James O'Brien

I’ve just arrived home from the April Meetup for the Sydney Weblogger Group. And you know, surprisingly, all of the people I met seemed quite nice and there were no apparent freaks. At least no one that I spoke to. Nonetheless, I’ve posted a fairly anonymous photograph, since many of the people I met tonight were fairly new to blogging and many of them have chosen to remain anonymous, unlike myself!

As Miss Andrea observed, the night started off with

the opening (with drinks) of an art exhibition featuring painter Angus McDonald and ceramicist Fiona Myer in collaboration. Martin and his SO Amanda knew Angus when they were living in NE NSW; the third member of our party was James, who grew up in that area. Martin also introduced us to his Sydney friends and erstwhile temp-house-hosts, Paul and Penny, who were there. Wow, too much confluence. I enjoyed the sparse, lovely artwork, which made me think about technique and light. Then we stood on the street outside the Tim Olsen Gallery Annex in Paddington where drinks were served on the naturestrip under a mini-marquee. The Janz bubbly was a welcome Tasnarnian touch.

From there, we headed off to the Blogger Meetup.

Both my good buddy Mark and I felt like old-timers when we reflected on the number of years we’ve been revealing our lives to the public. In stark contrast to some of the newer bloggers who were doing it for work-related reasons, we kinda felt like old-timer freaks. Well, I did, if Mark didn’t.

Since I have such poor social skills I was grateful for the presence of my friend and colleague Miss Andrea, who is visiting from Tasmania. I mean, Miss Andrea and I had checked out some of the blog links this afternoon to make sure there were no potential stalkers or freaks attending, and we had decided most of the names and blogs we had surfed seemed like reasonable people. As it was, Miss Andrea had gone to university with one of the participants Brad Howarth

But thanks to her ability to discuss fashion (I shop at Lowes), politics, and online identities and such, I was able to meet the likes of Icy, John, Bryan and supreme organiser (she did a great job) Sara who told us about her media experiences. Though I missed meeting Therin of Andor with whom I share an interest in Number 96. Without Miss Andrea, I’m sure I would have been Mr Loser, tucked away in the corner.

So yeah, it was a good night, and I reckon I’ll be back for the next one in May, especially since I noticed a couple of cute (possibly gay) guys in the room who I didn’t get the chance to talk to!!

PS. Emily has posted a photograph of me, Mark, Brad and Miss Andrea, which demonstrates what a loud, boorish person I obviously am. Holding court, I am either fascinatingly telling an anecdote or boring the pants off everyone. The person with the best caption wins a dinner date with me, and the person with the second best caption has to live with me for the rest of my life.