There are much more comfortable ways to travel.

For once, it is not your fault.

Kudos to Stevo, who seemed to take much of the lead on it.

Wish I coulda been there.

I handed off my camera when we were doing group photos and looking through them I have to say that in all the female group photos there is a hell of a lot of cleavage. I don't think we can post 90% of the photos from the party on Saturday night without cleavage.

It was a great weekend, and I have to concur with everything Warren said. Also, if there is some sort of stereotype that libertarian women are anything but very good looking, the gathering proved that wrong.

#6
Hey, it was great talking to you. Please don't leave Missouri, as that will cut in half the state population of non-hicks outside the greater St. Louis area.

I don't think female libertarians are stereotyped as not good looking so much as not existing. As far as I'm concerned this weekend laid that one to waste too. Now if only we weren't all so pasty.

Warren-No plans to leave the state anytime soon. I'll extend the same invitation to you as I did to Stevo: come by some time, and I'll feed you great barbecue and show you KC. (This goes for any Grylliader who finds his or herself nearby). If need be, I have an extra bedroom, although you'll probably have to share the bed with some cats.

The State was great.

I've posted this before, but:

Yeah, my pipe got lost during the move to the new apartment. *sniffle* I'm getting antsy to find it, too; the local tobacco shop has some mango tobacco I'm dying to try.

These are the pics I need so I can caption.

Also, sorry everyone, I have decent Grylliade pics, but my camera refuses to cooperate with the computer, so I don't have them in posting form.

If there are no pics, much wailing and rending of clothes will certainly ensue.

Dang :(
Those are some of the best ones.

Now with pictures, eh? WHERE ARE THE PICTURES?

EDIT: Photo posted between "Preview" and "Post." This is all your fault, Warren!

All the women are broken glass worthy
Ellie is REALLY proud of her cleavage, and rightly so.

We were discussing who looked or didn't look like you expected them to. Most people didn't surprise me too much, except that
-I didn't expect #6 to have an accent (of course, he probably thinks I have an accent)
-Ellie is much more chirpy and feminine than I'd expected
-Mr. Grylliade himself is more outgoing and goofy than I thought from his infrequent postings here.

No, no...it's just that your online persona seems much more angry and forceful. The kittens are a constant, though.

Especially after you plied me with that amazing pumpkin ale! You missed quite an opportunity, sir.

By the way, the "getting scared at stupid shit" is a reference to the story that David could not stop telling all weekend, how when we were driving toward downtown he pointed out a cloud in front of the Sears Tower and I shrieked.

The mental picture I had of many of you guys is very different from reality with the exception of fyodor and Rachel.

fyodor!? You imagined someone looking like fyodor before you saw him? Were you traumatized by a clown as a little boy?

Why are most people looking to the left if the camera is in the front?

And, am I like the youngest person on here or what? Anyone here < 30?

I could tell that the ladies were younger, when I asked the question I think I was still shocked and awed by the seemingly older ages of the gentlemen.

Ayn_Randian and Warren win the "least like I imagined" award.

I don't know exactly how I thought AR would look. I always had a pretty strong impression, though, that Warren would look something like this:

Go figure. :)

And, also, before this thread, for some reason I thought linguist was a dude :-)

Now I no longer feel as young. Randian, you're younger than 30?

You are all puppies! Puppies I say! Except Number 6, he's harsh.

Jake,
Give me another fifteen years.

OK, OK, I get the point. I am not as young as I thought I am. *wipes tears*

Good Lord, do I come across as that much of an alpha geek? Linguist said the same thing, or roughly — that I was much more personable and socially aware than she imagined I'd be. Not that I'd be offended if I did; more surprised and amused than anything.

“Hey man. What you’re about to do … that’s really, really Not Okay.”

Oh wait, you said "water" not "ice", I guess we can let that slide.

Ali,

Oops...I forgot mediageek, too. I'm pretty sure mediageek's under 30.

Sorry...not trying to rub it in or anything.

Stevo-I do have a bit of an accent, but it's muddled as hell. Over the years, I've picked up a bit of Southern (in the military, North Carolina, and podunk, MO.) a bit of Chicago, and god knows what else. Rich Hall...I can see that.

Linguist is very definitely not a dude. She's the antithesis of dude. I must admit that when Linguist opened the door to her house, my first thought was, 'Damn, she's even more attractive than in her pictures.

Not only that. But she has impeccable taste. Her house was the awesome. BIG BIG thank yous for opening it up to us, pouring fine booze down our gullets and stuffing our faces with hot-off-the-grill eats. Not to mention the hundred other ways she was a gracious and generous hostess. And as far as I know none of wound up trussed up in the basement...

BTW has anybody heard from fyodor since the party?

Believe it or not, I take that as a compliment. I tend to have a more "masculine" writing style unless I consciously make myself girly.

EDIT: And thanks, No. 6 and Warren for the compliments! It was really a pleasure meeting you guys (and everyone else). I was happy to invite you into my home. :-)*

*Yes, that is an example of me consciously sounding girly.

Not according to Gender Genie!

Ellie, David/Grylliade and I sorta met fyodor and Babushka on Sunday night for dinner at a storefront Pakistani restaurant. (I say "sorta" because our times spent in the restaurant overlapped but were not precisely congruent.)

(EDITED so as not to imply that Gender Genie was critical of our photos.)

Hi, Warren. Fortunately, she lets me surf the net with my nose between whippings.

glad you guys all had a good olde tyme.

PENIS PENIS SMASH SMASH PENIS PENIS SMASH SMASH

ha ha

Can we all agree to never talk about that restaurant again? Every time I recall that chili chicken thing I ate, I get the worst cravings to have it again. Then I remember I can't, and I cry and cry.

Yeah, I didn't expect JD to have the whole My Name Is Earl thing going on. I expected something on the Julian Sanchez / Dave Weigel continuum.

Ok, good points. But riddle me this then: Why did you take being told that you have a masculine writing style as a compliment? Just curious.

Alas, and it would have been nice to see you again, too.

I was supposed to head to Chicago tonight, actually, but due to the fact that one of my friends had a change of heart about driving at night, we're leaving tomorrow morning instead, I guess.

I do think it's plausible, and often convincing, that there are general behaviors, affinities, tendencies and traits that tend to be associated more often with males vs. females, which can be reflected in all kinds of things, including writing style.

Most species of apes are sexually dimorphic to a greater or lesser degree. (Gorillas and orangutans, a lot. Gibbons, not so much. We chimpanzees, probably somewhere in the middle.) In the wild, the different sexes have different roles and behaviors. They've evolved that way.

There are always individual exceptions to the general tendencies, of course.

And FWIW, so far Gender Genie is convinced that I mostly write like a girl.

I'm all ears.

Just as a point of information, I was apparently "Metro McCosmotarian" that weekend and Warren shat all over my "good ol' boy" cred when I told him I was drinking Cabernet Sauvignon. This was a conversation between Ellie and me on the way to linguists:

ELLIE: It's funny when Jadagul says that he doesn't think that jeans are fit for public wear.
ME: Well, in all fairness, I just came to feel that way a few years ago. But see!, I'm a regular guy! I'm wearing jeans!
ELLIE: Are they ironed?
ME: (like a scolded five year old) Yes.
ELLIE: Are they expensive?
RACHEL: Yes
ME: Hey! I like the way I dress.
ELLIE: It's ok, me too! I think gay boys are cute.

EDITED for proper Cosmotarian grammar.

Oh, yes, and to answer Ali's question upthread, I am 24. But I've been 50 inside since I was like, 12.

Man, do I wish I could've been there :(

But now that I'm in the UAB system, I can allot my vacation time accordingly, and I know for sure I can schedule some time to see y'all, so whoever plans this for next year, please put a big, bold bulletin for me to see so I can schedule ahead...please :)

Just to play Red Team here, doesn't acknowledging that there are learned gender differences in writing invalidate your point that software that can't be trained to discern between male and female writing styles? It lessens the degree of accuracy available, certainly, but it would still be possible.

That shot of Linguist looks like an advertisement! She is so pretty.

You're a great photographer, JD. I can't wait to see the rest!

(sigh)
2 more reasons why I really, really, really wish I was there :(

Warren, you're so evil. I really have to meet you sometime.

Evil? What? No. I don't want to be evil. I want to spread love to everyone. I just want to spread it a little thicker on some, that's all.

Aresen is an old man, which is why he's so often jealous of me.