Back in the day, I used to be a DJ. To prove how old I am, I was on the air back before Howard Stern could say anything he wanted, in olden days when you actually had to have an FCC license. Really. I spent 10 years in radio, first in high school outside Princeton, then in college in Austin, and even in a renegade SUNY station in midtown Manhattan. I even spun at a dance club for a while on the east side (dead shift Sunday-Mondays, but still) until a couple guys with guns came running through the club and out the back door. I decided I could do without that kind of excitement--or critics, for that matter. And of course, I was heavy into the indie music scene, with friends in
groups playing all the cool NYC clubs (a moment of silence, please, for
the now defunct CBGB, may it rest in historic music and sticky floor peace).
If I wasn't with the band, I knew a guy who knew a guy. I've had more
backstage passes than I can count, and I felt seriously cool, even if
it was only by association.
Some things never change. Fast forward to present day, I still have a bit of the rockstar groupie mentality, even if my personal rockstars are people like web design godfathers like Jeffrey Zeldman, Cameron Moll, Eric Meyer, Molly Holzschlag and Andy Clarke, or edupunks like D'Arcy Norman, Alan Levine, or really forward culture thinkers like Michael Wesch and Danah Boyd. It's not a surprise I gravitate to that excitement; I'm a fangrrl through and through. Now I get excited about technology and design, and I've stumbled across the perfect thing to brand me as a tech groupie: enter the tweet up badge.
I stumbled across these very cool badges at the NMC site, who used them at this year's summer conference. They are the perfect combination of geek, social media, and backstage official coolness. Complete with my twitter name, an event hashtag, and even (wait for it, because this is good) a QR code on the back that will take you to my twitter page when scanned. How could I resist? All I needed was a worthy cause--and then it all fell into place: a group of techie friends who knit, and roadtrip together to yarn stores, and even have their yarn stashes, projects queues and finished designs in a CMS of yummy goodness.
The Knit Pistols.
And so I ordered us all badges; two different kinds because that's just how I roll, and I handed them out this week. They were received in the same geeky excitement in which they were ordered -- awesome ZOMGBBQWTF! goodness. We've already set up our next roadtrip, complete with badges, of course. People are even wearing them to work, and others immediately want to see our cool kids badges. And a part of me can't help but help but revert back to the rockstar groupie of times long gone, with a self satisfied nod to present day.
We are rockstars.
I stumbled across these very cool badges at the NMC site, who used them at this year's summer conference. They are the perfect combination of geek, social media, and backstage official coolness. Complete with my twitter name, an event hashtag, and even (wait for it, because this is good) a QR code on the back that will take you to my twitter page when scanned. How could I resist? All I needed was a worthy cause--and then it all fell into place: a group of techie friends who knit, and roadtrip together to yarn stores, and even have their yarn stashes, projects queues and finished designs in a CMS of yummy goodness.
The Knit Pistols.
And so I ordered us all badges; two different kinds because that's just how I roll, and I handed them out this week. They were received in the same geeky excitement in which they were ordered -- awesome ZOMGBBQWTF! goodness. We've already set up our next roadtrip, complete with badges, of course. People are even wearing them to work, and others immediately want to see our cool kids badges. And a part of me can't help but help but revert back to the rockstar groupie of times long gone, with a self satisfied nod to present day.We are rockstars.
This is proof you are a member of the Awesome Squad!
Does this make me Awesome by association?
Girl, you are a Knit Pistol. That's proof positive you're automatically full of awesomesauce!
I love the *shit* out of this!