Now that this is up, JM, could you say precisely which days would work for you? I'm a little confused by different posts you made in the other place.
In the other place, I was trying to arrange a meetup with my high school friends. Different crowd. Nice people, mind you.
I was thinking of another post that said your first day here is Friday.
We haven't been to the Trappist. (In this group.)
The Trappist is pretty great, although it can also get crazy busy. There's also Portal, although it's in kind of an odd location.
Good point: if we do Trappist I'd prefer it be Thursday. Never been to Portal - it's a mile walk from BART, but there's a lot of bus service, if that helps for people.
Oh, oh, oh! I keep having to push back my travel to the Bay area, but maybe I can make it coincide with this meetup!
There's a decent chance I'll be in Frisco (intentional usage) those days, and if so I'll try to come. We're talking 11/29 and 11/30, right?
I am in favor of Trappist, but that might only be because I can't find out much about Portal using links.
Wait I spoke too soon! That might be the most links-friendly bar/restaurant website I've ever seen, in fact.
I'll be in the east bay this Thursday and Friday but probably don't have times for anything.
This is all coming together quite nicely.
I'll be laid up, I'm afraid. You should all come to Davis, and we can meet up at the French Landry here.
I was just at Trappist last night! It's lovely.
Nice save, JM, but we all know 13 was to 12.
That's very interesting, jms, because I was just wondering when you might next be up this way.
If Thursday is selected, I'll see if there's a good way to cross that stretch of water. Driving seems like the poorest choice, but trying to get my wife to Jack London Square seemed to involve a lot of transfers. Hmm...
Don't travel alone to Jack London Square if it is below -50.
Funnily given 15, I just found out I may actually be in Sacto that Thursday. Wouldn't keep me from making it Thursday evening, though.
20: The Broadway Shuttle shows up on whatever you're using to chart a course, right? Though it wouldn't help you that night getting back.
I don't always cross the Bay, but when I do, I prefer Unfogged meetups. I can probably make it, though the nearer to BART the better.
Sadly I will be out of town but welcome!
Okay, so Thursday 29 November is looking good. Trappist looks like it is pretty close to Bart, so my vote is for there.
It's a shame the dream of simultaneous East/West coast meetups failed to materialize. Someone could have set up a video conference.
Someone could have set up a video conference.
And we could have toasted each other with Zima while blasting Nirvana songs!
Well wasn't that randomly bitchy of me. I blame [ funding authority this application will hopefully get turned in to ].
What, I ask, could be more delightful?
I gather no one says 'video conference' anymore? I was heading for a version of my last comment that included 'webcam', and couldn't manage to make it sound clean.
That's about 24 hours, so without objection, so ordered. Time? 7PM?
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Not quite sure where to put this -- unless someone superkind with the power wants to make it a post in its own right -- but Unfogged East are also meeting for a pint this week. Or anyway Ttam and me, on Wednesday, but everyone else in or near London entirely welcome and encouraged to join us. Sorry it's such short notice, I'm on deadline at the moment and it makes me forgetful and unforesightful. Not quite sure where yet, except maybe not the Angel again, as I'm bored of its dollshouse-like lack of doors between rooms that don't lead outside first. Somewhere easily accessible from Paddington or the Central Line.
|>
Let me encourage you all to go to the East Bay meetup by noting that I will not be there.
re: 37
Yes. Paging Alex, Ginger Y, nworB, and whoever else might be around.
37: if you guys want to move it to some time between 9:30 Saturday night and 10:00 Sunday morning, I'd love to join you. Especially if there's a Heathrow hotel bar you've been meaning to try.
So what's the question about the time (for the East Bay meetup, that is). I thought we had agreement on 7PM?
Le me be the first to suggest 7PM.
Let me be the first to suggest that you liveblog this meetup.
OK, 7PM it is, unless JM has anything to say about it.
Sorry, I have been unusually rotten at arranging my social life on this trip. 7 pm will be just fine. Looking forward!
Everyone will need to bring a wetsuit and a kayak, apparently. No kayaks in the lead car!
Apologies for the last comment if it was deletion-worthy.
If it hasn't been deleted after 40 minutes…
Or was there a now-deleted comment between 49 and 50?
I give up! I swear it was gone for a minute. Browser issue, maybe. Now, of course, you must delete all of this.
53: This happens to me too without it being my comment. The front page says 49 comments, I click to get the window, the last is 48, I hit refresh and there's the 49th. Possibly due to the cache not clearing like it should?
I wonder: is Cards Against Humanity the sort of thing that would work well at a meetup? Or would it end up requiring too much attention, distracting from the conversations, which are of course the main dish, so to speak? Probably the latter.
Eurgh, if only there were a version written for non-bros. How about Give Me the Brain?
Is the original, Apples to Apples, particularly bro-y? (The reason I mentioned CaH, which also applies to A2A, is precisely that it *doesn't* pull you into a complicated, attention-demanding gameworld of rules and goals; it's almost more like a card-guided conversational layer than a traditional card game, in that sense. But on further reflection, I think it's probably still too much of a distinct Activity, appropriate only to gatherings specifically devoted to it. So nevermind!)
I like the idea of 55, although I've only ever played it in a house.
I think Unfogged can spontaneously generate better shock-the-bourgeois than CaH. I *really* don't like their cards.
...I don't remember conversation flagging at a meetup before. And I've sat next to you, x! Were you bored?
I don't think I'd want to go to a meetup expecting meetup and then end up playing some game. Going to a pre-arranged game thing would be fine, depending on the game.
There is always the ancient Midwestern tradition of 1000 Blank White Cards.
(IMVLE, the game only works in groups of people who know one another well, maintain a running meta-discourse in conversation generally, and have enough experience with games in general that fun can be patched together from fragments of rules. This did describe a few of the historical player groups, and presumably doesn't describe a whole lot of others. It does not describe me. I could actually see it working with people here, although I have no idea -- no idea -- if any of you can draw.)
Pitch works great like that because of the bidding. We used to play in college with the same core group.
Apples to Apples is fun, but I wouldn't recommend it for a meet-up. You're supposed to focused on (1) liveblogging and (2) the possibility at some point of karaoke.
There was a couple of twenty somethings on a date sitting next to me and I didn't have the slightest bit of gas to release. Nothing is ever ready when you need it.
Guhhh I just realized I left without paying for my beer. does anyone reading this have LB's or Blandings' phone number?
I must rise to nosfolw's defense. He reimbursed with alacrity (and money).
(assume I spelled nosflow correctly.)
Assume I knew how to distinguish between a use and a mention.
What is the volume of a spherical nosflow? Is he under pressure? Is he a balloon man? Will he blow up in my face?
Varies by temperature, yes, no, if you consent.
Have some respect for tradition; it's the pit with a broadsword for you.
I read alacrity in Tia's comment.
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty much fine with games that don't ask you to give up personal details.
You know, like Social Security Risk.
78: So did I, hence the insult.
OT: This article by Bruce Bartlett is so many kinds of fascinating.
67: Really don't sweat it. If you're worried buy someone a drink another time.
I too read alacrity there. Otherwise, it'd be broadswords!
73: I was going to say no, in your hand, but then I listened to the song and was reminded that the face does indeed make an appearance. And also made happy, because come on.
Yeah, I love that song.
His My Wife and My Dead Wife is haunting.
84.2: I particularly love the Gotta Let This Hen Out version.
Someone (Spike?) left their scarf behind. I forget who took it with.
I have it. Let me know if it's yours.
If not then Mr. Blandings (free scarf) and Tia (free beer) jointly won the meetup. We will have to schedule a knife fight between them in order to determine the final winner.
Free beer versus free scarf isn't a tie unless you have a scarf made of beer or a beer made of wool.
I got to introduce ajay to the joys of after hours subway schedules. 'Looks like we need to go way uptown to go downtown.' At least our tubes are filled up after hours, unlike some I could mention.
I had to front for the "free" beer (but note that Tia has indeed been alacritous) and have made arrangements to return the scarf, so I don't think I win anything.
So my train gets back into Oakland at 6:40 at the earliest, and counting another stop I have to make, I doubt I'll be there at 7. So if anyone could be a real bodhisattva and get there a bit early to look out for a scarce table, that would be lovely.
59, 60: I already retracted the suggestion; it was a horrible idea, and I'm a bad, bro-y person for having enjoyed playing CaH in the past. (But no, I was not at all bored at the past meetups.)
80.last is indeed fascinating. The juxtaposition of 'why can't they see outside their cocoon?' with 'publicizing the pre-Civil Rights Act history of the Democratic Party is a reasonable strategy for Republicans to make inroads with black voters' nonplussed me a bit, though.
I'm always up for Sets, though I don't seem to have a copy. Or Boggle, which can be made up from any piece of text.
There's an apartment building named Eskaton, but it doesn't seem to have an associated restaurant or lounge named Immanent. Pity.
So I know I suck, but it looks like it's going to be heavily storming all the way from San Rafael up to Santa Rosa about the time I'd be coming home. I think I'm going to choose the better part of valor and bail. Have fun everyone!
Or Boggle
I GET 11 POINTS OFF THE WORD "QUAGMIRE".
There's an apartment building named Eskaton
Not just an apartment building, a retirement community. That always seemed like the worst possible name.
Perhaps more evidence that extroverts get apocalyptic when depressed? "My sciatica's acting up and Ensure only comes in three flavors; bring on the End Times, Johnny."
The juxtaposition of 'why can't they see outside their cocoon?' with 'publicizing the pre-Civil Rights Act history of the Democratic Party is a reasonable strategy for Republicans to make inroads with black voters' nonplussed me a bit, though.
No shit.
He also suggests that pitting black voters against hispanics. He's a charmer.
Ahh, Bruce Bartlett is a different person from Bruce Babbitt. I was confused.
I'll probably arrive around 7:30-45. Sorry, I've got a therapy appointment at 6.
I'm going to be a little late because we started the coq au vin late.
I think that was a lot less comprehensible than I fancied.
Well, I'm heading to the BART now, should be there not very long after 7, and I'm taking a book. I will have a celadon-green umbrella, should lurkers wish to identify me cautiously.
I am standing outside the Trappist right now.
Miniver and I are in the front bar area.
112: Do you think I wished for a 10-inch veterinarian?!
Sorry, I seem to have wandered into the wrong joke.
the front bar area
Which one of you is really keen?
117 without seeing 116, so that answers that.
Shockingly it's pretty stupid.
I didn't see any reason to make a big deal about it, and he seemed really keen, so I let him.
Josh is delicately probing MooseKing
JM avers that apo "dilapidates" his genitalia.
There have been many coq jokes, as you can imagine.
neB convinced me to get the spruce needle beer.
Hey, no making fun of my real-life pronunciation!
Cock and coq are the order of the evening.
"I don't want you to buy it for me, you dickheads!"
At least one group makes an effort to liveblog.
131: Assume a cylindrical food.
Josh is "not that into" the meetup and has dozed off, dropping his sweater on the floor.
JN further avers that east coast meetups have "a lot less programming".
Wolfson made many staunch attempts to get other attendees (viz., Josh) to buy themselves beer for him, but I'm the one who owes Josh a sandwich.
However, we came up with an idea for a new narrative form.
Buy themselves beer for him? How would that work?
I will excitedly describe that narrative form in the morning.
Buy themselves beer for him?
I wanted people to buy beers that sounded interesting to me (some kind of beer with spruce tips in) or that are known by me to be excellent (Rodenbach).
some kind of beer with spruce tips in
Alaskan Winter Ale has this characteristic. There are probably other beers that do as well.
Ah Rodenbach... If you ever get a chance to go to Roeselare, the Foederbier is fantastic.
I will excitedly describe that narrative form in the morning.
So, a genuinely novel narrative form?
Cambridge Meetup After-Action Report:
Before the Cambridge meetup, a power outage cast darkness over the face of all Cambridge for about an hour and a half.
During the darkness, an elementary school teacher I had never met from Denver came up to me and engaged me in a conversation about theology and related topics--the Emperor Henry IV at Canossa, the recent retranslation of the Latin mass, the filioque clause, and related topics.
The Boathouse turned out to be remarkably uncrowded for a bar in the immediate aftermath of a power outage that should have sent 7000 undergraduates into the streets to frolic, and served beer.
No antennae, eyestalks, or other appendages were lost in the course of the meetup. Only one semi-defense of Stephen Pinker was offered. There was only one Godwin's Law violation, Toasts were drunk to Ken MacLeod's character Ellen May Ngwethu, and to humiliating yourself in the interest of postponing your client's eviction.
My winter coat had still not made it to me. But American Airlines did during the meetup send me a picture of the messenger who would deliver my winter coat to me later on that evening.
No agreement was reached about whether from an ex ante standpoint quantum mechanics is less or more believable than Mitt Romney's belief that he was winning the election.
I expressed dismay that the Charles Hotel treated me not as an end in myself but as a means to its own enrichment by leaving a glass bottle full of visible cashews costing 50 cents a cashew on the table in my room.
Some worry was expressed about the giant hole in Allston.
Afterwards, Ogged appeared briefly at the corner of JFK and Mt. Auburn St., and said that thing about where six or more of you are gathered in my name...
I missed a discussion of quantum mechanics? Damn.
Do undergraduates around here actually frolic?
Apparently undergraduates around here do not actually frolic, judging by how empty the Boathouse was last night.
The cashews are still looking at me...
I'm sure there are several places within a 2-minute walk of the Charles Hotel selling much cheaper cashews. Cardullo's, if nothing else.
148.last, 149: There most be some term for the opposite of a "loss leader." Big Nut clearly has some sophisticated marketing strategies.
Big Nut clearly has some sophisticated marketing strategies.
WE DO, BUT WE PREFER THE TERM "REPUBLICAN PARTY."
148: I think the cashews have a crush on you.
OT: This article by Bruce Bartlett is so many kinds of fascinating.
I love this...it's like this innocents abroad story of a DC 'intellectual' who mistakenly thinks the point of DC think tanks and so forth is actually to find out the truth. The story of excommunication from the conservative think-tank world and wingnut welfare is fairly standard, although he gets credit for guts (very few people are really willing to endanger their career for principle). But I really love when after 20 years of dumping on Keynes and Keynesianism he finally actually goes back and reads Keynes and Irving Fisher (he says solemnly that 'electronic databases have made this easier') and discovers that hey, Keynes was actually a genius. Then the economy blows up and he realizes that Paul Krugman is right about everything too. Then he sees that Obama is actually rather center-right. His world is falling apart around him! It's all told in such a great tone of solemn innocence too.
Last night was nice, though I did wind up meeting five or six groups of people, who looked at me blankly when I mentioned unfogged, before clew and her umbrella rescued me.
A good evening; I look forward to the next.
They all just wanted to sex Mutumbo?
Good to see everybody there last night. And yes, the discussion of how to use a distributed source code control system to create a new narrative form was one of those discussions that is more likely to occur somewhere near Silicon Valley. Now we just need to find some VCs to back us in our attempt to reinvent the novel. Step 3 is Profit! (right?).
There was at least one other meetup group there, complete with sign (young social professionals or some such).
at the corner of JFK Boylston and Mt. Auburn St.
FTFY
Remaining agenda item from EBMU-20121129:
when introducing yourself or another by online and offline names, how are the separate name-parts to be distinguished in speech? 'Slash', 'dit', 'soi-disant', 'AKA','hight','styled', and 'yclept' all proposed for (if I understood correctly) the online name.
I did! Commit a change!
And my spacing around punctuation is doubtless an insult to our PEP.
With all the Germanophiles in the Mineshaft, shouldn't we also accept 'sogenannt'?