Boys allowed.
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away - ok, Florida - I attended several sealed-deck Magic tournaments. Yes. Yes, I did.
And while there are many cool things about playing in a sealed-deck Magic tournament, I always got a particular kick out of the echo of my voice in the deliciously empty women's room.
This was better:
For Blogher, one of the men's bathrooms was simply commandeered to allow for the increase in feminine need. Too funny.
My thoughts about Blogher 2005 are currently somewhat overwhelming and swirly. So many potential blog topics in my head from one weekend of time. But for now I will say this: To me, the power of blogs exists in their sheer individuality. Though we may, as humans, still group ourselves and others by similarities - a natural way to navigate and manage an insanely full world (or plan a conference, for that matter) - blogs of any category will always remain individual, naturally defying generalization and stereotype. We can be "mommy bloggers" or seek out rules for blogging, but in the end the only titles and the only rules are the ones you choose for yourself out here in the blogosphere.
Blogher was a wonderful and educational day spent with many individual voices.
Supercool bloggers I met:
Not Calm (dot com)
Mommy Needs Coffee
Three Kid Circus
Bake Town, CA
Real Kato
Zoe Tales
There were so many others... for some I have faces, but not the blog. The number one thing I needed was a system for tracking people I met, their names and their blog addresses. Something high tech, like a notebook and a pen. Which I had, but did not implement properly. Alas!
One thing I didn't need was money for parking. A strange site for an L.A. girl:
Two other cool peeps:
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez participated in the "Flame, Blame & Shame" lunch discussion. I was amazed by her story of a resignation letter circulated and ultimately published without her consent. I appreciated what she had to say about being an individualist. She just pulled a Shatner on the heels of Blogher.
Ambra Nykol spoke up in the first session of the day, "Play by today's rules or change the game?" I liked what she said about doing your thing and letting your readership grow naturally. Basically, that if you blog well, they will come. I agree.
That said, here's my first Technorati tag: blogher
And after I've posted this, I'm going to ping them.
Go me! Learnin' at Blogher! Next up - in some indeterminate future - del.icio.us and flickr.
But not tonight. Overload!
Two cool panelists:
KewlChops (Advanced Tools)
Ellen Spertus (Flame, Blame & Shame)
Finally, during the closing session someone pointed out that our blogrolls are often a reflection of who we are. The challenge was made: Find and read blogs written by people who are not so much like you. Different voices. I think I do a fairly good job of that, but considering the mass of content out there, there's lots of room to grow, and new places to visit. May I suggest Multidimensional.Me as an interesting place to continue the exploration.
And now, I must to bed. For tomorrow morning, I will be dreaming of this:
