At 9pm on Wednesday, August 24, a group of some dozen dedicated overthinkers undeterred by the east coast earthquate and unfazed by the impending hurricane gathered to eat, drink, and overthink. Fans of the site and podcasts, as well as significant others of same, saw each other IRL for the first time.
The results were predictably unpredicable—”I thought you’d be shorter” is the favorite reader comment Iheard (thanks, Mike)—and pretty soon, the ideas started flying, including this gem: a sequel to Newsies set in the great depression and starring present-day Christian Bale. That’d be better than Green Lantern for sure.
Our thanks to everyone who came out, it was a pleasure to meet you!
Were you at the meetup? Tell everyone, and earn your OTI-IRL merit badge. Wish you could have been there? Let us know what town you’d like us to come to next.
P.S. I didn’t mention any reader names in the photographs. I hope you’ll identify yourselves, but that’s your call, not mine.
Wow, Wrather, you look different (just enough to be weird) from your skype picture. But then again, so do I.
Yeah, my glow is a little supernatural in these shots…
Belinkie looks SOOOOO different from what I imagined :O So does Jordan, who I miss hearing talk about music on TFT…
Wrather and Lee look a little more like my brain’s mental pictures of them, built over time from all the little clues (mug shots on the site, twitter avatars, etc)
All in all, it feels a lot like it did many years ago, when I watched the first Harry Potter film, and suddenly all the dear faces my imagination had painstakingly constructed were shattered and immediately replaced by the – in that case not exactly – “real” faces.
By the way, if I finally “edit” and send my epic, legendary email and if TFT ever goes back to being recorded, do I still get to be a guest on it? *insert anxiously awaiting smiley face here*
That’s me in bottom left of the first photo. Intentionally hiding behind me is [REDACTED], who I’m beginning to suspect is enrolled in some kind of witness protection program.
It was great to meet everyone.
The bar made it hard to hear, but overall a good time was had by all. Be sure to pick up your very own offical First OTI Meetup.
Seems Wrather brought an earthquake with him from Cali, which is nice, since you should always bring something when you visit.
If you are looking for me in the photos, I am in the first shot, middle/back. In general you usually can find me in Staten Island, but it also seem yinz were there too.
To quote Mahatma Gandhi: “Best night of my life!”
Hey, that’s me on the right in the “Cool End of the Table” picture with the oversmile and hidden on the right of the “patio” picture. Had a great time!
Vegas, guys, I’m tellin’ ya, Vegas.
I know your trips to the West Coast must be busy, but if you could squeeze in a few drinks between your merger talks with Google and VC board meetings, your SF fans would love to welcome you to town.
Hope you guys have another! Had to miss this one.