Niek Asks Why?

Shutterclog's Niek Hockx asked why I didn't link to him in this post on quitting if I was talking about him, and I was, but it was a brief discussion we'd had via email, and I wouldn't take a compadre's email chat to the blog w/out saying so. Now, a big software honcho calling posses together to dig up dirt on me, yes. But that's not Niek.

Another reason why is that I can't keep UP with all of the folks saying they're quitting lately, or considering quitting, or setting timelines to quit, or unblogging, or what have you.

So, with apologies for not linking the first time, here's the inspiration for my Once You Go Blog post, from Niek, who says he's not quitting, he's unblogging, or some such variation related to going offline?

I'm not talking about a redesign or changing this site's aging code to the latest geek standards. As a matter of fact it's still fine as it is, because it displays OK on more computers and browsers, old and new, out there than most of the so called Web 2.0 stuff. (Yes, I'm old school, I still test those things).

I'm talking about a change in my life. I'm talking about a change in the way I use the Internet. After thirty years I'm even talking about a change in the way I use (or don't use) personal computers.

But never mind, I don't expect any of you to understand my change, because it's a personal thing and difficult to explain. I'm between a rock and a hard place.

.
So maybe I'm an asshole for not getting to what Niek is saying in my original post. Or maybe I'm an asshole for not originally linking, or maybe I'm NOT an asshole for thinking that getting out of here is the easy thing to do and getting pissed that so many old friends are thinking of doing just that--no matter what they call it.

Taking shots at the A-list and blogging is easier than sticking it out. But then, I don't know what's going on with anyone who is talking about NOT blogging. Because I'm sure they have reasons. Health, sanity, real-world commitments: Those are all the more noble pursuits.

But it sure seems that folks are using lots of pixels to say they're not doing what they're actually doing quite well.

And if I start doing that, you better tell me too.

Tags: Niek Hockx, Shutterclog, Unblogging, Clogging = Powered by Qumana

Selling the Dead

Gene Weingarten's Washington Post piece tomorrow, Undertaking a Difficult Sales Job, is a PR pitchmaster's dream -- or nightmare.

In the column, Weingarten chronicles a conversation he had with Heather Huhman (are we reading Dickens?) the PR person for the National Funeral Director's Association. Wondering if a pitch he had received -- tying together in a way that only a master flack can do -- the port management issue with a future terrorist attack, and a terrorist attack to mass fatalities, and those mass fatalities to the business of undertaking, Heather apparently crafted a pitch too morbidly real to believe and too surreal for Weingarten to resist. So he called her:

Me: Okay, here's the context: "To follow-up on the articles being written in the Post about Bush's port deals, John Fitch, VP of Advocacy for the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), can discuss how America is planning to handle the potential mass fatalities from a terrorism standpoint -- and perhaps more importantly to you, how small business owners (funeral directors) will play an important role. Most funeral homes are owned by the same family for an average of four generations."

Heather: Well, yes. The roles they will play in mass fatalities.

Me: I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think I love you.

Heather: Okay . . .

Me: What is love but a feeling of intense empathy? I can't imagine many more difficult jobs than being the PR person for the Funeral Directors Association.

Yes, I laughed, but with an all-too-familiar queasiness over my ex-agency days, when, right after 9/11 we came up with some pretty twisted pitches as we tried to tie any and every client to an answer to fear and trepidation, or alternatively to a warped nationalistic pride -- the contributor to x-y-z foundation for America -- as we quickly revamped every client's website so as not to be too happy in these new dire times. Or at least that's how we sold a bunch of new business.

Pass the Dramamine.

Fortunately, the brief "warped pitch phase" was followed by a "don't do that!" phase, where we couldn't tie anything to 9/11 or risk making a client look like their brand was profiting from the tragedy. Which, essentially, was our job to make so. Without looking like it was, of course. And you wonder why Prozac is breakfast of PR champions.

Thank God for downsizing.

Tags: PR, Washington Post, Funeral Director's Association, Gene Weingarten = Powered by Qumana
Thanks to The Flack for the pointer.

Coming to BlogHer? Need Childcare?

The BlogHer group is currently investigating childcare options for the conference in July. If you think you'll be attending and have thoughts or needs on childcare, PLEASE PLEASE take this survey so your ideas/concerns/requests can be taken into consideration.

I know at SXSW, it was a blessing to find Grandparents Unlimited of Austin, who connected us with a great lady to care for Jenna during our Sunday panel, and then during the two parties we attended in the evenings Sunday and Monday. At the same time, we got to enjoy meals together, swimming together, we took her over to the conference where she experienced part of the Cluetrain panel and spent three hours building a Lego city--all wrapped into two days plus. She loved Austin, riding the trolly, and it was a great experience for her.

For me, attending BlogHer is tied to having access to childcare. What are your needs? Take the survey and let us know.

THANKS!!

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Combat PTSD

Glad someone is blogging about PTSD as it relates to the vets coming home. This blog is a great resource. When it comes to combat trauma and this war, we can expect reverberations for years--decades--to come. Hopefully more blogs and connections to real-world recovery resources can help.

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the white-black middleman

Just awesome that we have footage of the BWB revisited panel from SXSW. I watched the whole thing, stuck like glue to the great questions, comments, and answers. So many points interest me--more than a few I want to write about.

I've been thinking about what Tony said as he talked about the way he's a kind of liaison between black and white readers in the blogosphere, a more subtle black identity stop along path of racial exploration, especially for bloggers beginning to read from white to black.

Do you get it sort of? He says it better. Watch.

My first instinct hearing Tony's comment was, man, if I were on the panel I'd be pissed at the implication that there is a need for some kind of culturally relevant halfway house for white readers.

I'd be like, whoa, what's so freaky over here that white folks can't open a browser and read us without taking a trip past black-light over at the bus blog first?

My second instinct was--Tony's right on the money. That IS happening. In the context of expanding the diversity of who we read, the bus blog has become a well-traveled stop on the route to expanded diversity, especially among a-listers and the buzznet base.

A light-complected black man who has lived, by his own admission, in mostly white communities all of his life, Tony embraces his roots without apologizing for his preferences. Good for him.

Why this fascinates me is that I also get a lot of mail when I write on race, ethnicity, and diversity (i.e. the need for more) in the blogosphere. Most of my comments on those topics come from white readers (while most of the links come from black bloggers).

In some way, by virtue of being a white (not counting the Sicilian -- ha!) woman in a mixed marriage of 20 years raising a multi-racial daughter, I'm another one of those nodes on the diversity net -- different from Tony but also not quite here or there, similar but a different variety of liaison -- on pathways that run along the black-white blog spectrum.

Why this MATTERS to me is Jenna. First, foremost, and everyplace in between, I'm a mom who is raising a woman-to-be, and she will be a woman of color. Every relationship she has, her marriage, and the next generation will have a racial identity that is mixed. And at once, that has always astounded me in its complexity while it has moved me in its simplicity.

So here's what it all comes down to: One day I can shut up. One day I won't need to challenge and share and provoke new thinking and new attitudes on how we handle -- maybe even embrace? -- diversity in the blogworld. One day I won't have to ask "How white is your blogroll?" and have folks pretend that they don't know.

I'll be able to be quiet NOT because I think things will ever be "all better," but because I hope that one day my daughter will be here too, and she can pick up the discussion, bringing a new authenticity, HER OWN, shaped by all the things she still has to go through, by her extra-ethnic identity, by her identity as a woman of color, by who she is period.

That's when I can retire from this topic. Not until.

I worked with a black woman about 10 years ago who told me that her son would never marry a white woman because she wouldn't have a white woman raising her grandchildren. That same woman said she was surprised after knowing me for several months to find out how smart I was, because every white woman she knew who was married to a black man was either an airhead or a drug addict.

I worked with a white woman about 15 years ago who said it wouldn't be fair for me to have a child in a mixed marriage, that the children suffer so, they are never at home, they don't belong -- that she didn't think it should even be legal.

These were real world people--there are others like them I've met along the way.

I hope for more from the online world because this is the place that many of us have come to with a goal of understanding our world and one another better. It may not happen. We may fail here. We may get back up and keep trying too.

And if I can be a watering hole as people wander through the web of diversity, offer a cool drink, some food for thought, and a kick in the ass, then I can't think of a better thing to be doing.

Tags: identity, diversity, race, blogging while black revisited, SXSW, white, black, beige = Powered by Qumana

BWB footage - great stuff

If you weren't there, watch the blogging while black revisited panel in action like I am right now.

How?

Alphonse Dimino
December 16, 1930 - March 17, 1969

not easy being green

As I have written before, some wounds need no medical attention because there is no remedy--they simply become part of your constitution.

I miss you more.

03/17/02

03/17/03

Father

School of the Dead - Orientation

School of the Dead 1

School of the Dead 2

School of the Dead 3

School of the Dead 4

School of the Dead 5

School of the Dead 6

Children's Grief

The Living Dead

I Hear You Hear Me

Nina June

Panic Remembered

The Revelation

March Madness

Being Dad, Being Mom

You Don't Have to Die to Live Up to His Image

The Piano

Attention Deficit

The Body Bears the Burden

Freeze Frame

Grieving

What I Don't Remember

Tags: st. patrick's day, loss, death of parent, grieving = Powered by Qumana

The Panel We Had to Miss

I'm so thankful to find this transcript of the Blogging While Black Panel at SXSW. It was directly after our panel (same room, SO glad because we got to say hi to folks), and our baby sitter had to be out of our hotel by 5 for an appointment, so we missed it. That was the one panel we really wanted to hit besides Cluetrain. George was so disappointed and so was I.

I love what I read here. From George Kelly being the original negro, to the "well-spoken" lady having been back in attendance, to Tiffany Brown's hate mail and faq experience. Check out George K's quote about turning the melding of blogging and identity into an out-of-browser experience.

So many smart things were shared. Glad we have this transcript from badgerbag.

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You Piece of Crap Republicans

Have Ruined This Country for Generations.

Thanks for screwing up my kid's future. You reckless bunch of selfish, privileged, war mongering, sons of bitches.


Manufactured terror and manufactured spending is all you know.

Save the excuses. We heard them several trillion dollars ago. Along with the lies.

Tags: deficit, 9 trillion dollars, bill clinton, spend, balanced budget, depression, spend like it's the end of the world, conservatives, bush = Powered by Qumana

EFF, Creative Commons Party - SXSW

Of all the venues--from the conference center to head hunters club--I liked the Elk's Lodge the best. It was one of those typical club lodges, a big old structure with all of these rooms, room after room, like the kind I find myself wandering through in my dreams, and a big deck on the roof of the first floor with sturdy railings. High ceilings. Old linoleum. Non-slip rubber on the stairs. No frills. Solid cement walls. Corny paneling in places. Practical Berber carpet. Nuclear-blast proof, basically.

It was not fancy or chic or trendy or hip. It was just right.

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Once you go blog, you never go back.

Just emailed this headline to a far away blog friend who is considering unblogging or some such variation on our theme. Call it what you want. All of you folks who say blogging is over know it as well as I do. Once you go blog, you never go back. Stop the swan songs. Spread your wings instead.

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Lynch Mob? Security!

There sure is a lot of invoking of words like mob and "lynch mob" today. Please. Please guys.

There is no one being lynched in this latest legal battle (and ongoing RSS scuffle) surrounding your friend -- a battle that's been brewing for months (years?) now? If it has brought out the worst in the blogosphere as you say, then it has brought out the worst in your friend too. I'd argue over the chicken and the egg, but that seems pointless. Something that doesn't seem pointless is to point out that sometimes a friend's job is to stop enabling.

On a personal note, I think you ought to watch the hyperbole, especially in the frequent tossing about of terms like "lynch mob." No innocent party is being hung from a tree, pants down around the ankles, genitals cut off. No body's being dragged behind a pickup truck. Mostly this battle is taking place across comment fields online, and in law offices, PCs, living rooms, and even a million dollar home or two offline.

I don't think a lynch mob could get through security.

This is technology--it's one itty bitty part of the world. And it's funny how sometimes the people (dare I say men?) who invoke such imagery serve to make themselves and this space seem a tad bit more important than it is in doing so.

Drama? How about we go back to WRITING. Remember what that was like?

Tags: winer, scoble, lynch mob, tech = Powered by Qumana

You Only Think You Can Quit.

I've read too many people writing about quitting blogging lately. Quitting is the new black. I liked the old black better. (The old black was blogging vs. journalism.)

Although I can understand that it's time for Daves Winer to move on to things less stressful and enjoy his retirement years -- once he gets that extra $5K from Rogers -- the rest of you better fucking cut it out.

You're not going anywhere. You may take a break. You may go into comment-only mode. You may zap your aggregators and blogolls, even roll up your posts, but you KNOW you are not going to delete your blog, sell your domain, and disappear forever.

So just cut. it. out.

I know the sadness over what has changed; I share it. Used to be if someone disappeared for a week, the emails started flying and by week's end one of us would be on the phone or ready to fly out to east bumfuck to bring aid to our comrade in arms. Every now and then we still get together to bail someone out of trouble. But it's different.

It's not like it was when it was just us. Crap crap crap it's not like that anymore. I might not even know you're gone for a few weeks--and I might only know because your feed stays ghosted longer than usual. I'll wait patiently. I know you'll bold back up again soon. I don't call in the Mounties. I might still pick up the phone. I don't know. Depends on what's up in 23,000 other places.

And that sucks.

What has changed?

Everything.

Every little thing has changed. And yet, the familiarity, the patterns, the cadence we've created together here--I know you won't leave forever because you can't. You can't because you did it once and then again.

RageBoy gave me one bit of advice way back in 02. Never throw in the towel completely. Longevity counts. He turned out to be right. Again.

It all comes forward.

David was right too--we really have written ourselves into existence. And now what? This last week of meeting folks I've known for five years, touching shirt collars and napes of necks--we exist. I am here to tell you, we exist. We exist!!!

What we were trying to escape, it's here. You see? It's you. It's me.

It's knowing that we're stuck with ourselves.

It's not even so bad. It's not so bad. Tony is 100-percent cotton, Nancy's eyes are kinder than I knew. I still hear Doc's cough. Tish's laugh is infectious.

They can't go anywhere. You see?

Neither can you.

You can't go anywhere. Because you're already there.

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SXSW - The Darkchild Remix

Where the hell were you guys hanging out? Because DAMN it was good to see some of you who were set to hit the stage after we finished. We had a baby-sitter issue (5 p.m. sharp deadline) and missed BWB. That was George's biggest frustration of the trip. Next year...

SXSW - The Darkchild Remix Originally uploaded by ej flavors.

Seattle Can't Support Its Orchestra? That's Sad.

Certainly there are corporations and individuals there of some, shall we say, means. But the orchestra is bankrupt? Real nice.

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Guess Who Came to Lunch

Winding up a whirlwind week of blogger touching (okay I'm a little embarrassed by the physical urge I've had to poke people), I got the chance to meet, greet, hug, feed, and chat with Michael O'Connor Clarke and his wonderful family on their way through Atlanta to Disney World today. I just waved goodbye and watched their red van head down the road.

Jenna and the kids hit it right off and had a ball playing "that car matt thing" (MOCC's description) in Jenna's room, and basketball outside. Ask Michael about Jenna's hoop-playing prowess. ;-)

His children are wonderful, his wife is a doll, and what a thrill to finally meet one of my true blog brothers from way back. I left the camera in Austin with George, so you'll have to wait for the O'Connor Clarkes to make it back to the North Country for pix.

Funny thing really--how many years Michael and I have been talking, blogging, writing -- both of us during our time in blogland separating from very big PR firms to newer, smaller, cooler ventures. He has been incredibly supportive to me and my family during this past year of my pseudo-business-partnership-that-wasn't, and during and my separation from that situation.

And today I got to poke him in the arm, slug him, push him around, and make him laugh. I got to touch  his children's hair, hear their voices. Jenna got to give a bear to the kids for the rest of their journey. They brought her a beautiful craft project. Jenna asks, "When can we see them again!?"

I remember when Ruairi was born, and the scare they went through right after. That was more than three years ago. Today I got to smell him and lift him up and take his socks off and roll them into a ball and give him a brownie.

If there is nothing else I get out of blogging, today makes the last five years more than worth it.

Tags: michael o'connor clarke, ruairi, blogging, PR, tech = Powered by Qumana

Pre-Panel Chit Chat

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I'm so 12

This is one half of the audience from our Bloggers in Love panel at sxsw. Yes, I took pictures from the stage. I'm so 12 years old.

This one was at the very beginning, and Ms. Betsy Devine (YAY I FINALLY MET HER) there in the front row was overcome with exitement and anticipation for the panel that was to come.

I took other pics from the stage. I'm still sorting through the mass of pics.

Hi Betsy! Betsy told me after the panel that I was the first blogger ever to link to her -- that was way back when. I'm so glad I did. I remember finding Betsy and being blown away. It never surprised me that folks gobbled up her smarts and wit. Meeting her was very very cool.

More another day.

an oldie but a goodie

Brando at One Child Left Behind brings back the old ready.gov standard. There are some good ones here. Have a morning giggle. Dig the 'kevin federline's music' symbol. heh.

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Hug Henry, Take a Survey

I got the chance to meet Henry Copeland at SXSW, hug him even. Also saw him on the cluetrain panel. Henry's a smart cookie. If you're a mom, you know about cookies. So take the Blogads Mom's survey. It takes less time than baking cookies, and tastes great too!

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Frank's Been....

....blogging his ass off while we were away.

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While You Were Out...

I think I'm confused.

Did someone clone dave winer while we were at SXSW? Because apparently there are two now. Is one really quitting blogging? If so, has the other one gotten the first one's user name and password, because the posts keep coming? Is there a term in the DSM IV for this kind of "duality"? And which Dave Winer is suing Rogers Cadenhead?

Dave Sifry may want to re-evaluate. The state of the blogosphere is actually pretty fucking weird.

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conference as physical aggregator

It's all relative.

It occurred to me at SXSW how far technology-related analogies have become the default for me. This was especially apparent when we were at a party with so many of the men and women I'd been wanting to meet for so long, with so many amazing people there (and so many not there), that the party was like a physical aggregator.

The bolded people were there and I was so excited to see that there was something new for me, but then there were those ghosted links, the ones with no new posts, who weren't sitting across the table from me watching me guzzle diet coke or ice water while I wished I was smoking but didn't. The ghosted folks couldn't hear me talk about HOLY SHIT THEY WERE GIVING AWAY AMERICAN SPIRITS outside the conference center at the third-floor smoking lounge, and do you know that was my $4-a-pack brand for YEARS up to the day I quit, and how often do you walk into a conference where there is a booth giving them to you free? What did someone write ahead and tell them? But no, I didn't do it.

My ghosted friends missed that.

And I missed you all.

Tags: aggregation, sxsw = Powered by Qumana

Me? Reckless?

From Lorelle on my exploration of context-based tagging:

What do you think of that? It made me a little ill, and confused, but then I realized that for this blogger, blogging is a pure emotional release and tagging is just one more way to express emotion.

and

While there are a few in there that make sense, what about the other ones? The one word tags related to her post content about tagging with emotions. The rest have NOTHING to do with the content. Sure, maybe the content of the overall site, but not the post itself. I believe she thinks of these as tagging easter eggs.

and

This is a very good point because it puts a human face back onto the process. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t work. Look at her tag she’s nuts. There is only one post, hers. How do you connect with others if there are no other posts in your tag category? Clearly, not a hot tag topic.

------------------------------

Okay. This kind of thing makes me hanker for the blog days of old where I could simply say: you're out of your mind; who died and made you god of tags?

But civility is the new black, and bloggers are the new civil, so I'll try to keep my thoughts on this post within the parameters of accepted online discourse.

AS IF.

Excuse me, but one person's "reckless" use of technology is another's innovation. To put it a different way, no one ever came up with something new by following all of the rules, honey.

Allow me take these three points one by one -- I'll try to explain what's wrong with them:

1) Blogging is not a "pure emotional release" for me. Blogging is not pure, you see. It's a messy, dirty, sweaty activity when done right. Slather and lather. And some funk too.

If you read me, you'll see what you see in every good blogger: TEXTURE.

Textures are important in all human communication. The opposite of textured prose is monotone, lifeless, flat prose. So too with technology. While Web 2.0 is an unfolding of so many beautiful species of life, each blossom unique and tremendous on its own, mashups help us go beyond, become more than, create something other than, achieve texture. Mashups are proof that the world is not black and white, either or, this or that, yours or ours. It's ours AND yours. It's this AND that.

In fact the best thing about online publishing is that it is not either or, but both and. Same with my blog, thanks for asking.

2) "The rest have nothing to do with CONTENT": Good! My content has to do with content, and you might know that the word itself is a bit of a sore subject around these parts. Or, you might not. As for believing that I see tags as easter eggs? I'm not even sure how to answer that. Easter eggs? Hop?

3) As for the "she's nuts" tag, assuming that because I am the FIRST to use the tag that I will be the last is short sighted. Someone will always tag first. If I'm the first tagger for 3440 terms, all the better. Good for me. Remember me when I'm gone. Ha! It doesn't mean that no one will ever write about someone who's one quarter short of a gumball and be glad to find me waiting there.

The biggest misperception of this post regarding my take on tagging is that I'm advocating one way of tagging. I'm not--I want more. I WANT a way to tag contextually. And if that takes a separate search/tag tool, then shut up and build me one. Otherwise, I'll do it with what I've got. Either way works for me. I'm not sorry if it doesn't work for you.

When Technorati first launched, I blogged about wanting a way to find blogs based on their emotional context, not just topical content. I'll look for the post to see if I can find it, but I think I made it in comments. If it was your blog, let me know. I'd like to find it.

Tags: tags, tagging, technorati, black and white thinking, she's nuts, pissed off = Powered by Qumana

Our Esteemed Bloggers & Love Moderators

Let me tell you that Lisa Williams runs a smooth show, and Julie Leung is also a class act. Both made sure the panel ran smoothly and that everyone felt at home. Of course, with the never-shy Chris and Ponzi on the panel, and Lisa and Marc in the audience, among others, how could there NOT be a fodder for a great story--and a great time!? Another panel pic here.

IMG_5431.JPG Originally uploaded by allaboutgeorge

this is the one...

that proves you do start to look alike after 22 years... Wait til summer when i get a tan.

IMG_5433.JPG Originally uploaded by allaboutgeorge.

Bloggers in Love

Thanks to All About George Kelly for capturing some panel pictures. Now know for sure that we really did make it. The panel was a blast. Made so by great questions from Lisa and the participants in the chairs.

Bloggers in Love Originally uploaded by allaboutgeorge.

Hop on the Qutrain.

We spread the Qumana love throughout SXSW. Again, these great folks helped us get there--something we couldn't have done on our own while still maintaining the homestead. Jon and company were with us in spirit. And we've got the pix to prove it!

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What a Moment!

George and I with the great Shakespierce of busblog. Tooo cool. Great party hosted by Buzznet, Blogads and others. Hot as hell that night. This is me with a glass of ICE WATER wishing I was 22 and still smoked and drank like a college senior.

sxsw_042.JPG Originally uploaded by dsearls.

Jenna Builds Lego City at SXSW

Jenna had an AWESOME time at the lego playland SXSW had set up at the conference center. I took pictures while she grew her Lego creation from a couple of pieces to a city over the course of three hours. Halley stopped by to lend a helping hand, a few yucks, some cool creations of her own, and kid-sitting relief while I got to go get my very late second cup of coffee of the day and an SXSW t-shirt. Thanks Halley!!

Press play on the story album to watch Jenna's Austin Legoland grow. Or check out the album view here.

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Ready to Fly Away Home

I'm going to miss it here. I got a chance to meet and knock heads with some VERY cool people, from Austin and from all points outward. Bloggers and Not. Best of all, people I've known for years but never met.

More when we get back. George is staying for the music fest, but Jenna has to get back to school, and I have to get back to work. Enjoy these great folks in the mean time:

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ALBUM VIEW here.

I was at the cluetrain panel when doc said this

...which he framed prior, see, i know a good line when i hear it, and so i go look for it, and all day i've been saying to people, "It's like Doc says, you will make money from your blog before you will make money with it, but then I'm all like, "No, wait, i got the preposition wrong... that's not what he said--so wtf he say? Where are all the live bloggers w/ this information?" and then I'd tell the next persion, tryng again, using with, from, through -- no no no.

Then thank God with Extra Jesus Doc has a post with the accurate quote, which comes from Doc's chapter in a book on Open Source -- a quote that thankfully answers the ANNOYING question we get: so, how do you make money with a blog?

THIS is the anti-business-model-blogging-question-and-answer you must memorize.

Take it away Doc, with the right preposition that I won't soon forget, BECAUSE:

It will eventually become clear to everybody that there is far more money being made because of open source than with open source. This is what we have to remember every time somebody asks, "How can you make money with (open source product)?" The answer is, "You don't make money with it. You make money because of it."

Did I mention that Doc is every bit the nice, astoundingly warm, smart, and great guy I always knew he was?

Yep, he is.

What a time to be alive.

george says we are REALLY starting to look the same

Thanks George Kelly for capturing one of our pensive moments on the bloggers n' love panel.

Tags: sxsw, george kelly, jeneane sessum, george sessum, old married people looking alike = Powered by Qumana

OMG people i got to hug & or shake

SXSW Hug/Shake/WaveRoll

Links are coming as soon as i can see strait.

DOC

Karsh
Liza Sabater
Roxanne Cooper
Robert Scoble
Halley Suitt
Henry Copeland
Tony Pierce
Julie Leung
Lisa Williams
Ponzi
Chris Pirillo
George Kelley
EJ Flavors
J. Brotherlove
Grace Davis
Elisa Camahort
Jory Des Jardins
Betsy Devine
Tara Hunt
Marc Canter
Lisa Canter
Liz Henry
Tish Grier
John Lebkowsky
Ralph Brandi
Dooce
Elaine Nelson

Sighting:
Joi Ito

PLEASE PLEASE tell me who i forgot--if i hugged or waved to you or shook your hand it's not that i meant to not list you above; it's my four hours of sleep in the last 30 something hrs... i apologize in advance. I'll add links. o please remind me. o i'm so tired. i loved the panel it was way way fun.

tony pierce liked that i named him shakespierce.

that made it worth the trip.

more soon as i can think/type.

i have pics to prove we actually made it here.

key observations: we're old. but we're not dead yet.

Tags: sxsw06 = Powered by Qumana

hey wow left home 13 hours ago

went to jenna's award ceremony, dinner, to the airport, fought with stupid stupid delta ticket counter women, lost, george's bass went underneath, never good, never had to do that, always coat closet, not with these bitches, flew flew, landed, where's bass, waited, oversize luggage, got it, got car, got lost, found hotel, checked in, he's out parking rental car it's 4 am our time and holy crap we have to make sense tomorrow?

haven't seen a bat yet. it's late tho.

here coesmes george but no pizza in his hand i love him anyway.

me