A Swift Kick & A Band-Aid

Milblogging Conference 2006

A big thanks to Andi for her countless hours putting together the Milblogging Conference 2006, to all those who helped her along the way, the VFW, and Military.com for their contributions. It was an honor to be in the company of so many people with the drive, determination, dedication, and spirit to serve in and support the military so lovingly and tenaciously.

I was very impressed with the dialog between panelists and the attendees. A lot of really important issues came out and we were all able to feel the common ground, despite all our social, geographic, and economic divides. I personally really took away the feeling that when bloggers band together, they can achieve amazing things.

I was also pleasantly surprised by my conversation with the representative from CENTCOM I was able to speak with over lunch. His outlook on blogging and the projects he is planning to get underway were exactly in line with what I think bloggers around the world have been looking for. Good news for all, I say.

But we were there to have a little fun too...

Friday at Fran O'brien's was a kickin good time. I had the chance to meet up with Blackfive, Buckethead, ArmyWife, Chuck & Carren from From My Position, and the Donovans again and meet a whole score of new people who's names flew out of my head (I accept no personal responsibility for that ... it was all the vodka's fault). By the end of the night I was introduced to who someone told me was Hal ... so I hope it was the real one. But overall, I'm glad that we could all get together and toast to what Fran's has done for the troops.

Meeting Smash & his wife was a bittersweet moment ... but only because I wanted to steal their plane tickets home or stow away in their luggage to get back to San Diego again. I almost missed getting to chat with him both nights but Contact Right was cracking me up the whole time he was around. I ran into Steve from ThreatsWatch at the bar (btw, a very interesting and chill dude to hang with) and felt a little like a dork when he reminded me we had exchanged several emails a year or so ago ... oops ... looks like I should be paying more attention to who is moving where and under what name from now on.

Lunch on Saturday was a lively conversation between AWTM, Fuzzibear Lioness, Sgt B, Soldiers Angels - New York, a couple readers that haven't ventured into the world of blogging yet, a small radio media guy, and the aforementioned CENTCOM representative. And over at the coffee table (a very important table the night after a blog-fest of any kind), I ran into another local blogger - VMIJPP from Rule 308.

The Pub Crawl Saturday night was unfortunately less of a crawl and more of a "stand-around-and-drink," but like Murdoc said ... a little rain couldn't ruin our festive mood. I did notice the rain managed to keep Capt B, Taco, and crew from showing up, but I think that was just their excuse to keep from losing the drinking contest. They say it was a safety issue ... excuses, excuses ...

But the "stand-around-and-drink" did give me a chance to hang with Uncle Jimbo & his sidekick K, HomefrontSix, Mike M from The War Tapes, Euphoric Reality, Doug from Military.com (a guy with awesome bad work stories from his former job), Instapinch, and Murdoc, in conjuction with the crew I already knew or met. It was such a good group of people.

Somewhere along the way I think I got to chat with Some Soldier's Mom, Soldiers Angel-Germany, Holly Aho, the guys from Op-for, and a lot more people but unfortunately my brain can only remember so many names. I remember faces much better ... and we all know bloggers are camera shy ... so I'm kinda screwed. SORRY!

If I met you but spaced your name please send me an email or link and I'll correct my mistake.

For those still in jail ... I guess Sgt Hook will have to keep us updated on your fight against the man ...

Posted by Princess Cat at April 24, 2006 09:16 PM @ 09:16 PM in Good Times // Permalink | TrackBack