Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["David R. Matusiak" <matusiak AT hotmail.com>]

thursday march 2nd 2000

thursday may 4th 2000

artists escape - chapel hill

What a grand old time we've had atop the perch that is Artist's Escape.  
When we met there in March, the weather was still a bit chilly, but the 
house was packed. It afforded me the opportunity to meet Chris Calloway and 
to drag the explanation of the term "Dialographer" out of Dave Parker.
I'm sure whatever fun I personally experienced paled in comparison to the 
outrageous sensation Gina Norman got from ordering chocolate fondue (and 
snapping her fingers when necessary!).

In March, the back room was really packed (to the point of discomfort for 
certain claustrophobics), but the pristine, couldn't-be-better weather of 
last Thursday allowed us to (literally) spill out onto the wonderful deck. 
There were a lot less old codgers <insert laugh here> at the May meeting 
(obviously bitter that the cold, gray, rainy weather had subsided) which 
made room for a bunch of fresh faces. I got to meet a nice young man from 
Japan named Ken Koyonagi. He is a business student at UNC who is looking to 
do an internship here this summer. I also met Katy Portier, a 
soon-to-be-graduated UNC student who has acquired a nice set of web skills. 
And I finally got to meet Ed Wesolowski from iDisplay.

The atmosphere was bustling. The talented waitstaff put aside their 
requisite surliness in order to please the large group of computer geeks, 
who would most certainly have brought their cash register and espresso 
machine to a screeching halt with some DoS attack or something had any 
'attitude' been detected. Meredith, the very receptive proprietor of Artists 
Escape kept everyone in line; including us (they ID'ed me for a beer -- 
sheesh!).
Poi Dog was running amuck and might have eaten Gina and Meghan's Sephora 
cosmetics had Dennis not been there to issue the horrible, disturbing sounds 
that he has used to train that poor beast.

Uzi was on the scene to 'keep it real.' Tom Beckett wafted around the
cluttered tables like the smoke of a fine herb. Don Rosenberg was relaxing 
after having just finished his work-in-progress; a book on incorporating 
open-source solutions into business practices. The beautiful B Holroyd was 
kind enough to share her "Black Black" Nicorette gum with me (I just _had_ 
to have a piece after I smelled her chewing it!). I just wish I had known 
beforehand that "Black Black" translated directly to "contains tobacco grit 
of the absolute highest toxin concentration known to man." I coughed and had 
a sore throat for days...

The food was good, but I never seem to get around to finishing my meals at 
these dern events. Must be that paralyzing fear of other people watching me 
eat. Doesn't that just drive you nuts? Perhaps not in your case, but I may 
start showing up before the events to eat and be done with it. That way, I 
can concentrate on drinking and socializing (like Alex Verhoeven)! Did Paul 
Jones show up and not rub elbows with me?? Eghads, my Leo pride is hurt.

After most folks had retired to their dreamy, relaxing lives of cracking
coconuts and eating bon-bons, a small group of philosophers gathered to
have a face-to-face discussion of the whole "Digital Divide" issue that
had burned up the list in weeks prior. As we all know, the bandwidth is
much higher and more fluid in person, so I may have gotten Steve Steele
to call off his hit squad. No, I was not successful in arguing my point
of "forced-hard-labor-camps" for the common man, but I may have gotten
them to see that my point of view wasn't *entirely* malicious.

Needless to say, great fun was had by all. Other than the near-death thing 
with the Black Black gum, I'd venture to say that the evening was perfect. 
nThe weather certainly couldn't have been better. If I had to point the 
InterNetWorkers Ouija board to something bad, it was that a lot of great 
folks were missing. Why don't y'all codgers try and make the next meeting, 
ya hear?

luv,
dav
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