Oh, that's cool

Spring has popped up out of nowhere and One Great City! is a giant, dirty slurpee. Winter is not completely gone, but the beloved skating trail is a shadow of its former self. *sigh*

Last night I took the bridge rather than short-cutting on the river (I thought the warm weather would have made that a little too risky) on the way to a meeting about a planning conference to be held this summer. I like these meetings less and less with each one I attend, not so much because they are often pointless and always too long, but because the conference is turning into a coolie gathering. Band Guy was there last night, and Scenester, and Name-Dropper, and Queen of the Do-Good Organisations (you know, the one who is a member of all non-profits in the city, who has shot up her hand to volunteer to do yet another thing before you even had a chance to realise that you could, in fact, contribute something there), all shouting out one wicked-awesome idea of which unusual non-venue to host the thing after another. I sat there wondering, why does everyone have to bring their ibooks to these things? Is there some clause that comes with the purchase of an ibook that prevents one from legally using paper and pen ever again?

The Chair of the meetings, who is great, has a bit of each of these personae in him (don't we all? Though I'd hardly call him a queen of any kind) and networking is, I am pretty sure, both his favourite word and activity. However, he is against starting a group for this event on facebook, which would actually be very useful here. Facebook. The social NETWORKING site. He refuses to join. How can that be when it was invented specifically for him?

Eventually, the 'party' ended and I walked back over the bridge with another person who hadn't said much, either. We had a funny conversation that started with lost traditional gardening skills and ended with how our bodies will one day mesh with machines so that cell phone and human will be indistinguishable, which I then said was like a Philip K. Dick story.

Identifying with your Mac? Denying your true facebook identity? Dropping the name of a dead sci-fi writer? I can't take it.