RSS
« Dinner magic | Home | The gospel of Vacant »
The gospel of Dooce
March 9, 2008
It was yesterday afternoon that I was walking across one of the many hallways at the Austin convention center and saw Heather Armstrong standing alone by an exit, casually talking on her cell phone and blending in with the mass mob of techies. It was sort of a revolutionary moment, as it was the first time I saw her in real life. Where is the paparazzi? Where are the swarms of followers? What would be the most unobtrusive way for me to worship her?
I guess I always knew that there were circles in the online world. It’s been brought up a lot here. No matter what, there will always be people with huge followings, and thousands more who have never heard of them. I’m still surprised when I talk to someone who blogs and they’ve never heard of Dooce. It suddenly hit me at the beginning of her panel that while I felt like a 13-year-old backstage at a Hannah Montana concert, others in the room may have been as interested as I would be at a lecture on the inner workings of JavaScript.
(Not as interested.)
Seeing her and Jon earlier today was still pretty surreal, but as I’ve been following her site since middle school, it really isn’t all that surprising. She was lovely and clever. And really tall.
I talked a little more about the actual panel content here. She was really heartfelt when explaining the challenges she’s faced with her audience and feedback. It was very easy, even inspiring, to sense her obviously strong emotional investment in her blog. It’s incredible how far it’s taken her.
Categories: Daily
March 9th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
When I met Dooce, she told me she liked my hair color. :-)
March 9th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Very cool. I stumbled across Dooce’s blog years ago, when I first encountered blogging during my downtime at work. I always liked the way she didn’t give a sh*t about what people thought of her, yet also, in a way, seemed genuinely hurt / offended, not because of what people said, but by the stupidity of people who think their petty opinions *should* matter to her.
Onward and upward.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
A magic moment, for whatever reason we all need at least one in our otherwise sorry ass lives.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Justin - That’s a really good way of putting it.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
:-) I remember her being very tall, too! I shook her hand when I met her a few years back; she’s so nice and funny.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Wow, you met the legend Dooce. When I first started blooging, I somehow found her blog and read her story about how she began blogging.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Yeah, it surprises me too when people don’t know of her. She’s like 40th biggest blog IN THE WORLD or something. I bet she’s so cool. Haha now I’m backstage at Hannah Montana. Sigh.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:23 am
CONFESSION: I don’t care much for dooce. Her blog has never appealed to me. I hear the buzz, I read, and I’m like, “Eh?” Plus her “job” is her blog and it bugs me that her family makes their living off her blogging but she doesn’t blog everyday.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Heather is an inspiration. There is no two ways about it.
I should tell my folks about her so that they will know who to blame for all my fool notions of trying to turn blogging into a cushy career.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
OH MY GOD YOU MET HER?!?!?! AAAHHH!!!!!!!
When I saw the picture of you two together I made an audible sound of glee.
If I could meet anyone in the world it would probably be her.
Wow. I sound like a lunatic.
Anyway, I’m so excited for you that you got to go to SxSW. Looks like you had an amazing time.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am
R, my roommate, and I had a collective 13-year-old-backstage-at-Hannah-Montana moment when we spotted the guys from Penny Arcade at Comicon (at their booth). It was, as a group, our girliest moment.
If I met Dooce, I would… Probably tell her that I found her site while trying to figure out why some people have outie belly buttons. I found her post on pregnant belly buttons and have been reading blogs ever since.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Jealous. Jealous jealous jealous. Jealous.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Absolutely jealous. I think if I met her I would sound like a bumbling idiot and yet I’ve heard from everyone who is met her that she’s totally nice and down to earth.
By the way, after watching you Burghie video, I totally wish my husband and I lived in Pittsburgh instead! So much more fun!