grendelkhan (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} grendelkhan) wrote,@ 2007-09-23 23:36:00 |
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| Entry tags: | photography, recipe |
the xkcd meetup.
Carin and I headed up pretty early in the morning; I read some more of Le Ton beau de Marot to her, getting to the bit about the Mandarin cabin. It was a fascinating read for me the first time through, but not in the way its author had intended--a bit like Schrödinger's cat. Searle has indeed made an interesting point, but (a) it's not the point he thinks he means, and (b) the point he eventually tries to draw from it amounts to a big heap of hand-waving. Between this and the reputed philosophers over at Telic Thoughts, I'm not really impressed by philosophy as a discipline.
We brought Rek a stew that I had made the previous night.
Vegan StewThe stew, after cooking, thickens until it can be cut like a cake at refrigerator temperatures. I think this has something to do with starch, but I don't really know for sure.Chop onion and fry in the bottom of a large saucepan while chopping the rest of the vegetables. Once they're smaller and translucent, put the rest of the veggies, the barley and the water into the saucepan. Bring to a slow boil and stir every fifteen minutes for the next few hours (at least two). Add water intermittently to fluff up the barley further.
- 1 medium potato
- 1 onion
- 1/2 yam
- 2 carrots
- 1 cube veggie bouillon
- 1 cup barley
- 4 cups water
- A bit of oil
- Salt and pepper
Before going to the meetup, we went out to lunch and had some interesting hippie food which was funny-looking (a matter of bias derived from habit, of course) but very, very delicious, while listening to an absolutely delightful performance from a fellow with an eleven-string guitar playing in the classical style.
We took the T up to Davis, and on the way, noticed that our car was filled with folks in geeky shirts--a "to be or not to be" regex (/(bb|[^b]{2})/), a Firefox logo, and plenty more. I'm not sure I can explain exactly what the geek aura consists of, but I definitely sensed it. Is it clever shirts, long hair, pale skin and a high proportion of glasses-wearers? Did my enormous red beard set it off? My webcomic-derived shirt? (An unbirthday present from Rek, as the vast majority of my shirt wardrobe consists of freebies.)
The crowd surged up the stairs of the T station and made its way over to the park where the event was being held. There were a lot of people there, and spirits were very high. It reminded me more of the Serenity preview (which was more than two years back!) than anything else--wondering where these wonderful people had been all my life. The properties that previously been seen as handicaps in my personality were suddenly valuable. For a little while, I fit in, and while I'm okay being a beautiful and unique snowflake, it's deeply important to remember that there's a whole community out there.
It's easy to see how fandom can spiral in on itself and start referring to the outgroup as mundanes or muggles. (Just more words for goyim, gaje or gaijin.) I've written about this elsewhere; see the comments there. But this all occurred to me after the fact; at the time I was busy meeting people, watching this guy on a unicycle jousting with boffer weapons, the circle of guitarists singing Tenacious D songs (I knew some of the words to "Tribute", and joined in; this is notable because I very rarely sing in public),
I feel a bit silly now for having told everyone that they can look me up by checking the photographer who illustrated Pigeon on Wikipedia, when the right article to direct them to was Rock Pigeon, which refers to the specific species of pigeon most commonly seen in cities. Darn!
The trip was not an isolated event--at least, I hope that it won't be. I spoke to an attendee who happened to be an organizer for a small SF convention which will be taking place next year. He explained to me that the things which I consider valuable and important are, to a large extent, the same things that my fellow fans consider valuable and important. This was, to put it mildly, exciting to me. It was suggested that I visit a con, as the feel of the meetup was described by more than one person as being somewhat like an SF con.
Both Carin and I are are absolutely bushwhacked at this point. I didn't realize how sedentary I was until a day strolling around a city knocked me on my ass. Utterly worth it, though.
