Coincidences

I frequent a Macintosh computer-based IRC channel, #macdev on irc.freenode.net. People go there to get answers to Mac programming questions. While the majority of the (on average) 70 people in the channel are from the United States, it’s pretty global — with folks from Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austrailia, Iceland, Estonia and Belgium.
So on Saturday, when one person mentioned they were in Sarasota, it kinda blew my mind. Furthermore, not only was he in the same city as me, but he knew about the company I worked for and — get this — at his job he prints our user manuals.
Talk about your odd coincidences! So it was decided we’d go for beer. We exchanged photos. Still, I’ve never done anything quite like this — we hadn’t even really chatted before. All I knew was that I’d seen his nickname floating around the channel for a few months.
His name is Eric, and he’s pretty cool. As far as programming goes, his passion is realtime 3D graphics — he’s saving up for a Power Mac G5 to help with that. Longtime Mac users: Remember how MacAmp could basic visualizations? Eric wrote one of the first plugins.
And guess what else? He knows a friend of mine, Scotty. *cue twilight zone music*. Speaking of music, Eric’s pretty big into ambient IDM — Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin, FSOL — so am I! And he invited me to a party his friends are performing the 28th. Note to self: get info from him about it.
So yeah… totally weird — but I’m glad I took the chance to go meet him. Seems like a really cool guy. Other than that, worked late Friday, and was in for half a day with Cam on Saturday too. Sunday Ultimate at G.T. Bray, last night Ultimate at USF, and tonight, Ultimate under the lights here in town (Bee Ridge Park). I’m in charge of getting the lights turned on. Never done that before, so it should be interesting. 🙂
And oh yeah — the second Hallowe’en gallery is up (including a trip to “Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” Hooters)! Enjoy!

• View Gallery “Hallowe’en 2”