octoberfest?
Sep. 23rd, 2007 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7OK so. I'm a member of a local blogging community. It's more a social networking site than a Current Events kinda blog-- local in focus, but mostly concerned with people talking about their lives and arranging to hang out and talking about hanging out, rather than, say, posting angry commentary on the failures of the conventional news media outlets and the foibles of the local politicians, and such. Sure, there are some political posts, etc, and there are current events things, but mostly, it's people writing about their lives and hanging out with each other. It's a bit cliquey, but new people come in and old people leave all the time. it's the brainchild of a local programmer, who as his master's thesis put together a social networking site just to sort of see what happened. The site founder often hosts parties at his awesome house downtown, and in general, is a laid-back and sweet-but-sharp kinda fellow, and the community is lovely. That's how I got Chita, by the way, from a woman on that community.
So anyhow.
Through that community, I heard there was an event called Blogtoberfest
(the original post promoting it is, I guess, here).
I thought it was a bit odd-- I mean, the Terminal is really big, and I couldn't really believe that just bloggers could fill it. And... well, whatever. I thought that "come in costume" was a bit weird-- it's not even quite October, who does costumes already at this time of year?
But I decided to go as a beer wench. Sure.
I'll meet some other bloggers, it'll be fun.
Turns out it was actually just regular Oktoberfest, and a local blogger volunteers at the terminal, and was like, hey, let's all meet up there, guys, it'll be fun.
And nobody came.
Z and I went, I in a cute beer wench costume, and we found a pair of tables that had that flier on them, that said, "Reserved for Buffalo Bloggers!" OK, so we sat at one.
I got stared at disapprovingly. Like, to an extent I never have before. I kinda wear corsets a lot. Hell, I wear that corset a lot. And I got stared at. The whole place was full of middle-aged suburbanites. The women stared, hostile. The men all hastily looked away. It was... It was weird.
And there was no one there who owned up to being a blogger.
No one.
Eventually six or so other members of the local site showed up, and we hung out, somewhat awkwardly-- it was kind of weird in there, and there was an inordinate quantity of Polish shit for it being an ostensibly German event, but hell, Buffalonians apparently don't know the fuckin' difference.
Finally we all left, and went to a party up in Youngstown, which is right up in that little corner of New York by the Niagara River. We sat around a bonfire and drank and had amusing conversations and generally didn't get stared at hostilely, which was a nice fucking change.
I'm still totally baffled though. Why come up with a flier for an event and then send said flier to other local websites when it's actually just a table at another event? I mean, OK, whatever, but what really floors me is, why would you then not show up? I mean, if you're going to the trouble of exhorting others to come, why wouldn't you come yourself? Why? I don't understand, unless it's some sort of adolescent-style game of telling the uncool kid there's a party just to see if he goes to it?
So the moral of the story is, most of the independent Buffalo bloggers apparently have social anxiety issues and don't leave their houses, or if they do, they don't talk to strangers when they do.
Go figure.
Anyhow. So.
I've resolved to start a flamewar over it, with the other local bloggers, at my earliest convenience, because I just don't have enough drama in my life.
In other news:
Today we got the last of the wallpaper ripped down in the bedroom, and got the first coat of paint on the other three walls. The back wall is pretty much finished, oh goody.
We also opened up a new checking account that we can actually hopefully access online, unlike the old HSBC one, so that'll be nice, to be able to pay bills... I've got my health insurance cancelled and my gas threatning to be shut off, because I couldn't fucking log in to my own checking account. Fuck you, HSBC. I'm leaving you for someone who at least pretends to understand the fucking Internet. Ugh.
I have been extremely grouchy lately, very testy and easily upset. I think it's because my house is a fucking shambles and I can't find anything and also, don't have any time to myself. That's my working theory.
I haven't been online much lately and was on skip=80 on my f-list this afternoon when I finally read it. Do let me know if I've missed anything. How you all doing?
I'm going to go collapse-- I'm very tired. I did a shitload of dishes and a bunch of laundry on top of a metric ton of stripping and painting today, so, ugh. Tired.
So anyhow.
Through that community, I heard there was an event called Blogtoberfest
(the original post promoting it is, I guess, here).
I thought it was a bit odd-- I mean, the Terminal is really big, and I couldn't really believe that just bloggers could fill it. And... well, whatever. I thought that "come in costume" was a bit weird-- it's not even quite October, who does costumes already at this time of year?
But I decided to go as a beer wench. Sure.
I'll meet some other bloggers, it'll be fun.
Turns out it was actually just regular Oktoberfest, and a local blogger volunteers at the terminal, and was like, hey, let's all meet up there, guys, it'll be fun.
And nobody came.
Z and I went, I in a cute beer wench costume, and we found a pair of tables that had that flier on them, that said, "Reserved for Buffalo Bloggers!" OK, so we sat at one.
I got stared at disapprovingly. Like, to an extent I never have before. I kinda wear corsets a lot. Hell, I wear that corset a lot. And I got stared at. The whole place was full of middle-aged suburbanites. The women stared, hostile. The men all hastily looked away. It was... It was weird.
And there was no one there who owned up to being a blogger.
No one.
Eventually six or so other members of the local site showed up, and we hung out, somewhat awkwardly-- it was kind of weird in there, and there was an inordinate quantity of Polish shit for it being an ostensibly German event, but hell, Buffalonians apparently don't know the fuckin' difference.
Finally we all left, and went to a party up in Youngstown, which is right up in that little corner of New York by the Niagara River. We sat around a bonfire and drank and had amusing conversations and generally didn't get stared at hostilely, which was a nice fucking change.
I'm still totally baffled though. Why come up with a flier for an event and then send said flier to other local websites when it's actually just a table at another event? I mean, OK, whatever, but what really floors me is, why would you then not show up? I mean, if you're going to the trouble of exhorting others to come, why wouldn't you come yourself? Why? I don't understand, unless it's some sort of adolescent-style game of telling the uncool kid there's a party just to see if he goes to it?
So the moral of the story is, most of the independent Buffalo bloggers apparently have social anxiety issues and don't leave their houses, or if they do, they don't talk to strangers when they do.
Go figure.
Anyhow. So.
I've resolved to start a flamewar over it, with the other local bloggers, at my earliest convenience, because I just don't have enough drama in my life.
In other news:
Today we got the last of the wallpaper ripped down in the bedroom, and got the first coat of paint on the other three walls. The back wall is pretty much finished, oh goody.
We also opened up a new checking account that we can actually hopefully access online, unlike the old HSBC one, so that'll be nice, to be able to pay bills... I've got my health insurance cancelled and my gas threatning to be shut off, because I couldn't fucking log in to my own checking account. Fuck you, HSBC. I'm leaving you for someone who at least pretends to understand the fucking Internet. Ugh.
I have been extremely grouchy lately, very testy and easily upset. I think it's because my house is a fucking shambles and I can't find anything and also, don't have any time to myself. That's my working theory.
I haven't been online much lately and was on skip=80 on my f-list this afternoon when I finally read it. Do let me know if I've missed anything. How you all doing?
I'm going to go collapse-- I'm very tired. I did a shitload of dishes and a bunch of laundry on top of a metric ton of stripping and painting today, so, ugh. Tired.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-23 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 12:39 am (UTC)I'd switch to it entirely instead of LJ except that I've been on LJ so long and have such a different and important group of people reading this. And while it's great to have a local site focused around where I live, I haven't always lived here and may not always do so.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 02:35 am (UTC)sick sick sick
Date: 2007-09-24 01:58 pm (UTC)Then I was struck down with the nasties.
Flame me, go ahead.
Re: sick sick sick
Date: 2007-09-24 02:01 pm (UTC)Re: sick sick sick
Date: 2007-09-24 02:11 pm (UTC)Oh, jeez, I didn't even make my point in my comment below-- I had meant to say, we were mostly kidding about the flamewar, and we actually do, for the most part, understand that we're not actually Being Excluded By Some Vast Conspiracy.
But it was a really uncomfortable sort of situation for a bit, and we were a bit baffled. I guess we're not in the loop with the Terminal stuff so we didn't know what to expect at all, and so the flier made us think it was some really organized thing.
Anyway. We could have a flamewar if it would actually amuse enough people, but I was actually being sarcastic-- I have quite enough to handle what with the never-ending joys of roller derby Yahoo-group politics. I could've made that clearer, though.
Still and all-- online gang warfare in Buffalo!! That might make the News write a less-patronizing piece! Muahaha!
... Meh, probably not. Newspapers hate bloggers.
Re: sick sick sick
Date: 2007-09-24 02:04 pm (UTC)Mostly we just thought it would be amusing to start a flame war.
Then we decided it would hereafter be awesome to crash every future Buffalo Blogging event in a large, drunken, obnoxious group.
We're still mostly just annoyed by that Buffalo News article that was all, "Oh there's like four Bloggers in Buffalo, here they are, whee" and nary a mention of this huge all-local site.
I know e-strip is different, it's more social networking than blogging anyway, so I'm not all that fussed, but I just know it makes Paul so annoyed and upset. Nobody ever mentions e:strip anywhere. And he kinda takes it personally.