...That "the next Indy BlogMeet" area is blank.
It's no secret that I have been trying to get out of scheduling these events for quite some time -- even though I enjoy them (though with my declining hearing, they are something of a challenge), and the overwhelming majority of the attendees are fun folks indeed, there are down sides.
Ever since we had an outright white-supremacist type show up at one, all smiles and sidling remarks about "those people," and not get found out (as more than merely a jerk) until after the event, I've been reluctant to have open meetings; I have no interest in facilitating the recruiting efforts of such scum and would as soon spare our local pubs and eateries the bother of hosting public confrontation. I went to invitation-only for the next few BlogMeets, which was not entirely satisfactory.
Recently, I had someone try to "win" a disagreement by attempting to divvy up mutual friends, the majority of whom are closer friends to that individual than to me already. I won't play that game; bedamned if I will put friends in the position of choosing up over issues they have not themselves raised and may not even have strong opinions on. Nope, instead I will bring to an end any situation where they might feel obliged to choose. That includes, at least for now, BlogMeets. Tam K. can set 'em up if she feels so inclined, or whoever else wants to.
Racist scum are bad enough; clique battles are the last straw.
Peer pressure won't work on me. I'm not very social or sociable and there are something like 4,000 books filled with friends lining the walls of my dining room.
(ETA: I will probably do one (1) BlogMeet during the 2014 NRA convention in Indy, because I'd like to do that; but please note that attendance will indicate nothing other than an interest in firearms and blogging.)
(Fuzzy Curmudgeon, please e-mail me, I need to return your book.)
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
18 comments:
Roberta:
Good morning. Good for you!I agree, no need to put up with that stuff.
Have a great day..
Well, that all sucks eggs. There's a special punishment waiting for That One Guy Who Ruins It For Everyone (one level up from child molesters and people who talk at the theater).
No, Joanna, I made the decision to stop arranging them. It is my fault and nobody else's.
Sorry to read that, I was very happy to hide in the background at the one I went to... just being around real bloggers and fine shooting folks was awesome. Everyone should have some awesome in their lives. But since I do hide more than expose - if it makes you feel uncomfortable it should stop before it becomes a wound.
T'is a shame, but when the drama llama starts nipping you've got no obligation to saddle up.
(Not to trivialize it; I just like the phrase drama-llama, and the mental image of battle-alphacas)
wv: was tsTaxer
Well, I hope that if I ever do get to circle city I can get a invite. Meeting you is one thing on my list of things to do.
On the other hand, I can't fault you for not arranging something that could cause a confrontation. Some people need not be in public.
Man, don't you just hate it when That Guy shows up at the table?
Sorry to see you shut that down. While there's no way in hell I'd have ever made one(I live waaaay to far away) , it's still a damned shame to see it go, I got a little warm fuzzy every time I noted that people I liked had a good time.
Regrets... Matt.
Sorry to hear this,I've never been to your blogmeets,but it sounded like fun.
But,I don't blame you one bit,you should do exactly what you want,if it's not fun,don't do it.
Billf
If Tam or Brigid or whoever wants toschedule one, that would be a-ok with me. I just didn't want to put people in the middle of things.
What Robert Fowler said.
And you are being too hard on yourself. You cannot foresee what people you don't know will do. Consider the success of all the other blogmeets vs the one that got under your skin. It was a good idea that has perhaps run it's course.
I'm sorry to hear that these events turned sour for you. I quite enjoyed the one I was able to attend.
I guess this is a hazard of ongoing publicly announced social gatherings. When it stops being fun, it is time to pull the plug. I do come through Indy pretty frequently and would enjoy meeting you folks again sometime if it works out.
Well, if the Good Lord wills it and the Creek don't rise; and you don't get your work schedule hosed, I'm hoping that we'll meet during the NRA Con. But something tells me that YOU won't have to put something together, but just be at the "Super Sekret" location by such and such a time.
Think of it: A friendly get-together that YOU aren't responsible for! What a Concept!
It's not so much BlogMeets qua BlogMeets, it was when my former pal decided a good way to prove that Right Was On His Side was to list those of our mutual friends who thought he was a wonderful, wonderful fellow.
Since I didn't recall any of our mutual friends volunteering to be spear-carriers in our fracas, and since I, too, thought he was a wonderful, wonderful fellow (who happened to have some flat-Earth-insane notions), I wanted to find a way to not play his game. Keeping BlogMeets from becoming a referendum on who was the most wonderful (and, at least in his mind, therefore correct) was all I had.
There I am on call and out at Dad's a bunch and I miss the drama, (which was probably good as I am usually the equivalent of the last grade school kid picked for dodgeball when it comes to being inthe right clique.)
I'd be happy to schedule a couple come this fall, between now and then I don't have that many weekends in town I don't have a beeper.
What you've done to keep these events going is much appreciated, you have always been at the heart of the fun and we indeed have had a wonderful group through the history of them.
Well dang.
I can't find any fault with your reasoning or motivations but since I've yet to make good on my threat to show up at one with a case of mustard and dollop of awe and hero worship for the assembled greatness so it seems I may have missed the boat. And none to blame but myself on that score.
Should I manage to free myself up long enough to make it over there for Yats and the zoo I'll drop you an email and perhaps we can cross paths so I can shake your hand and offer up a couple of jars of the local stone ground goodness.
BGM
Bobbi: It was your decision to end the blogmeets, true, but it was someone else's bad behavior that drove that decision. If the team's ice cream social gets canceled because the goalie won't stop mooning cars from the bus windows, nobody gets mad at the coach for calling it off.
HEY!
Why do you have to malign the goalie!
On behalf of netminders everywhere I have to object. Mooning passing cars is behavior more expected of those attention whore wingers.
BGM
Next years NRA I plan on being up there. Might have Cool Change (Rick) with me if I do. I hope we can all meet up and have an enjoyable time discussing the things we expound upon.
So until then Ma'am.
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