IRL

I'm such a geek, I just figured out what IRL means. You know this Internet is a pretty darn interesting piece of equipment. We have information at our fingertips instantly, look where the Internet was 10 years ago. Here's what MSNBC looked like in 1997, here's 2002, what a change 5 years made and now look where we are 5 years later.

We've got YouTube and Flickr (which I didn't realize until a few weeks ago that you HAD to create an account to even look at pictures - that's sorta interesting) and we've got Blogs, and Blogs and Blogs and BLOGS and from there we've got Video Blogs and even Audio Blogs or Podcasts as their called.

The Internet has really made us a global community, 10 years ago I never would have imagined communicating on a regular basis with people all around the world just as simple as if they were just next door. That's pretty cool.

Its been great because I've actually had the opportunity to meet some of you, like That Ropey Old Bird, Ms. Mac and the person that only needs to be identified as TBF, and hopefully if this year works out properly I'll have the chance to meet a few more of you in person or In Real Life (IRL) like they say here on these interwebs.

That Ropey Old Bird, Andrea, who's been blogging forever, is coming into Chicago this weekend for a round of drinking and debauchery and I hope to introduce her to my newest Internet friend David of Loopy Fruit Audio Network. David has bypassed this whole blog thing completely and started his own Podcast with his friend Raul.

Raul and David, the Gaysian and Gay Caucasian as they are known on their show, are best of friends who met a few years ago in church of all places. If I weren't so afraid to go to church (i.e. see my Christmas Post for evidence of that) I'd start going to church to meet some friends like Raul and David.

David and I actually met IRL a few years ago through a monthly movie group that we both belong to. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I found out that David had braved it all and started doing a weekly blog with his friend. I checked him out and downloaded a few podcasts and figured it was time to "out myself" to him.

I'm always afraid to tell people IRL that I have a blog, because I'm afraid that they'll say "oh yeah, well what's the address?" For some reason I'm not really comfortable giving it out, do you readily give out your blog address to your friends IRL?

Well I came out to David and sent him my blog address, and he's been reading me over the last few weeks. I told him that I wanted to do an interview for my blog and introduce everyone to him, so we met at our local Dominick's on Saturday Night - yeah remember what happened that night!

I found out all kinds of things about David and if you listen to their podcast you'll find he's just as willing to share himself online as he is in real life, you know what I mean. We laughed and laughed for a little more than an hour, we talked about the gadgets he has and how he and Raul are having problems with the "Puff Factor" on their microphone, we told jokes (a few jokes I hadn't told in years), I think I asked him a few questions and I think I got a few answers. I recorded the entire session so I could refer back to it, but all I hear is us laughing.

So even though I promised an interview, it just didn't turn out like that. But it was fun to put the Podcasting David together with the IRL David and see where the two meet.

I'm not sure if you're a podcast listener, and even if you are, I would suggest checking out Raul and David at Loopy Fruit Audio Network, it's fun to learn about someone while actually listening to them tell their stories in person, it's sort of like The Common Mans Garrison Keillor.

Go check out the boys and if you love them, tell them I sent ya.......go ahead click on it:

Loopy Fruit Audio Network

And hopefully this weekend we'll be able to get two Bloggers and a Podcaster to meet IRL!