I was in one of those sessions the past two-days where ones mind tends to wander. I am pleased to say that it was not at Northern Voice. The speakers I encountered there kept my mind entertained. Similarly I am pleased to announce that this was not one of those moments when I started writing angry poetry. The presenters were very nice and not even remotely insulting to ones intelligence – it was just material that made ones mind wander. And luckily today, it decided to wander to Northern Voice, as opposed to thoughts that might somehow get me into trouble. What I kept coming back to as I thought of Northern Voice was all of the wonderful people that I met and of the many funny things that seemed to come out of their mouths when they opened them.

Here are a few favorite quotes I overheard at NV08:

1. Meg Tilley in the ‘Book to Blog and Blog to Book Session’, “Write a book or blog? BLOGGING!!!! Weeeeeee!!!!” If you were there you can attest to her arms being flung in the air and shaking as she kicked her feet on the word ‘blogging’. Funniest thing ever!

   

   Photo by CWill BC

2. The Littlest Duckie talking to the Firefly at A Bright Guy’s birthday bash, “People of your generation ….”. In defense of the poor Firefly, who momentarily shone a little less, my dear duckie, she is only 5 years older than you! When did five years become an entire generation! I am five years older than you for goodness sake! Certainly hope that isn’t one of your pick up lines.
3. Can’t remember whether this next quote referred to blogging or WordPress, but the young philosopher behind it made the following observation – “It’s that quirky girlfriend that you love, but really gets around all over the Internet.”
4. Discussing the pitfalls to working from a home office and dangers of spending the day meowing with the cat, the fellow looked at me, upon my concern of becoming a little loopy and said, “You mean loopier then you have these past few days.” So on that note – shall I place a plug for Workspace here. What’s their slogan – “Because Home Offices are Lonely” or in my case “Because Working Alone (or at Home – hey that rhymes) Can Cause Greater Levels of Insanity”
5. More on the inspirational stand point a comment of Stephanie Vacher’s that I enjoyed during her session was, “We are all designers!” Most empowering.

   

   Photo by Boris Mann Now for a couple that truly exemplify just how delightfully geeky the gentlemen in this crowd are:

6. After a beautiful post-Northern Voice walk, a rather cuddly gentleman turns to me and asks, “What is the tag for this event? “

7. Followed by another companion being asked to dinner by a beautiful woman only to respond with something to the tune of “I’m hanging out tonight with my friend the Internet”. Okay I didn’t quite get that right – it was geekier and rather delightfully cute at the same time, but I seem to have butchered it.

8. And last but not least, that vivacious Dose of Lunacy just on the phone to me, “I felt a little bit of Geek Withdrawal the next day.”

Photo by Jeffrey Keefer

So I know I am missing many more of the amusingly inspired comments of the many Northern Voicers, so please dear readers add some of your favorite quotes below. You know you’ve got em’.

Looking forward to reading your entertaining prose!

With love,

Emme