Celebrating Aussie bloggers

Okay, I've been in a funk most of this week. My timetable at work is particularly overstuffed - my choice, because I really wanted to work with a particular group of students on a short-run, one-off, statewide online project - so I'm tired, and I've also felt let down by a few disastrous attempts at socialising (see previous post) this week/month/year. And I think I was dreading the outcome of tomorrow's meeting in Albion Park, near Wollongong, of the Canberran and Sydney virtual denizens of the Aussie Bloggers' bbs. I'd advertised this function on the two blogging Meetup sites I run and, despite telling a supposed interested group of about 140 people, only two of us (sigh...) seem to have committed to joining the Aussie Bloggers tomorrow for the big day. Luckily, there are plenty of Aussie Blogger regulars going.

Coming up soon, it is six months since Aussie Bloggers site launched. The first blog post appeared on December 31, 2007, and the forums were "soft launched" on January 1 this year. It's been a great six months - off the cuff, I don't recall how I found them - I think they invited me to check out the beta testing of the forums?

Tomorrow, I guess you could say we are having a preemptive celebration of the half-year anniversary at the highly recommended Aviator Lounge cafe and restaurant. I was assuming I'd be heading down - alone - on the train when, this afternoon, one of the Aussie bloggers attending tomorrow emailed me and offered to collect me from a station much closer to home and drive me to Albion Park. Wow, thanks Gemisht. My funk finally lifted, and I'm really looking forward to meeting the merry band tomorrow. (Too bad I'm not providing a train carriage full of bloggers, though, as I'd originally assumed...)

I must say that I've really enjoyed being part of the Aussie Bloggers' community this last six months. I've met some great people through the forums, one (so far) in person - Hi Riayn! - and it's been such fun lending my quirky humour to the plentiful Kaos and Mayhem threads, where almost anything goes. The more serious forums, such as Tools & Resources, have also been really helpful as I continually weigh up the differences between Blogger, WordPress and EduBlogs, and someone always comes through when you you have those nagging problems too embarrassing to say out loud. Being an Aussie blogger's site, there's lots of good ol' Aussie ocker humour, but we also have numerous international members and we are probably slowly converting them to the more laconic, stereotypical-but-true traditions of "She'll be right, mate".

Happy Six Months Anniversary - and see you guys tomorrow!

Where is everyone...?

Well, I think maybe I'm officially depressed.

On Thursday night, a planned CBD Meetup of local bloggers attracted just a handful of positive RSVPs - which dwindled to only two by the morning of the meeting. I emailed the only other person who was coming and said he might want an early night instead. Then I realised that if anyone did send a last minute RSVP - as has happened in the past - I had no way to find out (work's firewall blocks all social networking sites) and a brand new person would turn up to find nobody at the coffee shop. So I had to turn up anyway...

My emergency back up plan - to catch an Internet friend for coffee also failed miserably (I got stood up) - and I ended up in exactly the dilemma I had sought to avoid: standing around in the cold in the city when everyone else - even the coffee shop's regular crowd - was at home snuggled in front of the TV and heater.

You know, I avoided the recent remake of "I Am Legend" because I heard the featured character ends up wandering a deserted Manhattan, New York. (That was me in Sydney on Thursday night, but I no longer feel like a legend.)

This is sounding bitter but, in these days of mobile phones, the way we all run our lives is changing. To the opposite of Meetup.com's ambitions, we all seem to rely to much on spontaneity and coincidence. Someone else I know (only "virtually") is always saying he "really wants to meet up" with the Star Trek group soon, but he's just emailed me that he's still unable to give any advance dates.

I'm fighting a losing battle. In one Meetup group I run, two members with young families want Saturday meetings. But one is in the inner city; and the other is in the west, and neither want to travel. How many others in our group are willing or able to travel to either event? Who knows? (From experience, not that many.)

Sorry if I sound jaded but I've spent way too many days sitting on park benches wondering where everyone else is. I've been at Meetups (and not official "Meetups") either by myself, or with only one or two others. Especially annoying when we've been expecting 20 or so). I've sat in parkland settings in Lane Cove, Parramatta Park, Royal Botanic Gardens, Manly Beach and many coffee shops and pubs over the years. Thank goodness I have my Star Trek novel with me. I've just endured almost a year's worth of solo "Lost" meetings and solo bloggers' meetings (in the CBD) and solo Art workshop meetings (here at my place in the West). In most cases I'm told at least six to eight people are "definitely" turning up - and it ends up being just me, or just me and one other. And it's almost always a different "one other". If only all the "others" turned up on the same day!

Now I'm even attracting "serial Meetup joiners", who seem to get their kicks out of RSVPing "Yes" to Meetups all over Sydney and yet have absolutely no intention of coming along.

On this Sunday, I'm heading off on a train to a Bloggers meeting in Albion Park near Wollongong. I invited over 140 people through my two blogging Meetup groups several months ago, to meet people from the new bloggers' bbs. What a grand adventure! When we planned it months ago - to give people maximum time to plan their social calendars - I thought I'd be leading an entourage. Guess how many of my members are doing the train journey with me? NONE. In fact, only one member (and his wife) is still going. I'm really hoping the Canberrans turn up from the other direction, and I really hope/assume the Sydney-based people organising it will be there.

Well, in the wee hours of this morning, I put Parramatta and CBD Saturday gatherings on the schedule for the Star Trek gang, and hopefully some members (beyond the Thursday night regulars, who are usually quite regular) will surprise me by RSVPing. I'll hold my breath, but only until I turn blue.

Ooops. ;)