<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>[VAR]iable expression &#187; liveblog</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.mvarmazis.com/tag/liveblog/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.mvarmazis.com</link>
	<description>Maria Varmazis&#039; blog</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:12:04 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
		<item>
		<title>ROFLCon&#8211;you can has. Day one liveblogging, updates</title>
		<link>http://www.mvarmazis.com/roflcon-day-one-updates/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mvarmazis.com/roflcon-day-one-updates/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:34:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maria Varmazis</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Geekery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[banditos misteriosos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brawndo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cambridge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flickr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[group x]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[icanhascheezburger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leslie hall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liveblog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MIT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ROFLcon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tron guy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[update]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mvarmazis.com/roflcon-day-one-updates/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Live updates from ROFLcon at MIT in Cambridge! Photos, tweets, geekery. <3]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>I&#8217;m heading over to <a href="http://roflcon.org/">ROFLcon </a>in Cambridge now &#8212; bringing my laptop and camera, of course!  Check back here for entries  and pics throughout the day.</em></p>
<p>New entries will appear at the top of the page with events in reverse chronological order.</p>
<p><span id="more-77"></span><strong>Other feeds to check</strong>:<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/" target="_blank">My flickr account </a>(photos)<br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/varmazis" target="_blank">My twitter</a> (tiny tweets)</p>
<p>Newest update:</p>
<p><strong>I will be at ROFLcon on Saturday! And yes, I&#8217;ll be liveblogging/posting photos from that as well. </strong>Keep an eye on this site for that entry tomorrow.</p>
<p>[<strong>@9:19pm</strong>] Molasses slow internet connection at Middle East Upstairs, no liveblogging from here, that&#8217;s for sure.<br />
But I managed to upload this for you guys:<br />
<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441382585/" title="ROFLcon 010 by varmazis, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/2441382585_60de207533.jpg" alt="ROFLcon 010" height="375" width="500" /></a></center><br />
How often do you get to have your photo taken with an internet meme? This is what ROFLcon is all about.<br />
That&#8217;s me and Leslie Hall of Gem Sweater fame &#8212; the funniest lady on the internet (IMO).<br />
I am framing this photo. 4srs.  She is so freakin&#8217; nice.</p>
<p>Also we just ran into the Hello Kitty Avenger of Banditos Misteriosos fame. We&#8217;re getting our wires crossed! Oh noes!</p>
<p>[@8:25] This might be the final post of the night&#8211;dinner time in ROFLconland, we all invaded Central Square. Go fig, Miracle of Science was packed to capacity. Ramy and I went to Phoenix Landing down the street, deathly quiet. Another go fig. We&#8217;re now at Toscanninis and ROFLlers have invaded here as well.</p>
<p>Ramy got a cheeseburger at the Phoenix Landing. He didn&#8217;t realize why I started laughing when he ordered it.</p>
<p>A cheeseburger, he can has it. Rather he can&#8230; did &#8230;has it? And he says it was delicious. Thumbs up to Phoenix Landing!</p>
<p>In a half hour the ROFLcon music show (yes, the ROFLconcert) will start at the Middle East Upstairs &#8212; I&#8217;ll be taking photos but won&#8217;t liveblog from this, it&#8217;ll be pretty much impossible. When I get back to my apartment in East Arlington (I&#8217;m biking back!) post-show, I&#8217;ll upload my photos and do a brief write-up for you all.</p>
<p>One of the highlights of my day: <a href="http://universalhub.com/node/14204" target="_blank">I got my own post on UniversalHub.</a>  Sweeeeeeeeet.</p>
<p>[@5:51] Q: &#8220;How do you know when you&#8217;re fucking with the matrix?&#8221;<br />
A1: &#8220;When the CIA contacts you.&#8221;<br />
A2: &#8220;When more people are wearing gem sweaters.&#8221;</p>
<p>Good answers all.</p>
<p>Oh sweet. <a href="http://granades.com/2008/04/25/roflcon-bingo/">ROFLcon bingo</a>.</p>
<p>[@5:42] Panel opened up to questions. Previously Bubble Guy made extended comment on public space ads versus ads on TV. That was awesome. Not entirely ROFLcon-y or geeky but still really fascinating. Now Bert is Evil guy is commenting on use of his images by protesters in third world countries, etc.</p>
<p>[@5:35] Hey, I&#8217;ve always wanted to be in The Guardian. Well, my writing isn&#8217;t there (&#8230; yet), but one of my photos is! <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/04/25/roflcon_weinberger_and_the_internets_flukes.html">Huzzah</a>!</p>
<p>Applause from audience when Leslie Hall asked whether anyone on the panel has major ads/banners on their sites and everyone responded no.</p>
<p>[@5:29] twitter reactions seem to be on the same wavelength &#8212; this panel is really odd. Bubble Project, Gem Sweater, Bert is Evil guys are very interesting. The rest of the panel&#8230; I don&#8217;t get it. Plus moderator questions are unfocused. Ramy turned to me and asked: &#8220;Can we get a nominative definition of &#8216;pwnage&#8217;?&#8221; I agree.</p>
<p>I mean, what does this mean: &#8220;How do you think schools can integrate pwnage into the classroom?&#8221; Seriously. Someone explain this to me.</p>
<p>[@5:20] Sorry for slowing updates &#8212; battery keeps dying and outlets are scarce. I camped out at one and now things are better.</p>
<p>Am at the PWNing for the good of mankind panel. Bubble Project guy worked at Saatchi&amp;Saatchi &#8212; that&#8217;s brilliant.</p>
<p>This is a much calmer discussion than the LOLpanel. Some of the questions: &#8220;How did you become internet famous? Were you trying to pwn&#8221; Hmm.</p>
<p>Also, <strong>ROFLcondom</strong>.<br clear="all" /><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441030755/" title="The ROFLcondom! by varmazis, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3268/2441030755_8ec18a1386.jpg" alt="The ROFLcondom!" height="375" width="500" /></a><br clear="all" /><br />
Hah. Like <strong>any </strong>of the geeks at ROFLcon are going to need these.</p>
<p>This is a weird panel I have to say &#8212; not really sure what the focus is here (kind of a scattershot panel gathering). Why is the ACLU in on a discussion of pwning? I would expect a bunch of lvl70 rogue with epix to be in on this discussion&#8230; not so much iJustine. *shrug*</p>
<p>[@3:46] OM NOM NOMed greasy calzone (yays), am at &#8220;I Can Haz Case Study&#8221; panel of the LOLcat/LOLspinoff phenomenon.</p>
<p>Quote of the panel: &#8220;What is it about cats? What is it about them that makes them so LOLable?&#8221;<br />
ICanHasCheezburger.com CEO talks about the diversity of cat-related reactions. I wonder if Cat Fancy really IS here as I keep hearing they are? So many cat-quotable moments&#8230;great, now I miss <strong>my </strong>cat!</p>
<p>LOLphenom made up of &#8220;overwhemingly female&#8221; contributors? Does that contribute to the popularity of LOLcats in general asks LOLcode dude. This is a very philosophical conversation, given the topic at hand!</p>
<p><br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441694852/" title="ROFLcon 005 by varmazis, on Flickr"></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441694852/" title="ROFLcon 005 by varmazis, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2191/2441694852_920597a534.jpg" alt="ROFLcon 005" height="375" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><br clear="all" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2440872183/" title="ROFLcon 007 by varmazis, on Flickr"></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2440872183/" title="ROFLcon 007 by varmazis, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2372/2440872183_24ebbf806b.jpg" alt="ROFLcon 007" height="375" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><br clear="all" /><br />
The LOLpanel with Tron Guy in the audience.</p>
<p>Obtained ticket to tonight&#8217;s internet meme music concert. Very, VERY happy about seeing Group X!</p>
<p>[@2:01pm] Latest Tweet: &#8220;awkward gender conversation sprung on unsupecting panel, but it was handled well. time for lunch: OM NOM NOM&#8221;</p>
<p>Explanation: The keynote turned to a discussion of race and gender &#8212; why was the panel all young white guys? Isn&#8217;t the internet the great equalizer? It&#8217;s an interesting discussion to have though I think the panelists were rather flummoxed by it &#8212; things got awkward mighty fast. I&#8217;m as sick as the &#8220;THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNETS!!11&#8243; joke as the next chica but I don&#8217;t believe these guys were prepared to speak on that topic &#8211;keynote was about making money online, not gender/race dynamics of the internet.</p>
<p>Still, I think it was inevitable someone was going to bring it up. But boy oh boy, the angst was palpable once someone asked that question.</p>
<p>Lunch break time now, Ramy is here and we&#8217;re going to grab something to eat. All I had this morning was a tiny thing of yogurt and then a gut-churning can of narsty Brawndo&#8211;after a half hour bike at 9am and many hours of sitting around, I am ready to gnaw my damn arm off. See you at the 3:30pm panel!</p>
<p>[@1:24pm] Interesting keynote. Panelists: Million Dollar website guy, One Red Paperclip guy, JibJab, RocketBoom, Chuck Norris facts, Marmaduke Explained.</p>
<p>You come away feeling so, so much of internet &#8220;fame&#8221; is pure dumb luck. You put your content out there and spin the roulette wheel. Some of the panelists are more surprised that they&#8217;re up there than I would have believed! (Especially Chuck Norris facts guy. He&#8217;s been sued?!? Poor dude. We should start a pool for his defense. FTW)</p>
<p>Says the Chuck Norris Facts guy: &#8220;I&#8217;m completely 100% a fluke.&#8221;  Honesty!</p>
<p>I wonder&#8230; what really is the takeaway from this? It&#8217;s fascinating insights but not much actionable knowledge here. Guess I shouldn&#8217;t be too surprised about it though. (And not that I&#8217;m looking to become famous on the internet.)</p>
<p>My laptop battery is near-dead and I have a gnarly headache from the Brawndo (avoid avoid avoid). I think it also gave me a heart murmur. Yeesh.</p>
<p>Fun fact: Stuff White People Like guy grew up near Greektown in Toronto. Yay! He says &#8220;gyro&#8221; correctly. Props man, props.</p>
<p>[@12:35pm]  Keynote about to start &#8212; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441362574/in/set-72157604722214288/" target="_blank">guess who I&#8217;m sitting behind</a>?</p>
<p>LEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNKINS just introduced himself as the MC for ROFLcon.</p>
<p>BEST. MC. EVAR.</p>
<p>I wonder what he drops if we gank him onstage&#8230;.</p>
<p>[@ 11:39]<strong> </strong>And now Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like! I freaking love his blog. We&#8217;re asking about how he came up with his blog. &#8220;It was entirely a fluke&#8230; didn&#8217;t expect any of this.&#8221; His site was picked up almost instantly since he started it&#8211;shows when you have a really good concept, people <strong>will</strong> find out about it!</p>
<p>I told him about the Asian Girls entry and how a friend (an Asian girl) sent me a link to his blog and how bizarre that was.</p>
<p>He then asked me why I don&#8217;t have a Mac (EVERYONE liveblogging ROFLcon is on a Mac but me, it&#8217;s kind of pathetic).</p>
<p>He&#8217;s the third person to sit in what we&#8217;re now calling the meme chair.</p>
<p>[@11:35]<br />
Alex Tew got out of one seat, Kyle MacDonald (One Red Paperclip) sat down. What is this, the meme seat?  He&#8217;s presenting at 1pm.</p>
<p>Aaaand Denny Blaze just walked by. O_o</p>
<p>[@ 10:42 a.m.]<br />
Registered! Got my schwag, badge. Biked over to Cambridge from Arlington&#8211; a great ride on a beautiful day, but it only ended up taking about 25 minutes (a lot shorter than I&#8217;d predicted!) so I got here awfully early, wayyyy before they were ready for registrants.</p>
<p>First girl in line though, w00t. (Geek cred +1000)</p>
<p>Now we&#8217;re all chugging Brawndo (this stuff is uber-YELLOW) and twittering or updating blogs. Poor MIT wifi server, it&#8217;s going to get hammered today. Caffeinated geekery.<br />
Lots of Firefox stuff around, he&#8217;s our hero~</p>
<p>I&#8217;m hearing squeals from people recognize their favorite internet celebs. It&#8217;s a very surreal who&#8217;s who. Seeing Tron Guy in meatspace, whoa. What?</p>
<p>This whole thing is going to get liveblogged to death, isn&#8217;t it? Worse than SXSW, I&#8217;m thinking.<br />
Lots of college students from the area around here. At 24 I feel a bit old in this crowd.</p>
<p>Already ran into Wired, heard NYT and NPR are wandering around as well. Just saw the Reddit dudes too.</p>
<p>Man, this Brawndo stuff. Dyes your skin yellow if you drip. But but! It&#8217;s got ELECTROLYTES.</p>
<p>Am still trying to decide which panels to go to.</p>
<p>Schwag obtained:<br clear="all" /><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441154284/" title="ROFLcon 002 by varmazis, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/2441154284_1958f50c0d_m.jpg" alt="ROFLcon 002" height="180" width="240" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/varmazis/2441154224/" title="ROFLcon 001 by varmazis, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2144/2441154224_67305feb0d.jpg" alt="ROFLcon 001" height="375" width="500" /></a><br />
<br clear="all" /><br />
Freakin&#8217; love the lunchbox.</p>
<p>Also, lots of free stickers (Firefox ones from Japan&#8211;CHOUUU KAWAIII) and as much Brawndo as we can chug.</p>
<p>ROFLconners &#8212; did you bring your DSes with you for PictoChatting? I didn&#8217;t, though I&#8217;m wondering if I should bring mine tomorrow. Pictochat? Anyone? Anyone?</p>
<p>OMG. I&#8217;m sitting right across the coffee table of Alex Tew (the Million Dollar Homepage guy).  *___* Whaaaat!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.mvarmazis.com/roflcon-day-one-updates/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

