Today I posted in GQ, asking for advice on how to do a certain thing in Excel. This is not the first time I’ve asked a question there, and have received a solution. I’ve never met most of you IRL (though there are Dopers who are now RL friends), so I tell people you’re my ‘imaginary friends’. They know what I mean, and I find it amusing to use the phrase. Most of the GQs I ask are not work-related. When they are, I tell my boss and coworker ‘My imaginary friends helped me,’ or ‘I got this from an imaginary friend.’ My boss was impressed with this little community when one of you (No One Special) helped me with a particularly frustrating issue, and I referred to ‘my Man in Tel Aviv’. They’re always surprised that there are people all over the world who are ready, willing, and able to help out people they’ve never met.
So here’s a shout-out and a general ‘Thank you’ to all of my ‘imaginary friends’.
When we go travelling all over North America, we like to meet up with Dopers. It sounds kind of strange to tell friends and family what we’re up to - “Well, we’re driving to Chicago where we’re going out for dinner with people we’ve never met before,” but we get to meet all kinds of interesting people that way. Look for us, coming to a town near you!
Ha, same here. My boss was very impressed when I presented an English translation of an work related speech, perfected with Dopers’ help. (especially Marinee and Quartz, IIRC). He started asking all sorts of questions about this board, and wondered if it would work for everyone. I said that there’s an element of reciprocity, but it is possible to get an advance on that.
Many years ago, when I was in the midst of a divorce, I took the oppotunity to drive up to a Dopefest hosted by Giger of the North and her husband outside Baltimore. I met a number of fellow dopers and enjoyed myself greatly, though I did not make any lifelong friends out of the visit.
Sometimes a tiny thread of connection is all you need for a bit of joy in your life.
I love meeting Dopers when I travel, too. It’s nice to feel like you can go almost anywhere and know that you’ll be able to meet up with someone.
I also find that knowing people all over the world gives the news a whole new perspective, both because I know people affected by the latest headlines and because I know I’ll be able to get the story from on the ground in many cases.
So here’s a shout-out to my MMP friends and my knitting friends and my gardening friends and my reading friends and my Valentine friends and…all the other imaginary friends I’m forgetting.
