Meeting People Is Easy

Today I had the great good pleasure of gathering with the local Unfogged affiliates for a special site visit from Ogged himself. Townhouse Tavern was filled with cheer as Yglesias, Tom, Ezra, and I met up with Apostropher, Matt F, (hyperlinkless) Michael, and Ogged. Scholars and gentlemen. (A special nod to Apostropher, not only for having the best blog name of anyone, anywhere, but for driving all the way up from Durham for breakfast tacos and beers.)

Internet meetups are supposed to be so awkward until you realize that these guys you're meeting aren't like all the online creeps you hear about, and instead resemble the blog personas you read and cherish. As it turns out, people just do resemble how they write, so friendships made online translate to real life pretty well. The genre of encounters has an undeserved bad name. Meanwhile, in the meatosphere everywhere you go you're always running into strange people who aren't like you and probably don't share your values and may not even have URLs. Meeting strangers, in the human flesh, without a digital trial period? By how—talking at them, for no good reason? No thanks, Morpheus, I'll take the blue pill.

Ogged has a deeper voice than I would have guessed. (If all this is Greek to you . . . read Unfogged daily for 9 months or so.)