AT THE MOMENT
I want to begin my personal debriefing per the BlogHer Conference. I’m sitting at the bar at Uno’s in Chicago. I tried to get a Spanish meal down the street at Emilios Tapas but the server obviously did not want to serve (per his non-attentiveness) a single female who wasn’t going to drink alcohol. So back to the familiar. Was really looking forward to some pan con tomat and some calamari. Sigh. I’m sure my dissing it isn’t going to impact their Zagat’s rating, but I feel better for having vented.
UNCONFERENCE
Today was wonderful. Informal. Made connections. Learned a bunch. And I made some connections which is the element I felt was missing from my conference connection.
I participated in a focus group for Revolution Health that allowed me the opportunity to vent about some holes in the health care system that I’d noticed these past few months that they may be able to address and fill. This meant that I missed part of the first session and part of the second, but I came in on the second session and stayed there for the rest of the day.
Blogging with accessibility, wikis, and embedding wikis within in web pages are all topics I wouldn’t have sought out had it not been presented in a small non-hierarchical manner. I’m so glad I attended. Codepink AZ now has a wiki! This is going to allow all the groups and individuals to coordinate actions, plans, information of all types. Of course public sites are attractive to trolls, but there are ways to circumvent folks who are maliciously motivated. I really, really want to go home to Tucson. Anyway, back to the conference.
DAY 2
Elizabeth Edwards interview and open answers to whole large group questions was a highlight, but the entire day of political speak was quite interesting. Edwards and Clinton were the only Pres. camps who chose to be present at the conference.
Pizza arrived. More later. Will add links too.
Hello! – It was great meeting you at BlogHer…and I love your blog! As a former Hoosier (I grew up in Hammond and graduated from Valparaiso University), I am really inspired by the amazing, activist women yu are describing there…and can appreciate exactly how significant it is that wmen in the heartland are standing up against the insanity that has swept over our nation’s capitol. Thanks for sharing this story! – Kelly Fryer (http://ReclaimingTheFWord.com)
Hey Kelly, Thanks! I’ve read some research (in Rural Sociology I think — a few years ago that once something is accepted in the heartland it means it is in our culture to stay. I take the growth of the women against war in Indiana to be a sign that people will begin to really be pissed off about the Dems not doing what they were elected to do last fall — Get us the hell out of Iraq.
You are welcome. Feel free to pass this info on — I’d love for people to know that even in Indiana — the game is over for Bozo boys in D.C.