I don't know what it is about certain days of the year but they seem to attract events. Whole weeks can go by with no committments and nothing to do. Then, suddenly there's an exhibition opening, a book launch, an international guest speaker, your favourite overseas band in a secret gig and your best friend back home for one night only.
Next week there are two events tearing me asunder. They both start at 6:30 (I think). The Sleepers Almanac launch is always a fun affair. It's an opportunity to catch up with some great local writers, see my friend Lulu (who I really don't get to see all that often and that's a shame because she's one of the special ones) and bitch with my friends about how the people who so often think so much of themselves are really just talentless arseholes.* It's a fun night and I don't want to miss it.
Then, about a 15 minute walk away, there's the one and only** Molly Holzschlag appearing in Q&A form thanks to the Web Standards Group. Molly's books and writings were a really important part of me learning my new-ish skills as a web developer. The things she wrote about CSS changed the way I thought about how websites can be built. This is an industry where geeks like me have heroes like her (and David Shea, Cameron Adams, Eric Meyer and all the people responsible for A List Apart) because they know what's going on and can explain it in ways that we can try to use to explain it to our bosses and try to actually create good products that we can all be proud of.***
So what do I do? A very rare chance to have an audience with a champion of my industry or an annual social event to keep my foot in my non-day-job camp?
I'm torn like Natalie Imbruglia (but probably less pretty).
* This, in turn, makes us think quite a lot of ourselves, giving other people exactly the same opportunity to think those things about us. They are, of course, wrong.
** There may be more than one but "the one of possibly several others" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
*** This rarely works the way I would like it to but every now and then I get to be proud and it's because of these people.
How about you spend time in personal life, and shout me a coffee one day while I’m in Melbourne. I’m a person who often could do with choosing more offline enrichment to enhance and balance what I do online.
The event is free, also, so if you come a bit later we’ll be there for drinks, etc., and I’d be delighted if you came on by after. In fact, if you like, bring your friend.
Molly :)