first official tweet up

Last night the Mrs took me to my first official 'tweet-up'. Seems that is a gathering of people that meet at a specific location not because they are close personal friends but because someone on twitter sent out a message saying that a lot of people should show up at this one location for a dinner/drink session to actually put a human face to a twitter name. I was told that it was a pretty good showing of about 40-50 people through-out the night. It was definitly interesting to watch and be there that was for sure.

Everyone was definitly friendly and mingled with others and learned their first names. I remember hearing around the table once when someone asked if they had seen 'Bill' there and that question was met with a confused look on the other persons face. However, once it was asked if they had seen the guy who goes by a certain screen name, understanding dawned on the person and they said that no they had not seen this certain screen name present. People would walk around the room and introduce themselves first by their screen name and then by their birth name. Being an anti-tweeter I had no name so I either came across as rude or just plain mysterious when I only gave my birth name and they just looked at me expecting more to come that never did. Like when someone starts a story with no finish/punch line like "yeah, I went to the mall yesterday..wow" and you stand there for a second expecting a finish that will never come. Perhaps it was also like when you meet a business contact for the first time and they usually give you their full name and you just shake their hand and go "Jim" like you really don't want to give out too much personal information to this person after they told you their personal info.

I also found it amusing watching the Mrs and the lady that was sitting with us because when we first got there we sat down, introduced ourselves, found out that the lady was a new tweeter of only a month and had a few laughs. After the initial sit down chat the Mrs pulls out her cell phone and starts to check her tweets. The lady does this as well, either checking the updated tweets or any text messages that she has received. One guy, after hearing the Mrs tale of woe about not having a certain type of phone that can attach to the internet, pulls out his laptop and offers it to her to check the internet. We had trouble getting logged on to the internet connection because we didnt have the password but a friend of the server managed to get the password written on a piece of paper that suddenly circulated the room like a bag of crack in a college kids dorm. People were walking up to others that were sitting there, leaning in gently and going "psst...you got the password? need the password do ya?" and the table having been disconnected from the internet so long brightened up at the prospect of this 'password' being delivered. However, the connection was bad and the laptop kept getting disconnected so it was pushed aside and only the cell phone was used.

"do you follow me?" was the question on everyone's lips that night. It seemed that the common way of introducing yourself would be, "hi, I'm ScreamingMuskrat12 also known as Jim...do you follow me?". To which the responce would be "hi, I'm SmootheringMama145 also known as Carol..this is my husband BadgeredMale239 also known as Bruce...oh yeah, I have read your tweets...do you follow us?" After a bit of hearing that my mind kicked in and I had a thought. It seems that in twitter world it is called 'following', in the real world it would have been called 'stalking'. Guess each world has their own definitions huh?

All in all it was definitly an interesting and enjoyable evening. The Mrs really had fun meeting all the people that she reads on twitter and putting a face to their tweets. She met a few new people that I am sure she has added to her follow list and I am sure she has been added to many other follow lists around the city as well. Being the social hermit that I am I wasn't as friendly and personable the evening through however I did have an interesting discussion on books with one rather interesting gentleman and managed to see a table sit magician perform some slight of hand tricks with red foam balls and a deck of playing cards. He didn't make the table disappear or anything disappear and reappear in his arm like Chris Angel does but he did do his tricks rather well and had me wanting to see it again and again so that I could see the slight of hand and where the ball went during the trick.

So I would say that the tweet-up would have been classed as a good success for the evening. Think everyone had a good time and no one went away disappointed at the whole night. Though this evening still doesn't make me want to get a cell phone and definitly I do not want to get attached to twitter.