YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?

Around 5pm yesterday, I’m watching Clones in my room… again. As Jango’s seismic charges reverberate through my room, I hear someone slip something underneath my door. I wait for the scene to end before I go pick it up.

It turns out to be an annoucement for a lecture given by the Educational Studies department here at UBC. Specifically, it’s being given by a Dr. Richard Townsend, a visiting professor from Toronto. He’s not just visiting, he lives here at SJC with me. I’ve had some pleasant conversations with Richard. He’s a hell of a nice guy. At the top of the announcement, he’s written if I’d be interested in coming to this lecture.

I continue to read the whole thing, and it turns out the lecture is about the weblog phenomenon, and how it might pertain to educational studies. It seems to be a talk for beginners new to weblogging. Now I’m wondering. I already have a blog, so this isn’t new to me. Two questions come to mind: why would I come to this, and how does Richard know about my blog? I’m suddenly a bit embarassed that he might be reading my blog… lol.

Later, I go to the dining hall to get dinner. Low and behold, Richard is there. We sit together for dinner. I tell him I got the announcement. I ask him how he found out about my blog. He tells me Nic told him earlier in the day. We talk briefly about weblogs. It turns out he actually hasn’t seen mine, but he wants to. He asks me for the address of my site. I am reluctant to give him the key to this little dog and pony show. He might not talk to me after seeing the weirdness here. I write down the address for him, but I also give him a caveat, “It’s not pretty… if you don’t talk to me again… I understand.”

I also find out that he’s looking for an actual blog writer to be at his lecture. I see why he wants me to go now. If anyone has any blog specific questions, I can answer them. Also, he can bring my site up during the talk as an example to show everyone. Hmmm… now I’m apprehensive. I’ve always viewed this little site as a small, hidden away, community cable tv show that goes on at 4am in the morning. Now Richard wants to show it to an audience of academics. I begin to wonder if E3 babes are what educators should be looking at. The chances of me being embarassed are high.

As we part ways, I tell Richard to check out my site first before he’s so sure he wants to invite me as the “star” of his lecture. He agrees. Silently, I do a quick run-through in my head and check if there’s any porn accessible on my site. I come up with none.

A few hours later, I check my logs and I see someone from the Education department has gone through my site. Then I get an e-mail from Richard. He loves the site. He likes my writing and most of the content on the site. I doubt I’ve ever had a Ph.D make a critique on my site. This is a first. He says it would be really, really nice if I could attend the lecture, but only if I was comfortable.

Right now, I’m leaning towards going. I doubt he’s going to go through my site during the entire lecture, and he’s making sound like no one is going to come anyways. I figure this might be a way to get some exposure. Plus, if it goes horribly wrong and I get totally embarassed, I’ll have more stuff to write about in my blog. Ironic isn’t it?

Well, sometimes, you just have to run with the opportunities you’ve been given.