moosh in indy.

Oh sweet sweet Gen Con. A time when boys (and girls) of all ages come from the depths of their parents basements to spend fleeting moments in the August sunshine if only to travel from their hotel to the Indianapolis Convention center.

Gen Con is for gamers. World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, Heroscape.

Gen Con also smells of body odor and feet.

There’s not much I can say about Gen Con that the pictures don’t convey except that every August since moving here Gen Con has given me a sweet calm assurance that no matter how geeky I get on the Internet there will always be those who outgeek me. And outstink me.

Are you amazed? Think I’m a little mean saying these boys don’t get out much?

Well check this.

OH HAI? DUDE? CAMERA IS UP HERE! HELLLOOO??? THOSE AREN’T YOOOURRSS!!!

HELLO?

THIS CAMERA TAKES PEEEEKCHUUUUREEESSSS!!! FROZEN IN TIIIIME!!!

*ahem* Gen Con rocks. Hard.

(And thanks to everyone who went with me. I’m so glad I was able to share such a marvel with you.)

Last year I took this picture at the Indiana State Fair.

Aimee said she wanted to eat him with a spoon.

Jenny said “The quintessential farming grampa. I would totally guess that he has a bowl of oatmeal in his lap and a bloodhound asleep on his foot. ”

Emily said he reminds her of her grandpa.

This is been one of my most favorite pictures I have ever taken. I only took one of him, and this is what I got.

365 days later guess who was back at the PinBarn with his Ox named Jerry?

He was wearing the same overalls, the same hat with the same pin, the same denim shirt, the same lanyard, the same glasses, the same ox named Jerry and the same sweet smile.

His name is Jim.

His wife’s name is Nancy.

Together they own Promised Land Farm in Thorntown, Indiana.

They raise turkeys and train sheepdogs. They offer fresh eggs and collect antique tractors.

His site has a newsletter you can subscribe to called “Baas, Beeps, Barks and Gobbles.”

I love him.

I told Chris Brogan I had to pee today.

(Christ Brogan is kind of a big deal. He has 90K followers on twitter (#6 out of like 2.5 million on twitter. Everyone knows who Chris Brogan is apparently. He’s right up there with that Guy Kawasaki guy (whose house I ended up at last year) and Mashable (who BTW was in the Hot Blogger Calendar with me and I thought “Gosh, this Pete guy  is handsome, I should tell him he’s handsome, I’ll bet that would make his day. Everyone likes compliments! Turns out “this Pete guy” is a really big deal too. I’m apparently oblivious to big deal status.(Also, I’m older than that Pete guy. Seriously? Cougar. Rawr.)))

Today most of the sessions were about SEO, keywords, ROI and something called a longtail. (OH HAI BRAD I’M OLDER THAN YOU TOO! GrrRAWR. And I still don’t know what a longtail is! I tried! Really! Not even sure if I have one! Or need one?)

I approach this whole blog thing differently. Frankly according to most of the panels today I’m a big fat failure as a blogger.

I started to keep my family updated on my kid (because guess what? I’M LAZY!)

I kept going because I love to write.

Now if you’ll excuse me, two elephant ears in two days is far too much for a lady to handle. *ahem*

(Oh yeah, I wouldn’t hate it if you threw me your vote for “Indiana’s Social Media Superstar” or “Indiana’s Best Family Blog” in the first ever BLINDY awards if you’re feeling generous. I’m up against some stiff competition. Less than two days to vote! Too bad they don’t have a write in catergory for “Indiana’s Overshare Superstar Blog” I’d totally win it.)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

I know what it means. I know what it is. But it has never happened to me.

Today on twitter Backpacking Dad sent out a rickroll. I didn’t have time to fall for it before I knew it was a trick (rick?) and that’s no fun for my first rickroll. Knowingly clicking into it? For shame.

I lamented that I had never been rickrolled when someone sent me this link to Bill O’Reilly getting rickrolled at the end of his program.

I’ll save you the bleeding ears.

Bill O’Reilly freaks out and screams the F word a few times at the camera. I mean, I don’t love 80′s music either but I was NOT expecting that. I couldn’t stop it fast enough.

the moosh noticed the crazy conservative screaming at me from my computer screen.

“Why is that guy screaming that you suck? Is it because you’re still in your underwear?”

Thankfully we just had to have the “we don’t say suck” discussion rather than the “we don’t say…you know what” discussion. And the underwear thing? Whatever, my kid almost lost her innocence at the mouth of Bill O’Reilly. BIGGER PICTURE HERE PEOPLE.

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(***A rickroll is when someone is all sneaky and links to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” video under an unassuming link. You click it, thinking you are going to be taken to blog about pork chops but instead are taken to the video. Then you have the song in your head and you’ve been rickrolled. Song. In your head. All day. Seriously, there’s a whole Wiki entry on the phenomenon.)

(In other delightfully ironic news, the moosh’s BFF, PK learned the F word today too. Cody also thinks it’s cute that I never expected a conservative to swear like a sailor.)

I wasn’t paid any money for this post, nor was I bribed.

I was given a couple of CDs at Blissdom and BlogHer.

And arm candy.

I wasn’t going to buy into it. Cute boys who sing are a dime a dozen. I’m from Utah. You want to get a girls attention? You play an instrument and you sing. Maybe that’s not just Utah, but seriously, UTAH.

But the boy (Chris Mann) can sing. And he’s funny. And he’s charming. And so far his head is still in check.

So to my boo, @iamchrismann, congrats on your EP coming out today (on itunes, amazonMP3, Rhapsody..etc.)

And to the rest of you? Go buy it. I promise you he can sing.

And that you’ll want to make out to a few of his songs.

Multiple times.

Just try to keep your mind on your significant other and not this.

Yeah. Good luck with that.

(And sorry for objectifying you Chris. But yum. Cody agrees, however with him the yum ends with your music.)

(Really.)

(Ends. with. the. music.)

HI HI.

So there’s this conference this week/weekend in downtown Indianapolis. Did you know about it?

I went last year and made a lot of local connections not only with other bloggers but businesses too.

There’s something to be said about being involved in local social media. I know it’s done swell things for me.

Here’s the thing. This conference is run by a couple of nice boys and I’m afraid that I may have overdone it when I gave them my angry blogger face >:( over the fact that their main site was so male centric.

After all, I’ve been bathing in estrogen soaked conferences for years now.

This year will be the first ever “moms” panel on Saturday. I’ll be sharing the stage with Heather, Briana, Stephanie and Jen. I know a couple of you other ladies have been turned off by certain elements of this conference. (Such as dude overload.) But here’s the thing, they’re new to this. We must be patient with them and support them, this isn’t their job, just their passion and Indy’s social media scene wouldn’t be the same without them or the fairer sex.

Same goes with wherever you live. So many “mom bloggers” (retch) have made it into the National headlines (and not always for good reason.) But what are we doing locally? Are we using our powers for good in the communities we live in? I know every chance I have been given to help those who live closest to me I’ve run with. (Yes, I take some credit for the two huge donations made earlier this year to a local food bank.)

Powers for good people.

If you can make it? Sweet. If you can’t? Try for next year. And if you are feeling clicky and like what I do not only here but for Indianapolis? Can I get your vote for a Blindy? (I’m up for two, the Social Media Superstar and Best Family Blog.)

The Blindy jokes are only beginning to come to fruition.

I scored a few tickets to see the Drum Corps International Quarterfinals yesterday through work.

Super premium tickets to see the  Drum Corps International Quarterfinals.

I figured it was a swell chance to get inside Lucas Oil Stadium for the first time and who doesn’t love marching bands?

I called my neighbor to see if she wanted to go with me. “HI, Tiffany? You see, I have these SUPER PREMIUM tickets to go see the Drum Corps International “marching music’s major league” quarterfinals this afternoon DO YOU WANT TO GO?”

Before I even spoke the last syllable Tiffany was geeking out on the other end of the line.

“WILL THE CAVALIERS BE THERE? WHEN ARE WE GOING? SHOULD I GET READY NOW? What about The Glassmen? WILL THE GLASSMEN BE THERE?”

This is when I realized Tiffany not only knew what DCI was, she spoke their language.

You see dear friends, Tiffany was a band geek. A drum major in Ohio to be specific. She wore hats with plumes and polyester suits. She even went to drum major camp. In addition to band camp.

I pick my friends well.

Without Tiffany there I may have stayed for about an hour, long enough to see about four performances. However with Tiffany in tow we stayed ALL SEVEN HOURS. (and this just in! Apparently people go to movie theaters to watch ALL SEVEN HOURS!)

Now before I get into the pictures, I’ve learned from twitter that DCI is something to be revered, honored and respected. To those of you about to march? I salute you. Because I could never EVER do what these guys did. I can’t play an instrument, I can barely walk when I have all my senses about me so to mash the two together? Utter and epic fail.

Thankfully Tiffany was there to explain to me the finer nuances of DCI, drum corps traditions and history, because as a marching music layperson? The rifles and sabers started to become really silly.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with drum corps culture, each group has a sort of “theme” to their performance with traditional props that their color guard uses, including flags, banners, sabers, and rifles. With each theme I pictured the color guard director sitting around plotting the greatest performance ever -for example- South Carolina did a Peter Pan/Emerald City theme. At some point the color guard director had to think about when to work in rifles into the whole Peter Pan/Wizard of Oz story.