cut out the middleman

[cellio]

kayre had a good idea (which she in turn got from city_of_dis). My LJ friends come from a number of different and sometimes-intersecting circles. There are my local (and formerly-local) friends, the SCA folks, the filkers, the Jewish community, and several others. Many of you don't know each other but perhaps you should.

So this is your chance. If you feel inclined, say something about yourself here -- not addressed to me, but to the other readers of my journal who might turn out to be friends you didn't know you have.

Comments

[kayre]

Woops, neat idea but it's not mine!

Maybe when I'm not brain-dead I'll post an introduction here, but meanwhile please give credit where it's really due?

[cellio]

Whoops! Will amend.

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

OK, I met cellio via the SCA at Carnegie Mellon just under two decades (or alternately, just about exactly half my lifetime) ago. I lived in Pittsburgh for most of that time, but have just moved to Seattle, where I've not yet gotten active in the local SCA. I studied computers at CMU (not that they really give any of their majors an alternative) and have been a professional software developer for the past fifteen years. I like travelling and have a well-worn passport (actually, now on my second) in part because I've occasionally pursuaded my employers to pay to ship me someplace interesting to program things. Politically, I tend to be a deeply cynical moderate. On a related note, I will overanalyze anything if not restrained, myself included.

[cellio]

Wow, even with all the travel, I didn't realize you were on your second passport already. How many different countries have you visited?

(And how does that work with the stamps, anyway? Does each visit generate a new stamp in the first blank slot, or do they have some way of augmenting earlier entries if they're recent enough? My passport is woefully pristine at the moment.)

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

...actually, the first one expired rather than running out of space. And unfortunately, stamps are getting rarer and rarer - typically, if you enter the EU, for example, they stamp you on entry and then that caries you through until they stamp you in the US on return.

And almost everyone is just doing postmark-like stamps rather than full-fledged stickers or visas - the only really cool example of something like that is the two pages of special stamps I had to get to work in Brazil for six months.

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

That's a brilliant idea, no matter where it came from.

I'm not going to introduce myself, partly because I don't want to, partly because my lj speaks for itself, partly because I do not want to have a friends list filled with people who think and live just like I do. So, anyone reading this is encouraged to have a look, and comment there if you feel moved to.

(Non-friends posts in my lj are screened.)

[sekhmets-song.livejournal.com]

Love the idea.

For those who are interested: I confess to being an attention whore, which mostly means I like to talk a lot and I enjoy, even more, a good debate. I am definitely a rabble-rouser of the leftist persuasion, but I don't limit my friends to only those who mirror my politics. How boring would that be? All I require is that you don't shut down those who disagree with you, but instead embrace the opportunity to explore your own opinions and beliefs through exchange with others.
For more on me, I invite you to step over to my LJ. I'd love to have you! Feel free to friend me and or comment, though my non-friend posts are screened, only to avoid the occasional childish name call (ask me about "the cheese incident"), not for content.

Myself, Chris Mortika

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

I know Monica from the SCA. I'd run into her musical arrangements for years, and then finally met her a year or two ago. We spent some time talking when I travelled from Minnesota to Pennsylvania for an SCA event other than Pennsic, and when I saw her here, I immediately added her to my friends list.

Re: Myself, Chris Mortika

[cellio]

When are you likely to be back? (Pennsic?) I realize this is all one-sided and all, 'cause I've never gone to an event out your way. Sorry about that; I'm bad about travel.

[siderea]

I'm one of cellio's SCA friends. I think we met first through the fact we're both dance musicians/music historians. It was probably at Pennsic.

[cellio]

Probably Pennsic. I have a memory of you from the one Birka I attended -- you were sitting off to the side playing recorder during much of dinner -- but I think I already knew you from Pennsic and music/dance events. I'm also not sure which Birka that was, but I think it had to have been later than when I first met you. (I'm thinking '95, maybe. And I think I've known you longer than that.)

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

I met Monica through estherchaya or one of the various weirdjews groups. I don't recall anymore.

Moreover, we've never met face-to-face, nor exchanged personal email (I think) even though we've had some lengthy conversations through posts and comments.

It's just a truly bizarre coincidence that she lives only a few blocks from my sister, to whose house I've never been and who doesn't have an LJ account that I know of. I'm not even certain that I've even mentioned her in a location that Monica would see beyond "friends and family in the area."

[cellio]

Probably estherchaya to psu_jedi to you. I've browsed weirdjews a few times but never read steadily, been a member, posted, nor (I think) commented. I've been moderately active on jbcs, but I don't think I've seen you there.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought, but since I wasn't 100% sure, it seemed better to cast a wide net.

[hopeness.livejournal.com]

I guess I would count as knowing cellio through "the Jewish community". She was one of the faithful readers of my tikvahope journal, which documented my conversion to Judaism last year.
Like everyone else who's commented here I invite you to check out my journal (public posts at least), which probably says more about me than I can think of to say here.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I met cellio at BucConneer, the 1998 Worldcon, through beckyfeld and her husband. I then met her again through arib's journal.

People are welcome to check out my journal, which is...eclectic, let's say. My topics range from Judaism to language to writing to almost anything else that happens to tickle my fancy.

The world is small. Very and Eerily small.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

I was also at BucConneer. I knew of the Felds before getting to know them better through estherchaya.

Estherchaya may be a universal locus. Or BucConneer. Or some interesting conjunction of both. [Cue "The Twilight Zone" Theme]

Re: The world is small. Very and Eerily small.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh. Actually, the world is remarkably small. If I have the linkage correctly, beckyfeld knows estherchaya and her husband (who shares a profession with beckyfeld through a friend of mine from college (who was one of my bridesmaids). beckyfeld is my elder sister.

Re: The world is small. Very and Eerily small.

[cellio]

Harold Feld is a nexus. EstherChaya might be too, but Harold definitely is.

how I met cellio

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

Well, the two first populators of my flist were siderea and joshwriting and my first few weeks or so here I took the time to check out everyone on either of their flists. cellio impressed me with her comments about the bible and matters of religion in general and thus she was quickly slotted into place in my flist.

'tis one of those ironies of the small world that akitrom has also met her since I'm sure I bumped into his lj presence mostly only after I moved to Minnesota myself and added myself to the local barony and now-kingdom communities (although I haven't ended up doing anywhere near as much SCA here as I thought might possibly happen. Like... any :)

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Aliza, and this is all my fault. :-)

I've seen at least one con performance of Off The Mark, but I don't think I've ever spoken to cellio in person. So I certainly didn't meet her through Harold Feld. :-) I probably found her LJ through weirdjews, which I don't follow any more.

I used to be a hotshot Unix sysadmin on the US East Coast, but now I'm an unemployed statistic in Peachland, BC, Canada (nearest city on most maps: Kelowna, BC, airport code YLW) looking for any kind of gainful desk job, here or (more likely) elsewhere in Western Canada.

I take thousands of digital photographs but don't post nearly enough of them to my journal or anywhere else; I haven't been to an SF convention in far too long; I play KoL, and my favorite news source is Google News.

[rectangularcat]

Really? I'm in Sparwood BC!

I know Monica through the SCA. In fact she's the one who got me hooked on LJ! I had not met her then - but she's amazingly easy to befriend!

[cellio]

I got you hooked on LJ? I didn't know that. I mean yeah, I gave you an invite code, but I didn't realize I'd had a role beyond that.

If you end up meeting aliza250 in person, give her a hug for me. :-)

[rectangularcat]

Your LJ is part of the whole reason I started one. Back then I was researching the SCA and whether or not I wanted to get involved.. finding like-minded folks helped with the transition.

I love how your blog goes beyond your daily activities and the comments you get are so insightful! You rock! I want my blog to be like yours!

[cellio]

Back then I was researching the SCA and whether or not I wanted to get involved.

Bwahahaha -- snared another one! :-)

Thanks for the compliment. By some dint of luck, I've attracted a set of people who leave interesting and articulate comments, leading to interesting discussions. One thing I think is kind of neat about LJ (I presume blogging-with-comments in general, but I only know LJ) is that sometimes I end up playing host to an extensive conversation in which I'm not participating. So I get a front-row seat to a cool discussion. (And for those who've ever wondered if I mind, you can safely take that to mean "no, not at all".)

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Hm, I've never been to Sparwood, the closest I've been was a short visit to Fairmont Hot Springs a few months ago. Do you ever get to the Okanagan?

[rectangularcat]

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

I find it funny that for such small distances across the province - getting from here to there takes so long. Since it takes about 7 hours to get to the Okanagan , we tend to not go often (and by-pass it to go to Vancouver where our family mostly lives). For shopping we tend to go to Calgary which is easier to get to (only one set of mountains to get through!).

Still, isn't BC gorgeous?

how i became aware of cellio

[buoren.livejournal.com]

i'm rather drunk at the moment... so i'll keep it short:

"Stringize? Stringize? Perhaps we should send the engineers some new verbs."

Perhaps this is horribly misquoted, but I recall reading this on Deanna (dr4b)'s quote page; *that* is my first awareness.

Then I had the rather fortunate opportunity of working with her after Claritech up and imploded at MayaVIZ. Definitely someone I value wisdom and insight of...

-kevin


p.s. and yes I know that's bad style, ending in a preposition :).

Re: how i became aware of cellio

[cellio]

*giggle* I didn't realize anyone noticed me because of a quotes file. (And that sounds about right, actually.)

Thanks for the kind words.

[jducoeur]

I know cellio through the SCA. Best recollection says that we probably met through the Rialto -- I've definitely known her husband through the Rialto from its very earliest days, when he and I were two of the three most prolific posters on it. Anyway, since then she and I got to know each other better through SCA dance/music and philosophy/politics circles; we wind up overlapping quite frequently, since we have a number of similar interests.

(Speaking of which: an SCAish friend of mine, umbran, has just started as the spec writer at my company. He's new to technical documentation, so I was wondering if you had any particular advice on the subject.)

I did not meet her through Harold Feld. However, to demonstrate what a nexus Harold is, I've known him possibly longer than anyone else here, since he was active in the SCA up in these parts when he was much younger.

As for who I am: Justin du Coeur, collector of weird hobbies. I do SCA, LARP, fandom, Freemasonry, and more varieties of media than are sensible or sane...

[cellio]

I believe we met through the Rialto, yes (back when it was a mailing list, pre-newsgroup).

He's new to technical documentation, so I was wondering if you had any particular advice on the subject.

Sure. But not tonight. :-) Look for a top-level entry in the next couple of days.

Hi. *waves*

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

Friend of friends here. cellio's comments on various friends' posts caught my attention often enough that I started looking at her LJ, and then I commented on something there, and...

Links between us include Judaism (I'm observant Orthodox, learn Gemara, wear pants, and follow my family tradition in not always covering my head), fandom (I was raised reading F&SF, taken to my first con at 10 years old, and friends are currently trying to pull me into the SCA), and geeky personality (I tend to geek about language rather than computers, but I did earn money for a couple of summers back in college writing code in LISP and ML).