Ginny from the Blog

One of the coolest feelings is meeting someone you follow online in real life. You get a rush from recognizing the face behind the words you’ve been reading on their blogs, in their tweets, their websites, etc. I got to experience that rush over and over again last night at the 30THREADS Blogger Bash at Durham Performing Arts Center.

The bash was a chance for us bloggers, picture takers, Tweeters and the people who love us to come together and mingle, eat incredible cheeses and raspberry brownies (My belly thanks you DPAC and Durham Catering). DPAC also graciously gave away tons of cool prizes, including dinner at Revolution, tickets to Legally Blonde, The Color Purple and the world premiere of Cirque Dreams Illumination.

We gathered on DPAC’s stage and listened to the soundtrack of Wicked while networking, sipping beers and touring the theatre. It was exciting to see a lot of new faces, bloggers who didn’t make it to previous bashes. Among my highlights from the bash:

* DPAC officially launched its own blog called DPAC Spotlight. It’s going to be run by their assistant marketing director, Rachel Gragg, who is also the voice on the @DPAC Twitter account. I knew about this ahead of time because my boyfriend’s company, This Is Beautiful, designed the site, so it was tough keeping my lips sealed in the days leading up to the event.

* I finally got to meet @JayDolan, one of my funniest tweeps who will someday soon have a big break in his singing and acting career. His tumblelog usually has something on it that makes me smile. Here’s my all time favorite post from his blog.

* I got to chat with my newest contact Steve Burnett. He posted some pics from his DPAC tour on Twitter. This one is INCREDIBLE.

* I met @Shawnf for the first time, which was cool because I feel like I’ve known him forever because I’ve been following his blogs and Twitter updates for over a year. He’s in the security business and this guy truly gets social networking and how to make it work for your industry.

* I met Rebecca, the foodie behind the Triangle restaurant review blog The Gourmez. I could tell her and her husband Ben are pretty hip (even if he doesn’t blog). She blogged about last night’s events here.

* Durham blogger Phil Marsosudiro made it out, which is a miracle because there’s something about the universe that always pulls him out-of-town when blogger events are happening. He went on the DPAC tour and photographed the autograph wall that is starting to develop. It includes signatures from Bill Cosby and Topol.

* Frozen food vlogger Greg Ng was there, and he gave me some of his cool, new Freezer Burns vinyl stickers.

* @Jazzychad, the creator of TweetGrid, showed up a little late (he got lost), but it was all good because he was rocking a vest and a newsboy cap.

* Also, my friend and fellow blogger Andrea drove all the way from Mebene to meet the bloggers she reads on 30THREADS. She blogs about dogs on her blog, Dogs & Randomness.

* I met Valerie from Triangle Music, which was cool because her and I are meeting next week to work on a cool project, so now I know what she looks like (and she’s just as adorable as the pics on her Tumblelog).

* And, of course, I was pleased to see some of the staple Durham bloggers make it out including Barry from Dependable Erection, Lenore from Eclectic Glob of Tangential Verbosity, Joe from Fallout Shelter.

I got to meet and say hello to so many others too. Please list your blog URL if you were there but not mentioned in this blog post. I’m sorry I didn’t give a shout out to everyone, but you know I love you Triangle Bloggers.

I’m still buzzing from last night’s 30THREADS blogger bash and it has nothing to do with the beer that was flowing.

I’m finding that when Triangle bloggers and Tweeple get together, there’s a certain energy that envelops the room. Faces light up with recognition when bloggers or Tweeple are recognized from their avatars. Bloggers connect with their readers, stories and ideas are exchanged, occasionally interrupted by a handshake or a hug from someone who feels like they already know you.

I connected with some bloggers I already knew, but I also met some whose words and photos I’ve been admiring for months. A brief recap, with apologies for the many moments I can’t squeeze in.

* Met Jeni, the Durham blogger behind I found happy. Turns out we both used to work at The Herald-Sun, so we briefly shared our war stories.

* Noshed on some tasty wings with @RobertFischer, a Durham blogger who reminded me of some funny advice I offered during one of our live Threadcasts. Apparently, I had declared my love for buffalo chicken wings, but warned that if you want to impress someone during a lunch meeting it’s better to order the buffalo chicken salad because it’s easier to eat. Haha. That so sounds like something I would say. (Robert is the one talking in the photo on the left).

* Reminicsed with Lenore about the days when Broad Street Cafe (the venue for our bash) was the funky Ooh La Latte.

* Met some of the anonymous folks behind one of the best Durham food blogs, Carpe Durham.

* Finally had a chance to congratulate Kevin Davis in real life on the recent redesign of his popular Bull City Rising blog. Also caught up with Valerie and found out some of her exciting future plans for We Love Durham.

* Immediately recognized Leandra and Eric, a Durham wine-loving couple I feel like I already know because of their well-written blog.

* Shook hands with a recently-blogged about High School Musical Build-a-Bear and met Jeff Cohen’s two precocious children. Check out this photo that Grace took with her dad’s Nikon D40X.

Other people I met/reconnected with included:

* Paul from That’s No Bull.

* Kate, Jill and Jake, who are among the folks building Raleigh Public Relations.

* Ellen from CoookingEatingDurham.

* Local comedian Larry Weaver.

* Barry Ragin from Dependable Erection (probably not what you think, get your mind out of the gutter).

* Rachel Nabors, a local cartoonist, web designer and overall stylish chick.

And many more.

It was a fabulous evening, filled with new connections and lots of smiles. I think Anora McGaha summed it up well when she wrote this on my facebook wall today:

The bash was amazing. The buzz in the Broad Street Cafe side area was intense, could have lit up half a city.

Thanks to everyone who came out. Hopefully we’ll have another chance to reconnect soon. If you were there and I didn’t list your blog above, please give yourself a shout out in the comments section.

The Triangle is definitely an outstanding hub for social media.

It’s time for another 30THREADS Blogger Bash.

Make plans to pop by the Broad Street Cafe in Durham anytime between 6 and 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The informal bash features light snacks and beer and, of course, a chance for me to meet you. If you’d like, bring a friend. Even if they don’t blog. It’s cool. We like new people.

So here’s what you do. Drive, walk or bike over to Broad Street Cafe. Open the door. Walk over toward the group of bloggers/blog readers (despite stereotypes, I doubt anyone will be wearing pajamas). Smile. Say hello. Grab some snacks. Get some beer (or soda, or water). And wait to be wowed by someone fabulous. There will be an interesting mix of folks, so it will be challenging not to meet one intriguing person. Find out how you can guest blog for 30THREADS. Chat with me a little. Say goodbye. Leave with a smile. Go home and watch the debate.

See, doesn’t that sound so easy and fun?

For more details, check this out.

Tonight’s a big night in the political world. Vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin square off in their first (and only) debate.

If you plan to watch, then I want to encourage you to get a little interactive with me.

I will be at Raleighwood (a local theater that is hosting a Republican watch party for the debate) livestreaming the party on 30THREADS.

My co-worker, Wayne Sutton, will be at Galaxy Cinema in Cary, which is hosting a Democratic watch party. He will also be livestreaming on 30THREADS.

So here’s what you can do. Turn the debate on your TV. Then log onto 30THREADS.com/debate where there will be two video players. One will feature the livestream from the Democratic watch party and the other will show the Republican side.

The idea is you can see how folks on both side of the political spectrum are reacting the debate. Won’t it be amusing to see if a theater full of Democrats are booing when Palin makes an awkwardly-worded point while a theater full of Republicans cheer her on (if they cheer her on)?

Barring no unforeseen technical difficulties (we’ve never done anything like this before, so who knows what will happen), it will definitely be a unique way to watch the debate.

I hope you’ll join us. We’ll also have chat rooms set up below the videos so that you can offer your two cents. So if you’re watching the debate at home and want to vent (NO MATTER WHAT SIDE YOU’RE CHEERING FOR) this will be a cool place for you to do it.

Looking forward to chatting with you all tonight. The livestreaming starts around 8:30 p.m. but the debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. Feel free to give my employer some love and watch it on NBC17 (sorry shameless plug, but they are the ones who are allowing me to livestream all of this).

Chat with you later.

I feel like covering the screen with a hundreds of OMGs. OMG OMG OMG … But I will spare you of such an annoyance. But please realize that’s how incredibly excited I am about this announcement: Check out 30THREADS.com.

It’s a project that I’ve been working on for months (here and there) with my co-worker Wayne Sutton. For a while, it seemed as if it would never come to fruition. But on Wednesday, July 30, we unveiled it to the public at the Blogger Bash (that’s the news you missed if you were unable to attend).

The site features the best Triangle-area blog posts, news articles and other random online information that Wayne and I think fellow Triangle residents may find intriguing.

We will introduce the articles with a little commentary, provide a blurb from the post or article and then share the full link so you can click over for more information, if you’re interested. Our goal is to entertain, inform and introduce you to new local sites that you never knew existed.

You know that feeling when you stumble upon a new local blog that you never knew existed. That “I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this” feeling washes over you. (You probably experienced this the first time you found my blog, j/k). Well, I hope that starts happening to you more often once you start exploring the blogs that we feature.

But it won’t always be blogs. Sometimes we’ll feature interesting news and feature articles, as well as content from other random web sites. The only thing all of our posts will have in common is that they will either always be written by someone who lives in the Triangle area or they will be about the Triangle area itself (like if the New York Times writes an article featuring something Triangle-iffic we may choose to highlight that).

Anyway, if you head over to the site, you can see our introduction video, which provides a decent rundown of how the site works.

But don’t worry, I am not in any way abandoning Ginny from the Blog. I so love sharing my Triangle experiences with you and the comments and ideas you all share with me.

If you have any questions, let me know. And thanks to everyone who made it out to the Blogger Bash. It was so fun to meet so many of you. The energy in the room was high that night.