So I headed over to the Alternative Media Expo at the last late minute, taking Oyster up on his half-hearted and throughly dripping-with-flu plea to man the table for Rising Tide. I took my trusty CompUSA closeout special with me to test it out and found myself at a table between a few fun folks tucked in towards the back of the Contemporary Arts Center space.

First off, God forgive me for relying on the CAC's wireless service. Really. I should have gotten a clue when one of the Consortium of Genius dudes asked me to let him know if I got a signal. Actually, I did, and I called up the RT website just fine. The mistake I made was calling up the schedule page from the site for an EMT who was interested in the "Making Civics Sexy" panel and wanted to talk more about the (terrible) situation the hospitals are in here. I told him Editor B had addressed the topic many times on his blog and had spoken at RT II as a panelist. Once I got that schedule up, schmoozed a little more with the fellow, and then tried to call the homepage back up after he'd left the table, the network booted me off. It took me a half-hour to get the homepage back up, and that's when I decided to simply leave it up. Everyone, stay awaaaay from the keyboard, else the network will self-destruct. The COG guys were amazed I even got a signal. "CompUSA closeout special, y'all!" I said, nearly leaning back in my chair with my hands behind my head. And the CAC is supposed to have a Cyber Cafe! For shame...

Oh, wait. It is currently closed. C'est la vie.

Anyhow, I was glad to have attended, even though I had to leave an hour early. Got to meet some folks I've known of online and through other bloggers, like Loki, Leo McG., Humid Haney, and Dr. Daisy, who came late due to air travel difficulties but trolled those Expo aisles with a good deal of energy obtained from her daiquiri and her bubbly companion (not champagne; I'm talking about a good local friend of Daisy's! Sheesh...). E stopped by and we commiserated on what a week in local blogging history it has been. most of my hours at the table, though, were spent talking up Rising Tide, emphasizing that it was not strictly for bloggers, that we are always accepting proposals for new speakers, new presentation ideas, and that we are at risingtidenola.com. To emphasize this fact, I ended up ripping a bunch of religious school attendance sheets into small pieces, writing the URL on them, and arranging them on the table in a giant wave. Somebody commented on how much they liked my approach in the midst of its creation, and another said, "Ooooh, way to recycle!" Yep, at the Expo, anything DIY goes.

So, if anybody is emptying out their purse or their pockets, sees a small scrap of deckled-edged (i.e., ripped-paper edged) rectangular pink or white paper with the RT web address on it, and decides to check it out, check our links as well. Keep on reading, maybe start your own blog if you are so inclined, and bring your unique voice to the table. In the end, that's what it's all about.

Oh, and...speaking of current local issues that many of the NOLA blogpocheh are concerned with, go to G Bitch. Now. And, if not now, yesterday.