So as luck would have it, I am going to be in NYC for the NYC Dopefest. However, I am traveling with a friend who is very internet-wary, is increadibly snobbish in general, and unbeliveably judgemental. However, she does tend to be fun. We’ve been friends since the 5th grade, and since then she has gone the drinking-pot-partying route, while I’ve stuck to the coffeehouse-intense-conversation route. So:
[ul][li]Do I bring her along? She’s fun to be around, but I don’t know how she is around people she doesn’t know.[/li][li]She has profound misconceptions about the internet being all scarey, drooling, people. And while it is possible M2Lepon could show up, I doubt it. But I think me saying “I’m going to the East Villiage to meet people that I found on an internet message board” would get me a three hour lecture. Any suggestions?[/li][li]Why am I intimidated this much by a friend? Is it because she’s so increadibly judgemental?[/ul][/li]
Fire away.
DON PEDRO: Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.
BEATRICE: No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. -Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Sc: i
Pros: Everyone I’ve met in real life via the DopeFests have been cool people and lots of fun. The SDMB attracts a lot of sharp, quick witted and seriously funny people and it’s great to party with them. If your friend likes those types of people, there’s no reason she wouldn’t like the Dopers
Cons: It’s a SDMB meeting. Guess what gets talked about? Your friend might feel a little left out of all the “in jokes” and references that occur when a group of people all sharing a single common bond get together. Then again, enough booze makes anyone feel welcome.
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
Pay no attention to the poster above me; he’s a dick.
No, seriously. I’ve met about 30 people from this asylum and have yet to meet someone I dislike. The SDMB posters, in the flesh, are very much like what you see here. A pretty good group of inmates.
Tell her you are going to meet a bunch of long lost relatives. By the time she figures it out, she’ll be too drunk to care.
No, it’s because you are a weak minded sissy. J/K. No, it’s probably because you value your friend’s opinion. Nothing wrong with that. There are many intelligent people out there who are still disillusioned(sp?) about the net. Don’t feel bad. See above on getting your friend there, we’ll take care of the rest.
“Can’t this lousy rotten useless fucking lump of cosmic shit planet make up it’s fucking mind? It just makes me sick.”
–Dr. Watson
Go to the meeting - you’ll enjoy it! If you’re not back by dawn we’ll all come look for you.
Really, the time and place is a matter of record and all of the folks I’ve met so far have been great!
I do appreciate the flack you might get. When we were organizing the first Houston rally, my partner commented, “Eww, internet people!” And another friend characterized my first meeting with an internet acquaintance as, “a 46 year old guy is going, alone, to meet an 18 year old gal well past midnight?” That did kind of make it sound a little eewwwy (I went to Rocky Horror and met Cessandra).
As to M2Lepton or whomever, somehow I just feel like most of our trolls are likely not very fond of the company of real people.
Is there a recorded instance of a troll showing at an SDMB fest?
I’d just like to reiterate that I have no doubt that you are a fun bunch of coconuts. My friend, however, is the problem. She’s just one of those friends you have known forever, so you just go on being friends, regardless of the fact that you have very little in common any more.
And yea, Democritus, she’s supposed to be scoring my father some, so I have no doubt she could. Hell, I LIVE in Burlington! (if you don’t know what that means, it doesn’t apply to you.)
Maybe I’ll talk her into having dinner with her aunt that night. Feh.
DON PEDRO: Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.
BEATRICE: No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. -Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Sc: i
My first name is Brooke. I’m named after a body of water.
Actually, my da is a disabled Veitnam vet who has been on naprosen for 20 years, and was taken off about 5 years ago because he has one giant fused kidney (I’m not making this up) and naprosen can cause kidney damage (among other things.) So the doctor put him on acetominophen (sp?) or Tylenol. The pot helps with the pain.
No, you moron, the pain that occurs when you step on a landmine when you’re 19 and shrapnel is shot into your body, ripping your nervous and muscluar system to hell, and causing you to very nearly bleed to death, until a medic intervened and saved your life. You were told you’d never walk again, but somehow, you do. Now you walk with a limp, but don’t have any neurological feeling below your knees, and often experiance intense neurological responce pain as your body attempts to rid itself of the shrapnel that has been inbedded in your body since 1968.
How’s that for the crushing pain of modern life, you asshole?
