Being Amber Rhea

BarCamp post-mortem

Last weekend, Rusty and I attended BarCamp Atlanta. I’m glad Jeff took the time and effort to pull the event together. And this is no reflection on him personally, but I’d be lying if I wrote an effusive post about what a great time it was for me.

I’m used to being a minority at tech conferences. Let’s face it: most tech conferences are, still, major sausage parties. Being one of a small number of women doesn’t make me uncomfortable, because I’ve never experienced anything different; it’s the norm (even though it shouldn’t be).

And, too, sausage parties though they may be, the guests at those parties are also individuals. Many of whom are pretty nifty folks. One’s gender is only a portion of one’s identity, after all.

But sometimes, there’s just a confluence of many factors (a propensity toward homogeny in several areas being a major one) that creates a really bad, uncomfortable situation.

On the way home after day one of BarCamp, Rusty and I were discussing different kinds of “uncomfortable.” I remembered reading, via Technorati, a few male bloggers’ wrap-ups of the BlogHer conference, where they said they felt uncomfortable because there were so few men there.

That’s one kind of uncomfortable. That’s uncomfortable as in, “I’m in a situation that’s new to me and I’m trying to figure it out.” (As a side note, one might use the particular BlogHer situation as an opportunity to reflect on how men being the majority at tech conferences as the default is fucked-up.)

There’s another kind of uncomfortable, though, and that’s what I felt at BarCamp. I’m not sure if I’d call it a feeling of physical danger, because I think that’s too simplistic. The fact that I’m having trouble coming up with the words to accurately convey what I felt annoys me, but I’m willing to bet there are other women out there who know exactly what I’m talking about. (This feeling is not confined to tech conferences, of course!)

Right off the bat, grown men were making unoriginal, sophomoric jokes about Sex 2.0; that should help set the scene a bit. I refuse to tolerate that crap and I’m certainly not going to pretend to laugh at something that I’ve heard fifty times before and wasn’t funny the first time. I expect adults to act like adults, and I won’t tolerate any apologists who inevitably come around with justifications about, “Well, they don’t know any better” and “Well, that’s the society we live in” etc. Bullshit. People raise to the expectations set for them, and if expectations for adults are perpetuated at a 7th grade level, nothing ever changes.

Then there were the assholes talking about going out to the liquor store, and one of them added, “There might be hookers out there, too!” They were only a few feet away from me, and there were so many things I could’ve said to them. But I did not have the energy to get into a pointless, fruitless fight, expending my energy while they expend none of theirs.

I don’t know where I’m ultimately going with this post. I do know that I wanted to get this out there and not hide it or pretend it’s “not a big deal.” Because it IS a big deal, and I won’t self-censor or be silenced. I want to support the local tech/social media community, but I expect that community to support all its members. And I know that’s possible – I saw it happening at PodCamp Atlanta (which had an impressive degree of diversity across many areas), SoCon07, and in many other spaces.

If any guys are tempted to leave a comment saying they didn’t get that feeling at all from BarCamp – calm your itchy fingers and re-read my post. Because that’s the entire point.

I was glad to see Dave, Tim, Vic, Tiffany (one of a total of six women!), and Jeff at BarCamp. If the whole thing had been as awesome as the parts where Rusty and I were hanging out with them, I wouldn’t be writing this. Here’s to next year.

OPP (Other People’s Posts)

I meant to post this sooner; but, as they say, better late than pregnant. Our AC was on the fritz this weekend, which meant a lot of time spent away from home (a 95° apartment is no place for me), and a lot of sleeping once the AC was back in action.

BlogHer recap posts from people I met there:

• AAG: So Here We Are at BlogHer and Thank You, Friendly Cabbie
• Cunning Minx: Sex bloggers meetup and Yay BlogHers!
• Susan Mernit: Blogher07: Sunday morning take-aways and Blogher: Surfing the Sex and Relationship bloggers
• Viviane: Back home from Blogher and Chicago

Heh, I suppose I’m officially a “sex blogger” now?

Well, that is fine with me! (And I feel humbled to be considered of the same caliber as many of those with whom I share the label.) As Rachel so eloquently put it:

I’ve been trying really, really hard of late to check myself from having to “apologize” or downplay that, yes, I do, write about sex. It’s easy as pie (or cupcakes) to fall into the trap of seeing writing about sex as lesser: less valuable, less challenging, less worthwhile. Of seeing all writing about sex as simply exhibitionistic without any greater purpose. I do it all the time and am learning to rethink those assumptions, not just for peace of mind about what I do, but because it makes the writing that much harder if you only half believe in its worth.

My conundrum in talking about this is that I don’t believe there inherently should be a greater purpose. I’m sickened by the current way we define obscenity legally, that every other value (scientific, artistic) comes first, that “prurient” is such an epithet.

RIGHT. ON.

In other news, I’m feeling a bit worried about the ongoing situation (approaching ’saga’ territory, in the lexicon of melodramatic bloggers) of my stripper pole. On the one hand, it would be fun and possibly arousing to listen to Rusty verbally strong-arm some folks; on the other hand, I just want the damn thing to be taken care of already, so I can practice. I already feel like I’m lagging woefully behind the rest of my Level 4 class, and I know the self-doubt isn’t making things any better.

Oh well… I would write more but I’m worried a bunch of assholes are going to swoop in and tell me to stop being so selfish, don’t I know there are people starving in [exotic location]?

Oh and one other thing: Ren, Kim, Belle, AP, Octo… much love to you all; I’m still not caught up on your blogs. Just wanted to make sure you know I’m not ignoring you!

Our Chicago vacation, in pictures

I will now test the speed of your broadband connection by posting a crap-ton of photos.

Skyline seen from an Orange Line train:

Navy Pier:

Sexy bloggers/podcasters dinner/world-domination-plotting:

BlogHer kick-off:

AAG brought the best schwag:

Fan-girl redux:

Invisible buddy:

Cool old hotel sign (building is now loft apartments):

19th century medical laboratory:

Rusty breaks the internet:

Sleep buddies:

O RLY?

Many more photos available here; they’ll all have captions, eventually.

To sum up: I heart Chicago.

Final night in Chicago

Tomorrow morning, we’ll be heading back to Atlanta. I’ll be glad to be home, but we’ve had a great time in Chicago. I really like this city. In fact, I’ll even go so far as to add it to the short list of cities other than Atlanta in which I could realistically see myself living. (Well, “realistic” might be a stretch; I haven’t been here in the winter!)

I know I haven’t been doing much blogging since BlogHer concluded, but that’s because we’ve been having a lot of fun being relatively off the grid.

Sunday we went to the Museum of Surgical Sciences, walked around the Lincoln Park area a little, and chilled in a random downtown Chicago Starbucks. Then we spent about four hours reading in the hotel room. Today we went to the Museum of Science and Industry for the specific purpose of visiting the baby chick hatchery. The baby chicks were unbearably cute, and I took a bunch of photos and a short video, which will be posted soon. Then we headed to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs lose. Rusty has already posted a video of the 7th-inning bleacher-bum rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

I would write more, but I’m too wrapped in up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and want to read a few more chapters before bed. I’ll write more about our trip and post plenty of photos in the next few days. Then I’ll spend the rest of the week cleaning out my inbox (current unread message count is 112; I’m sure there’s at least twice that many waiting for me at work) and combing through Bloglines.

Oh, and also I just found out I’ll be a speaker at ConvergeSouth ‘07, but more on that later.

I heart Chicago!

Fan-girl moment

I haven’t been doing any liveblogging today. I’ve been doing a fair amount of Twittering but just haven’t felt like liveblogging.

We got to BlogHer a little late today because we needed to shake off some cobwebs (am I using that phrase correctly?) this morning, but it has been a great day so far. Actually, at the moment I’m sitting in the closing keynote with Elizabeth Edwards, and it’s going great. Anyway, just wanted to share this photo Viviane took yesterday of Susie Bright and me. :)

More blogging to come later! Tonight we’ll probably be chilling at the cocktail reception, and then collapsing into bed. (Major thanks to Cunning Minx for giving us a ride back to our hotel last night, btw! That was huge.)

BlogHer notes: Intolerance session

2:45 p.m. – Does the Blogosphere Need an Intolerance Intervention?

Not sure how much liveblogging I’ll be doing in this session. I sort of want to take a break. But on the other hand this session sounds like it’ll be really interesting and I’d like to document it. Laina Dawes is talking about ten common things people do to stifle discussion of racism online. “You’re too sensitive” gets used and abused in so many conversations.

Anyway, my battery might die soon, and I might not bother to charge it.

They’re still having sound system problems. This seems to happen at a lot of conferences that are big and not free, so it makes me feel even better about how things went at PodCamp Atlanta (and also reminds me not to worry about that stuff too much).

Tish Grier says the local newspaper would not list her blog in their blogroll. They said she had to do something different to get listed. Okay, I missed what just happened there, I was talking to Rusty so I don’t know what happened with the newspaper. Also she says she goes to blogs of A-list male bloggers and disagrees with them vehemently, and sometimes it upsets them, but “they need to be.” ;)

The A-list blogs talk about how blogs are an echo chamber. But when you look at their comments sections, it’s all men talking about how blogs are echo chambers. There are no women’s voices. She says her purpose in life is challenging things and changing things.

Question to the panel (Liz Henry moderating): how do you know if an argument has been constructive? And for whom has it been constructive?

What Laina Dawes was saying just now makes it sound like she thinks “just stating your opinion” isn’t worthwhile. I think it’s very worthwhile. Maybe that’s not what she meant but that’s how it sounded.

There’s a Mormon girl on the panel (Kathryn Thompson) and she’s talking about writing about why she’s pro-life during Blog for Choice week. Hmmmmm. I don’t know. Maybe there are limits to civil discourse.

Tish asks rhetorically, “Are the A-listers gate-keepers?”

WTF is all this noise outside the door?? A guy went outside to tell them to STFU.

Question: What is the responsibility of the blog owner to corral the discussion? And how does it get more complicated when it’s a group blog?

Comment policy is needed when comments are deleted, says Kathryn. I think it’s a good idea to have a comment policy posted; but still, it is the blog owner’s discretion. Her blog, her rules. My comment policy is basically, “Don’t be an asshole.”

They’re bringing up Kathy Sierra again. This is the eternal debate about the fine line. It’s really hard and I don’t think there’s a good answer. I just wish people wouldn’t be assholes.

I want a snack.

Difference between writing a personal blog and writing on an institutional blog e.g. parenting.com – people feel like they can say much more horrible things on the institutional blogs because they don’t think of you like a person, they think of you as an institution or a company.

Tish says, “There is no credibility behind anonymous comments.” Totally agree. Fuck that noise.

Battery is dying. Snack break at 4:00. Then I need to schmooze w/ sponsors for Sex 2.0, but I don’t feel like. I’ll do it, though, and get it out of the way. That’s all for liveblogging this session.

BlogHer notes: Online safe spaces session

Fri. 1:30 p.m. – Privacy, Exposure, and Risk: Can you maintain safer spaces online?

Lunch was great, and now we are back up on the 2nd floor, getting ready for the session with Susie Bright, Ann Crady, and Tara Hunt. Speaking of which, Susie Bright came up to our table at lunch to get Rachel because they were doing a book signing together. Viviane got up and hugged her. Then she turned to me and asked my name, and I stuck out my hand and said, “I’m Amber,” and she was all, “Oh! Amber!” Seriously, y’all. She recognized me from my blog, and when I kind of breathlessly asked, “You read my blog?” she acted like it was obvious and I should stop being so modest. (!!!!) Total fan-girl moment. I felt flustered after that, but not in a bad way. So anyway, that was awesome. And Susie seems like a total sweetheart. She’s up there now wearing a tiara.

Session is starting now. Lynne D. Johnson is the moderator.

My camera battery is almost dead, but it’s just as well, because from my vantage point, all my photos are going to have a bright-red-haired woman’s head smack in the middle.

Each panelist now is going to say how much they are “exposed” online.

Tara says pretty much her whole life is online and she’s not very worried about potential risks. She says she’s had benefits from putting herself out there, including career benefits because people feel that they know her better or trust her more. She says she trusts human nature and believes people are mostly good and that might be part of why she doesn’t obsess about all the bad things that could happen.

Ann says for her the benefits far outweigh the potential risks and she thinks the dangers are far over-blown.

Susie Bright hates the mics and doesn’t want to use one. But she has to because they’re streaming live in Second Life.

Someone said the feedback was “unbearable.” I just Twittered that it’s not unbearable. Ha.

Anyway, moving on, Susie Bright is talking now about some of her history in political activism. She says being out there is one of the best protections, because as a general rule, people will protect you if they know who you are. Being “out there” is a good defense; it makes it much harder for people to twist your words or blackmail you.

What does “safe” mean, Susie asks. She’s questioning the terminology and trying to define “safe.”

She says if you are a journalist and say something controversial, you will get flak. She said she kind of wants to shake people’s hands when they say they’ve been threatened on their blog, because it means they are making a difference.

She says sometimes saying someone is making you unsafe is just a way of trying to shut them up. And it’s difficult to speak out about without sounding cruel or callous.

Question from the moderator: are women more likely to get threatened online? Tara is talking about a Pew study that shows girls and women are more likely to experience bullying or threats.

Audience member asks how each of the panelists define cyber-bullying. Susie Bright says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me – or will they?” This is what women experience online that men do not or do only rarely. But she also says women are being encouraged to stay offline because of this fear, and it’s like saying you shouldn’t go out at night. It’s the problem of the bullies, not the women. She says, “Most of these bullies are full of it.”

Audience member brought up Kathy Sierra and couldn’t remember her name. Everyone in the room said, “Kathy Sierra.” If this woman tries to minimalize what happened to Kathy Sierra I’m going to feel like punching her (the audience member, not Kathy Sierra). And yes I am fully aware of the irony there!

People are fucking assholes and it can be a tough spot. I totally agree with Susie that this stuff should not silence women’s voices or prevent us from going online, because it is not OUR problem. Just like rape is not our problem, it’s the rapists’ problem. But on the other hand this stuff REALLY HURTS and more than hurts, it can be downright terrifying, and I really don’t think men understand the way women experience this stuff, as part of the larger culture. Which is why I turn off my ears when men start yapping about “growing a spine” or some shit. Just shut the fuck up, asshole. But anyway, how do we deal with this? I can’t blame Kathy Sierra for what she did. I might have done the same. That shit can be overwhelming. And yet… I feel it is vitally important for women NOT to shut up. ESPECIALLY if it’s controversial and makes people uncomfortable and shakes things up.

Audience member asks where is the line between developing a thicker skin and dealing with active threats that could be damaging to you physically, financially, etc.?
The eternal question.

Ann says, “the line is the law.” Not sure if I agree or not. Will need to think on that some more.

Audience members should use the mic because it’s in Second Life. Oh, who am I kidding, I don’t know a thing about Second Life and I don’t care.

Susie Bright says, when you get a whiff of a troll, block them immediately so you’re not inundated with their bullshit. They thrive on attention.

Susie says a woman was waiting for her in the bathroom with a knife when she spoke at the University of Minnesota one time (not sure when this was). She mentions how absurd it was. (She went with another person to the bathroom, too, btw.) She says she does not regret her activism and she will not stop. Hell yeah!

Good damn question that I wonder about a lot: what are the kids of the “mommy bloggers” going to think when they get old enough to read the blogs? I wonder about that. At a certain point (certain age?) it seems kind of like… exploitation? That’s a loaded word but I can’t think of another one. It’s a tough call. Maybe it’s just the same question as blogging about other people in your life in general.

Statistically your child has a much greater chance of being molested in the grocery store or in church than on MySpace. The media blows it out of proportion.

“Everyone in Second Life… fuck, fuck fuck!!”

Tara is talking about Molly Holszchlag (can never spell it). I love what she does on her blog because she talks about her depression and other stuff right there on the same blog as web standards and Microsoft and stuff. Molly rocks.

“It’s a sign of strength to say, ‘I’m going to say what I want, fuck you.’” – Tara

Susie is talking about the inherent sexism in the fear we feel as women about speaking up. Men are not critiqued for who they go to bed with… this is Women’s Studies 101, she says.

Audience member says handling professional criticism is a walk in the park after dealing with so many trolls. Silver lining!

Here comes the appeal to “what about the children.” I don’t buy it anymore, hardly at all.

Dude is talking about making sure you are comfortable with anyone seeing what you put online. For some reason he is really putting me off because I feel like everyone here knows that already. Thanks for words of wisdom.

Now Susie Bright is saying she believes a lot of the malicious behavior online is motivated by jealousy, and she doesn’t know how to handle that. Ann disagrees and thinks it’s mostly boredom. I think there’s probably some of both, but I can’t really attribute a whole lot of it to just boredom.

Okay this audience member has been talking too long. There’s a line of people behind her waiting to talk. I think the lilt of her voice makes me not absorb anything she’s saying. I have no idea what she’s talking about.

Audience member is breastfeeding and unlike at most conferences, no one is going to give her shit about it.

Analee Newitz is speaking up from the audience now. Personal blogging “can bite people in the ass.” She’s talking about how some of us are lucky in that we have lots of options for employment and such, but a lot of people don’t have those options and can’t say, “fuck you, I’ll work somewhere else.” I’m glad someone pointed that out. Because yes, even though this is a problem with the company, the effect is on the particular woman’s life. Ideology is nice and all, but being able to feed your family is nicer.

Now an audience member says she never intended to be a public figure, but after starting her blog, a few months later she was on the front page of the New York Times business section. She said we need to realize that it’s a risk and an opportunity that any one of us could become a public figure overnight. I definitely agree that we have to be aware of that, but I don’t think that should make people stifle or self-censor. Real people have real lives and do real things. Imagine that!

Now a woman who runs a blog called I, Asshole is talking. She is awesome. She talks about how she edits her trollish comments and adds to the end, “Now I must go home and fuck some puppies.”

Susie Bright adds some levity. Yes, we’re all talking about how important it is to stand up and have a thick skin, but it really does hurt when you feel like you’ve been passed over because of something you wrote, or because people might be laughing at you, or whatever. Pink Ghetto, anyone?

Tara says, “We all have inner Gollums.” Let’s stop putting up these facades that say we’re perfect. The world says we’re not allowed to talk about these things, but we all feel this way at some point.

Session is almost over. I’m going to try to get my picture taken with Susie Bright.

BlogHer notes: Naked Bloggers session

Fri. 10:45 a.m. – Digital Exhibitionists or Chroniclers of their Time: Will Naked Bloggers Make History?

“There are a lot of things happening in our lives that we feel like we have to hide.” – Stacy Campbell

“I do all the stupid stuff everybody else did, but I write about it.” – Heather Barmore

First question for the panel: How honest can and should you be? What will be missing 100 years from now?

Kris was angry with herself for holding back and not being honest at the time in blogging about a relationship that later ended

“Keeping it honest has become more difficult as the readership grows.” – Stacy
This is the classic blogger conundrum. We all struggle with this. And yet it is never less of a struggle. And there isn’t one right answer.

So far everyone on the panel has been self-deprecating and saying no one will be reading their blog in 100 years. But the whole point is, people will! This stuff that might seem mundane or even whiny now is important. Chronicling real life (everyone’s unique experience) is hugely important. I’m reminded of what Josh was saying at BlogSavannah about finding letters written to family members during the Civil War, and how in many ways that offers us the most insight. (Still, though, a blog is different in some ways… but that’s another tangent. Knowing that there’s an audience – even a tiny one, or a potential one – does change things.)

AAG says she went online to be more private… LOL. She says she is still at times afraid of being judged. I can relate.

Somebody in the audience just said she threw away all her old diaries! Aaaaaagggghhh!!! Nooo!! Sacrilege! I cannot imagine throwing away something that personal and unique… even if you do regret things you wrote, or not want certain people to see it.

Audience member makes a good point about the power of women writing blogs is that we are in control of representing our own lives, rather than leaving it up to someone else to reconstruct the story of your life and maybe get things wrong or add their own judgment.

Next question for the panel: What makes you most uncomfortable? Family and friends reading it? Co-workers? Something else?

Heather almost got kicked out of her apartment because of something she wrote. (!!!)

I realize I am very, very lucky in the approach I take to blogging nowadays. I didn’t always take this approach – because I couldn’t (e.g. when I was looking for a job when I lived in Texas; a bunch of stuff w/ my marriage; etc). And to some people who don’t know me very well, they might think it looks very cavalier… but it’s not. It’s very much intentional and I am determined to be as open and honest as possible. Of course, “as possible” is the caveat there, and the definition is always changing.

Sarcastic Journalist is talking about how she got fired for her blog. She was a reporter and she was anonymous and she still got fired – just like Dooce. A few of her family members disowned her too. Anonymity is NOT the protection you might think it is. Don’t be naive. You’re never really anonymous.

I think that’s the biggest – HUGEST – difference between blogs and personal diaries. Even though, yes, people can and do find and read other people’s personal diaries, the whole world can’t find your personal diary on Google. It’s less of a risk. Certainly can be more of a liability if people find it bc you’re being more personal and not holding back, but that is valuable; but I don’t think blogs will ever be exactly the same.

Someone in the audience is talking about how she went to a conference and found herself apologetically telling people she “writes JUST a personal blog.” Right on!! I HATE that shit! I hate that perception of personal blogs (whatever that even means; I have a beef with that term, too, but I can write about that later) as somehow “less than” other types of blogs such as political blogs.

I think we should have a session at Sex 2.0 that’s like this except focused on writing about sexuality and your personal sex life and all that good stuff. (Btw I am having some… I don’t know… burned-out? feelings about Sex 2.0. But I’ll get to that another time.) I kind of hoped this would be more sexuality-focused, but then, the general personal stuff topic is fascinating and important, and sexuality is a part of that.

Audience member says, “Our personal honesty on our blogs is politically important.” I agree. The personal is political, indeed.

Someone else is speaking now who developed a plug-in for WordPress called Post Levels, which lets you control who sees certain posts. I may have to look into this.

Culture Kitchen woman is talking now. I don’t know her name but I know her blog! (I’m surrounded by the bloggerati, hell yeah.) She says, “As my blog kept rising and getting more and more readers, it started having less and less personal stuff. The blog started to have a life of its own.”

Now the conversation is turning to talking about how personal blogs are breaking stereotypes in very powerful ways. Someone asked Culture Kitchen woman “how dare you be one of the top Latina bloggers in the country and say you’re an atheist.” Heather talks about how people assumed she was white, and when they found out she was black they’d say, “You speak so eloquently” and shit. Stacy says not everyone who struggles with depression is completely batshit. AAG talks about how powerful it is that she can be not young and not thin and still be having great sex and letting everyone know about it.

ROCK ON!

Moderator says none of these personal records are complete (she’s a historian who deals w/ a lot of personal journals, letter, etc.). This self-censoring is not unique to blogging and we should not get too hung up on it, as in worrying about whether or not it’s “real.”

Another audience member is talking about how people say they didn’t realize she was a POC. She gets called “exotic.” She says, “Guess what, if you’re going to keep calling me ‘exotic,’ I’m going to keep talking about race!” Heather says she doesn’t talk about being black all the time because (gesturing toward Kris) “do you talk about being white all the time?”

AAG says it’s not courageous for her to write about sexual abuse. This is something someone did to her, it’s a reflection on the person who did it to her, not a reflection on what kind of person she is. She encourages everyone in the audience to write about it if it happened to you. Stacy says, “If it makes somebody uncomfortable, then maybe you need to write about it even more urgently.” I am mentally high-fiving her now.

Now a dude is talking about how he feels like people at some parenting blogs think he doesn’t have a right to talk about parenting. He says even though he gets a lot of crap, it’s worth it because he’s breaking the stereotype and showing that there are men who care actively about being parents.

Another audience member is now saying she feels like her blog has brought her closer to her family. This is interesting.

Another woman is talking about how her friends pressure her to write about certain things. Like, “Why didn’t you write about my engagement.” Heh. Start your own blog!

Session is almost over… I think there’s supposed to be some kind of prize drawing. AAG brought some amazing schwag, including dildos.

Hello, BlogHer!

Well, we’re here – at the Navy Pier for the start of the BlogHer conference. Right now most people are doing this “speed dating” introduction thing, but Rusty and I opted out because it’s just way too damn social. I know I should probably be taking this opportunity to force Sex 2.0 MOO Cards on people, but I just can’t handle it. So, instead, I’m doing what my T-shirt says I’m doing: blogging this. The wifi here is great, the schwag bags are amazing… well, generally everything is amazing so far.

The best way to follow me today will probably be Twitter, but even with that i don’t know how many updates I’ll be posting, since my top priority will be having fun, participating, and all that good stuff.

We had breakfast with AAG, Viviane, RKB, Susan Mernit, and a few other people whose names I can’t remember. Last night we had dinner w/ Viviane, RKB, Susan, Cunning Minx (who called me “perky and adorable” – ha!), and Lisa Williams. I’ll post photos when I get a chance!

So far I think Chicago is a great city. One thing we learned: there is apparently a shuttle from the Orange Line train to Navy Pier. We did not know that, and instead spent $75 on a cab this morning. Oh well, live and learn. It was the cab driver who told us about the shuttle, actually; and he was a really nice guy, he and Rusty had a grand old time talking about sports. So it could have been much worse.

Okay, that’s all for now… off to enjoy! :)

Places we’ll be (very far OTP)

Rusty and I are going to be jet-setting podcasters this year – because, why the hell not? Here are some events we’ll be gracing with our presence:

…and maybe more! But this is what we know for sure.

In New York we’ll be staying with the lovely and talented Dacia; it’ll be great to see her again and I’m glad she and Rusty will finally be able to meet. And I’m excited about going to Chicago and California (Ontario is near LA, if I remember correctly) because I’ve never been to either place.

But before all that, I have to finish pulling PodCamp Atlanta out of my ass… if you haven’t signed up yet, you’d better hurry up and do it, because space is going fast.