I'm a Geek, You'r a Geek, Everywhere a Geek, Geek

Friday, June 13, 2008
Yes, I'm a geek. And so are most of the members of the Union of Collaborating Founders, otherwise known as the UCF.

For those of you unfamiliar with this term, the UCF is a group of folks that "met up" over on John Scalzi's Whatever and Whateveresque. When the Whateveresque started to be overrun by the asshats (yes, taustin, I'm looking at you), we essentially moved those on-line relationships to our own blogs.

Now because I'm such a geek, I'm thinking of making a Visio flow chart of the UCF, to keep track of who's met whom.

So here's the dilemma: Who, exactly, is the UCF? After corresponding with our fearless leader Nathan, we've come up with the following:

  • Nathan
  • Janiece
  • Anne
  • Jeri
  • Shawn
  • Tania
  • Jim
  • Michelle
  • MWT
  • Snavely
  • Saqib
  • Eric
  • Jeff Hentosz
  • Kimby
  • John the Scientist
  • Chris
  • Vince
  • Jusin Ryan
  • Matt Warnock
  • Kate
  • Todd Wheeler
  • Steve Buchheitt
  • Ilya
  • Pixelfish
  • Carol Elaine
  • Natalie

So my question is, who have we inadvertantly forgotten, and who's listed who shouldn't be?

As for our meat meet-ups, these are the ones I'm aware of:

  • Janiece and Anne
  • Nathan and John the Scientist
  • Jeri and Jim
  • Tanya and Jim

There may be other meet-ups that I'm not aware of, so my second question is, who else have you met? Leave your corrections in the comments, BrainPALs!

Hmm...Visio.

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Revised 6/13/2008 11:37 a.m. to include Carol Elaine.

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Revised 6/13/2008 4:05 p.m. to include Natalie.

30 comments:

Eric said...

I didn't know I'm a member, but I'm honored to accept if you'll keep me. I've never been a member of Whateveresque and I think I really became a member of the gang when MWT started to occasionaly visit my young blog not long after I started it (I believe MWT was pulled in from Whatever, if that helps towards my being counted). Still, I'll accept the tag, even if it's only honorary.

Y'know, this could end up being like that famous (even tho' I can't find an image of it to link to) family tree of prog rock that shows how basically every single English musician born during the '50s was a member of King Crimson who briefly played in Yes [/slight exaggeration].

Jeri said...

When is Denvention again? Because I am in serious need of some chick-weekend time. And I have just a little bit of mileage. ;)

Anne C. said...

Denvention is Aug. 6-10th. We would love to have you visit. Drop me and Janiece a line if you plan to come and we'll do what we can (for example, I have a spare room, but don't plan to attend every day. Janiece, on the other hand, I think is planning to get her money's worth).

Anonymous said...

I don't know if I qualify for the UCF, exactly. I did meet most of y'all on Whatever and spent some time on Whateveresque (where I became Janiece's Science Officer, IIRC), but I didn't spend a lot of time there, so I missed the Advent of the Asshats.

And I've not yet met any of you, but if there are some Southern California Hot Chicks or Smart Guys (or Smart Hot Chicks and Hot Smart Guys - which is actually kind of repetitive, now that I think about it), mebbe we can do a little meat meet-up.

Janiece said...

Oh! Carol Elaine! I am a bad, bad, Commodore, and I should be flogged for inadvertantly excluding you!

And Jeri, what Anne said. I already have friends in my spare room for Denvention, but we do have a futon, too. And we'll be going every day, Anne's correct.

Anonymous said...

That's okay, Commodore Janiece. I didn't start posting in the comments of your blog for a while. Understandable, really. No flogging necessary.

Anonymous said...

And thank you for the inclusion! I'm a Collaborating Founder - whee!

(Hmmm, I'm a bit wall-bouncy today. And I haven't even had caffeine.)

Jeri said...

Thank you Anne and Janiece for the warm inclusion! Anne, that's a very generous invitation seeing as how I *could* be an axe murderer. Or have flatulence issues. ;)

I probably should talk to the hub about this idea before going any further with it. LOL

And yes, I agree, XO Carol Elaine is a UCF-er.

MWT said...

Heh, funnily enough, I'd taken a gander to visit lots of people's blogs because I'd just started one. Glad to have managed to drag Eric into things. :)

As for the list ... well, there are a few names on there that I don't even recognize, but then I'm not really much for formalizing cliques. "Who's in? Who's out? Who cares?" is about my view on it. Anyone who goes around reading and commenting on say 5 or more of each other's blogs, that's good enough for me.

I posted my view of the history of UCF on Snavely's blog a while back. It might be interesting to collect everyone's version of it and see how different they are.

MWT said...

Ah, found the Snavely post.

Nathan said...

I realize we've left out Natalie, AKA Neurondoc.

Eric, Membership requirements were about as loose as you can imagine, so I'd temper the sense of honor a little if I were you. ::grin::

Janiece, First of all, I don't think anyone should not be on the list unless they're embarrassed to be seen in our company. And I'd trace the most direct beginning of this to the FUEY-YU (or however we spell it) episode. I know I first started looking at a few of your sites when, in the middle of that whole thing, I went, "Who the fuck are these people?" Then I just started clicking on people who were commenting on other sites.

Maybe it's mostly Jim's fault. :D

Janiece said...

MWT, I'm not trying to formalize a "clique," I just thought it would be fun to see who's met who, and since I'm an engineering geek, Visio is my tool of choice. I was actually trying to be inclusive rather than exclusive, if you know what I mean.

Nathan, I'll add Natalie. I knew we were missing some folks.

And I'm all for blaming Jim.

Hear that, Jim? It's all your fault.

Nathan said...

Wow,

I just went back and read Snavely's post and all the links (including the whole origin of Hijack™ Day). The comments on organizing (yeah, right) that thing are as funny as when it actually happened.

But, sorry, I still think the best line of the day was "The Grabill Family is confused".

Thinking more about this and reading some of the stuff on those links, yeah, a lot of this really does have it's origins at Jim's place. I kind of formalized it by giving it a name, because, as I've said, I was lucky enough to have readers and commenters from day one because of the various places where we had all met. And I wanted a term that recognized folks who were there from the early days.

Having said that, I'm all about expanding the circle. That's one of the reasons I've been asking folks to comment on other blogs I mention...to expand the circle. I'm not sure if I'll be saying this right, but...for me...the UCF is a finite group, (as much as you can say a group is finite when you can't really definitely name all the members). I will continue to actively welcome new folks to our circle (which has really fuzzy and even broken borders), but they won't be UCFers in my mind. That doesn't mean I'll like the new folks any less...just that you guys were really my introduction to this sort of community, and I'll continue to honor that separately.

----------------------------

GAWD! That got rambley and incoherent.

Simple: I claim no credit for forming this community. I named it. It honors those who have been there since the early days. I need more new internet friends all the time. Please find them and send them my way.

Clearer?

Random Michelle K said...

I think that a org chart of who has met who will be fascinating.

Especially after I like, get to meet people.

I think after we get the chart all spiky looking, we all go down to Georgia and try and find MWT. Then we can force MWT to be part of the super-dooper secret clique!

HA!

Jeri said...

I have this vision of a hyperactive rush secretary trying to recruit a completely disinterested brainy geek. :)

I hated the concept of exclusivity that frats and sororities represented and chose my college based in part on that (EWU - a small state college). I'm about as pro-inclusivity as it gets.

The more the merrier. Except, of course, let's keep our jerk filter on.

Shawn Powers said...

Russ, a visitor on my blog, recently IM'd me a message asking what the UCF was all about. I think I replied that were were a group of online bloggy friends that are full of teh awesome.

I also said we were very accepting, and that he could play too, as long as he's not a dick. At least not a dick in poor taste. :)

I've been a poor UCFer lately too. My twice weekly blogging at Linux Journal is sucking away my online time. *sigh*

Nathan said...

As you mentioned, I've met John the Scientist in real life now.

My other levels of contact belong on this chart you're making (and I mention it because everyone else will now, and that'll just complicate the chart no end).

I've received a snailmail prize from Janiece and a postcard from Anne.

I've sent snailmail prizes to Chris, Jim, Pixelfish, Todd, and Jeff.

I've spoken to Shawn and Jim on the phone.

Vince has mentioned me on his radio show twice...that I know of.

I watched Tania on TV (OK, the youtube video of it).

I've traded emails with (and I apologize if I miss anyone) with Snave, Michelle, Tania, Janiece, Jim, Shawn, Jeff, Saqib, Kate, Chris, Todd, Jeri, John, and I'm sure some I've missed.

Tonight, Michelle fixed my computer via email. Shawn and Jeri would've done it if Michelle hadn't beaten them to it.

I'm tellin' ya. The whole thing is magic...really magic.

MWT said...

Hmmm. I've done none of those things. But I've talked to the following people at the IRC Back Fence: Snave, John, Shawn, Nathan, Jeri, Michelle, Tania.

Well, actually if emails count: Nathan, Snave, Janiece, John.

Shawn was supposed to send me a tshirt but it never arrived. :(

Shawn Powers said...

That friggen T-Shirt, argh. It's on my desk now, and when I send back the product I'm reviewing next week, I'm sending it myself. :)

(This is why *I'm* not the person they hire for "getting stuff done")

I'll try to find something cool to put in there with it. No idea what. Probably something dorky. :D

vince said...

To procrastinate, or just to completely forget about it. That is the question.

I've gotten email from Nathan, pimped his and Jim's blogs, contributed to Shawn's thing with his kids to raise money for the hungry and got email from him on that, (can't get my brain to work well tonight), watched Tania on Jeopardy and live-blogged it on Nathan's site for him, and I think that's it.

I'd love to take a several week vacation and go UCF visiting, driving along to see all these cool people I've met online. Except maybe Alaska - the drive part. I think I'd fly there instead of driving.

In the meantime, I'll be back on the radio soon (my show is on hiatus while there's baseball on Wednesday evenings), so if anyone needs some airtime pimping that streams live as well, let me know.

I'm very good at babbling senselessly. And the amazing thing is I get paid for it!

Janiece said...

I can tell this org chart is going to turn into something resembling a Gordian knot before too much longer...

Okay, I'm going to include the following categories:

Meat Up
Gift Exchange
E:Mail

So post your input, and I'll try and get the thing built...

Shawn Powers said...

I'm not sure about the email thing, my brain tends to mash email, blog comments, and instant messaging all together into an amalgam of "communication."

I just got a postcard from Anne. Awesome. :)

I met Kate at Penguicon. I also met Scalzi there too, but he's not really one of us...

I got sweared at by Nathan over fake pizza. Awesome too.

I got succulent strawberry jam from Janiece. Very gone. ;)

I procured donations for the 30 Hour famine from Janiece, Tania, Vince, and Jim. People be eatin' now. Extremely awesome.

I've been reminded to take my medicine by most of the UCFers I think. Michelle gets the crown as the person most adamant about me living longer and such. Much appreciated.

And I work for the same company Justin Ryan does, which makes him one of the only non-Scazified UCFers. (I've never met him in meat space though)

Yeah, we rock.

Janiece said...

Shawn, you make a good point...e:mail, IM and blogging comments tend to run together for me, too.

I think I'll limit the chart to meat-ups and gift exchange.

I'm counting your "Feed the Children" contributions as "gifts," IF that's okay with you.

Nathan said...

Janiece,

Actual phone calls have to be their own category. Just sayin'.

Transcript:

Shawn (speaking in unidentifiable accent that he must have thought of as either Brooklynese or Indian or I'm not sure what): Mr. Gednizer, your pizza has been ready for ages. Are you ever coming to pick it up?

Me: It's for delivery. Do you not get the fucking concept of fucking delivery? Make a new fucking pizza, right fucking now and have a fucking car standing by to bring it to me. Clear?

Shawn (clearly a little surprised at the wrath he has unwittingly inspired), "Uh, Nathan...It's Shawn Powers, I looked up your number and figured I'd prank you.

Me: You're outta the fucking family.

(One of my favorite UCF moments of all time and the reason that phone calls must count as their own category.)

Janiece said...

Christ on a Crutch, you people are hard to please.

All right. Phone calls get their own category.

Jeez.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Collaborator, and did meet y'all on Whatever (though I never bothered with Whateveresque). I don't think I qualify as a Founder, though.

And you've already made your chart, so pay me no mind. Just a nod now and then...

Janiece said...

camsavwin, I love the idea of Collaborators at Large. It reminds me of the French Resistance, who were complete and utter badasses.

What does the rest of the group think?

Anne C. said...

I think Nathan might have proposed the Collaboraters thing on his blog. Does anyone else remember this?

Jeri said...

On a tangential but interwoven topic (and I, too, like the idea of collaborators) - I am going to go to Denvention too!

I cut loose some mileage and made air travel plans and signed up for my membership.

Anne has graciously volunteered to be my hostess. Thank you!! I'm excited to meet more of the UCF group, see Scalzi -- and see Lois McMaster Bujold! :)

(note: distractions are helpful right now...)

Anonymous said...

French ressistance is anathema to me - I'm a committed Anglophile (Hubby is French, and I have to get his goat some way or another).

But thanks for the compliment!

Maybe Jeri can create a tangential flowchart for us lurkers? Oh. Collaborators. Sorry.

I'll be the one tapping at your blogger door...