of whom I had previously no association with besides the fifteen characters I type religiously into any web browser I find.

So, there's this idea of miscomplication that I put forth sloppily at the heavenly nodeslam. It belongs in the list of known errors in our lives, this ability to miscomplicate the apparatus that is the mind: I gave my self a migraine. I didn't want to read reality incompatibility matrix. I was thinking of getting home by eleven o'clock. All these things were complications, but misused, misplanned. Life is often a series of these, government essentially being a vast conspiracy of miscomplications, set about on the structure of miscalculations, and in the midst of life we are in debt, etc.

During the nodeslam I went on an incredibly intense path. One of my few points of comparison is the scene towards the end of Parenthood. Steve Martin's character has had the thought of a roller-coaster implanted within his brain, and during the course of a performance he lives the coaster, emotions all amuck in perplexity--an existential moment, if you will. There was this definitive thread running through the semi-randomly distributed order of spoken writeups, this theme of first: identity. Then the establishment of a truer state of existence (an iDEATH of sorts), more criticism of the current regimented state, and further the ultimate question: are you a thinker or are you a doer?

I've miscomplicated my life many times over; there are so many layers of theorization and passivity in me, so many times I have shirked from real life, in so many ways I have failed my duty as an "aware" human being. In essence, I am almost always wasting my valuable potential, in fear of... what exactly? And here I was, giving my self a migrane, going through the rollercoaster of my life, a temporary state of madness cum identity crisis--you know, the normal state of affairs, but more intense-- the nodeslam somehow seemed to take me through this journey, and by the time I got to the otherside I felt okay again.

I thank everyone who read for particpating in the unfolding narrative of my life, of their own lives, of everyone's.

So, in turn, I made it through the night somehow, much to the thanks of my trusty lungs, and the kind words and actions of a few most precious noders. Though I floated more than anything, avoid in my own personal headspace and tumult in spontaneous word combustion, I most definitly had a superb time. Dinner with conform was an impromptu pleasure, meeting panamaus was surprising-- sometimes I feel like I'm not even here on this site, and am shocked to find that so many people were even familar with my name at all (besides the Portland crew of course). That's the transparency problem again. I hope you all got ahold of the flamingweasel-dTS mix cd as well.

I float away in a mess of words, my entire sentence sedated.


Tracklist for the west coast cd mix:
  1. Wilco - War on War (yankee hotel foxtrot)
  2. the Divine Comedy - Charge (Cassanova)*
  3. Modest Mouse - Shit Luck (the Lonesome Crowded West)+
  4. Sigur Ros - untitled (( ))*
  5. Tortoise w/ Chicago Underground Trio (live)
  6. Bablicon - Travelling (a flat inside a fog, the cat that was a dog)*
  7. John Linnel - Illinois
  8. Yume Bitsu - I Wait For You (yume bitsu)*
  9. Voyager One - Over and Out
  10. the Sea and Cake - Sound and Vision (one bedroom)* David Bowie cover
  11. Pavement - Decouvert de Soleil
  12. Of Montreal - Ira's brief life as a spider (Horse & Elephant Eatery)*
  13. Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (the heat goes on) (Remain in Light)*
  14. Lambchop - Up With People (Nixon)+
  15. Vic Chesnutt - We Should Be So Brave (Left to His Own Devices)*
  16. Liz Phair - Go West
Songs with a * I picked, and album mentioned when known. + has album references thanks to unless.

Everything, KS (bookstore)

The (sub-)title of this writeup comes not just from our trip to Powell's City of Books, where we spread out and then reconvened (not for the last time that weekend) into a semi-silent but comfortable and convivial group of readers; it's also about something fuzzy and blue mentioned to me, which Laurel then spotted on a flyer right behind my head in our meeting spot in Powell's. From the flyer:

ESSAY CONTEST
1ST PLACE

Ownership of a thriving healthy business.

While Away Books in Roseburg, Oregon could be yours if you submit the winning essay answering this question:
While Away Books is a wonderful store in a wonderful town in a wonderful area full of wonderful people. What qualities, characteristics, experiences and ideas would you bring to While Away Books if you were the next wonderful owner?

Submit your essay of 250 words or less plus the $250.00 entry fee (certified check or money order) AND you could win:

1st Place
Ownership of While Away Books, a thriving bookstore in 2,400-sq ft. of leased space in Roseburg, Oregon. The current lease goes through June 2005 and is renewable for 5 years. Also, you receive three months of transitional orientation by current owner.

2nd through 21st Place
Awarded $5,000 each place for a total of $100,000.

Fuzzy was excited. This would be a way to raise money for E2, or for an eventual shot at Everything, Kansas, or both. It would be like the "general store" my dad's old church used to run, selling donated goods as a year-round fundraiser. 250-word essays are not easy things to make, Fuzzy agreed, but "if we got enough people together, we could kick ass." Others brought up problems - having to learn how to manage a retail store, having to live in Roseburg, Oregon. I don't think the specifics - or the bookstore in particular - matter. I think the discussion resembled, and cast valuable light on, the idea of E2KS that some of us claimed to be there in Portland to discuss.

The Kansas talk kept getting talked about, threatening to happen, balancing on the cusp of happening, and... not happening. Twice, I was in a knot of noders who talked about E2KS while talking about how we really ought to have "the" talk. It struck me that while E2KS, the project, aims to centralize in small measure the decentralized community of E2, we couldn't actually manage to centralize the talk that was on the agenda. We could only spread the ideas through the party, peer-to-peer style.

This made me think: maybe the idea of buying a town, or forming an intentional community, goes against the true nature of an online community (which, I hasten to add, is no reason not to do it). Right now we're decentralized, and we do a sort of ad hoc centralizing of our community, through noder meets. Maybe it's better if we look at Everything, KS as one extreme on a continuum - possibly an asymptote, not something we can ever really achieve - and where we are now as the other. fab's fantasy of an E2-owned bookstore would represent a kind of baby step towards the ideal, an ad hoc making-real of E2. It would serve only a small part of our community but be easily replicable anywhere - like a noder meet, only permanent.

None of this is meant to denigrate the inherent qualities of intentional communities. Those who are into it were into it before E2 and will be into it regardless. This isn't an either-or. However, many of us who've expressed interest in E2KS (and many more who've expressed doubts) are attached to cities. I believe there is a financially and logistically feasible way to bring our community into connection with real-life communities in a way that benefits both, within the context of cities.

I bought two books at Powell's. One was called Celebrating The Third Place, edited by Ray Oldenburg, author of a classic treatise called The Great Good Place. I discovered The Great Good Place through Howard Rheingold - both his early web community at Hotwired and his book The Virtual Community. TGGP defines a third place as the place you go after work that isn't home, that connects you with a community. The classic examples are donut shops, neighborhood bars, and coffee houses, but these are "classic" examples because the phenomenon of actually talking to the people you meet in these places has largely died here in America. The Virtual Community connects the rise of online communities with the fall of public life in realspace. Celebrating The Third Place is full of counter-examples: real places that sparked real communities, as described by people who own or love them.

The Funhouse over Columbus Day weekend was a wonderful third place. The non-stressed nature was what made it work. Partying heartily is a kind of stress. It isn't sustainable. We were frequently not partying at all, but drifting, sometimes reading a book, sometimes noding, sometimes napping, then getting up and finding a conversation again. Part of me wanted to make it a home. What made it a third place, though, was the fact that we weren't staying, it wouldn't last forever, but we would return to something much like it, with slight changes in faces and scenery, soon enough.

Everything2 is a third place. Not everyone will want to make it home as well. Doing so would certainly change it.

My other Powell's purchase was another Howard Rheingold book, a new one that's been teasing me for weeks, being almost there, in the channel, coming real soon. I figured Powell's would be as sure a bet as anything for actually having it in stock and on shelves, and I was right. It's called Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, and in its first chapter, it talks about a Finnish project called Aula.

They are building a "shared urban living space" that combines a physical location, a virtual community, a mobile social network, and a cooperative organization, "an anti-netcafé, where no screens flicker yet technology is present, where doing together and being together is enabled through a unique social setting." [...] There would be a coffee machine and a copier/printer, but the participants would operate the machines themselves: a nonprofit Starbucks crossed with a co-op Kinko's. [...] There would be whiteboards and wireless networks, and the key to get in the door would be an RFID "tag" (an inexpensive microchip with short-range radio broadcast capability) that would allow people to display the social network that connects them to Aula. (17-18)

Sounds an awful lot like a noder compound, doesn't it? Only with levels and layers of access: you might live there, or you might pay a much lower monthly fee to have access to the public spaces, work areas, or just the network. Cooperative spaces on this model exist in all sorts of places. Cell Space in SF is one. Up in Portland we saw films that came out of another.

Such spaces don't happen by themselves, and a space like this one might be as big of a logistical challenge as E2KS. Finding the right real estate for such a collective living room might be even harder. Attempts at spaces like this here in SF have died largely because technology caught up to where people didn't need them anymore - if we already have geek houses and noder compounds, why pay to belong to another? - so it's important to offer diverse benefits to members (art studio spaces, band practice space, who knows). All in all, though, the dream of a permanent noder gathering might be more easily realized by being where the noders are.

At one point on Sunday, I was defending a certain set of beliefs on how to do an E2 print journal - another kind of baby step - against questioning from Jeff, Seamus and dann. I brought this up as a way to raise money and to raise awareness, bringing what we do to more people. The thing about a print journal is it wouldn't be like E2 itself and couldn't possibly be. You couldn't represent pipelinks or softlinks - the latter you could sort of suggest through editorial theming, but E2 also doesn't have that, et cetera. Any kind of owned or leased instantiation of nodermeets isn't going to be like the temporary kind, either. We've got to be ready for that. But this weekend gave me a taste of what's to come.

West Coast meets historically have a kind of inferiority complex relative to East Coast debauches. We're a little more sedate and cerebral (I mean, come on, our aftermath writeups have references and footnotes). The first thing a permanent space does is take the pressure off, freeing you to hang out and relax, even disconnect into a book for a while. It also puts a different kind of pressure on, to contribute the the job of maintaining the space and provisions, because there's no "host." I saw people doing this in the Funhouse and was sorry I didn't accomplish more of it myself. Above all, I felt the kind of comfort you feel amongst a group of people who are used to each other - lots of familiar faces, a surprise appearance or two, a couple of characters who always looked like they were up to something. Walter's new beard, conform's old necklace, Laurel and fuzzy's easy affection with seemingly everyone.

I've started to dream about something. I'll let you know.

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