A few days ago I raved about the pleasure of getting together with with my fraternity brothers. I promised that it was a segue into the next days rant. Alas, I wrote about something else... And then there was the power outage...Sorry. Let's just say I exercised my poetic license to postpone it.
I intended to talk about another room I frequent. That would be a chat room, specifically the lockergnome chat room.
I have been subscriber lockergnome for years. Not only has Chris Pirillo's E-zine been my largest single source of my online education but the man himself has been more than good to me. For starters, he actually replies to my E-mail s and, almost always, the next day, taking all he does into account, that says a lot.
For those of you who have no idea who the gnome of gnomies is, let me explain just how busy he actually is... Not only does he head up Lockergnome but has also authored a book, co-hosted a radio show, writes a blog , organizes an annual Gnomedex Convention and has host a radio show. The bottom line is CP is one very busy guy.
So back in the day when I was doing an e-mail magazine for my Fraternity, naturally I badgered the master via his in-box on a semi-regular basis and, being the man he is, he replied.
Then I, on compassion, I started to visit his chat room. On one such night my PM box flashed open and it went something like this;
Chris: hey
Lumpy: yo!
Chris:hows it going?
Lumpy:pretty good... and btw i mean to ask you about something...
Chris: go ahead
Lumpy:(insert some dumb n00b question here)
Chris:(insert the perfect answer here)
Lumpy: k... ty
Chris:np
Lumpy:oh... and (insert another dumb n00b question here)
Chris:(insert the another perfect answer here)
Lumpy: k... ty
Chris:np
Lumpy:oh... and (insert yet another dumb n00b question here)
Chris:(insert the yet another perfect answer here)... hey, do you know about my book?
Lumpy: you wrote a book?
Chris:yeah... :) (link to his book)
Lumpy: click
Lumpy: kool! I'll save you some typing aud just buy it. ty
Chris: np
So buy it I did and a small part of the master's midas touch rubbed off on me. I learned much. I change how I did things. The book sat and still sits right next to my PC.
My subornations list quickly hit 300 subscribers. Instead of only my Chapters Members, Tekes everywhere were now awaiting the weekly. I also found out that it was being forwarded everywhere. To this date, I honestly have no real idea how many people actually got my e-zine. Members and staff at HQ even were even reading it. My Brothers who attended our bi-annual congress happily informed me that people there were asking about me because of that e-zine.
In his book, Chris mentioned that his Fraternity Brothers call him Apple. In one of my E-mails, which now consisted of more intelligent questions, I mentioned that I was writing for TeKE , in his response he informed me that he is also a TeKE. Too kool!
Now this E-magazine consisted of a number of things, each issue featured an article from one of the officers, a photo, and an interview... I wonder? Would Mr. E-mail Guru agree?
He did agree and we did the interview, naturally, via e-mail. (I mean what better method for two TeKE Geeks?) I received much praise for that issue and, in my opinion, it was the best of the 12 which ever hit the e-press.
Success can be a mixed blessing. I seemed to impress enough of the members to receive a nomination for Chapter President. I accepted and was elected. This meant that my E-publishing days were through. This was a stereotypical example of mixed emotions.
During my term as Prytanis (which is what us greeks call our president), the Chapter grew by 25%, the Chapter GPA rose by nearly a full point, the residency at the house virtually doubled, and the quality of our membership basically improved greatly. I can not take much of the credit though, I had a good executive committee and largely all I had to do was track things.
One the other hand, it was the last time a Frater ever saw a "TeKE Week", the Chapters web site drastically needed an update and face lift, and over 300 issues of lockergnome stacked up in my lockergnome folder.
In retrospect , I was glad to serve but am glad to get back to what I love more and, in my opinion, am better at. I am now just "joe member", have caught up on all my lockergnomes, set up a site on a server owned by one of the alumni who liked my TeKE Week stuff, enjoy ranting and raving in this blog and have become a regular in the lockergnome chat room. I am even starting to play with some neat scripts and such.
Just the other night, I did bump into the supergnome Apple in his chat room. It was nice, he remembered the interview and we typed a few lines back and forth. He also threw up a few relevant links to some of the questions I had asked earlier. The other nice thing is that the room is filled with other people who are geeks just like Chris and myself. No one laughs at you when you mention over clocking or drive speed.
I am going to regret returning to school and having less time to spend in the room. Honestly, I think I learn more there. Another case of mixed emotions. Such is and so be it. I could go on and on about it for paragraphs but that will be the subject of a future raving... and, no, I am not going to promise when.
