This weekend, I attended the 2nd annual VA Bloggers Conference hosted by the Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership. For two days, I had the opportunity to meet fellow bloggers and attend thoughtful sessions on issues regarding blogging: our relatonship with the MSM, blogging ethics, anonymous blogging and pseudonyms, and much more. I hope to provide some commentary on all of these subjects.
Most interesting were the conversations that I had with fellow VA political bloggers and the new bonds of kinship that I formed. My writings are left-leaning, but mainly nihilistic (if we ever see actual liberal politicians in power, I’ll do my best to poke fun at them, too), but I particularly enjoyed meeting bloggers from “the other side”, like Rick Sincere, a self-described “gay, libertarian, Catholic, Republican author and theatre critic” (really, there’s enough in there for anyone to like) and Tucker Watkins, former 5th District chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia and an aide to Senator George Allen. I also made fine new friends like Josh Chernila, Jim Duncan, Bob Griendling, Jennifer McKeever, Vivian Paige, and Brian Patton (and others, I am sorry to say, whose names or websites I have forgotten).
Over the next few days, I will be posting my thoughts and commentaries on the many different conversations, both formal and otherwise, that took place over a scant 24 hours from registration on Friday afternoon until the conference ended on Saturday. This will culminate, by the end of this week, in a Blog Carnival round-up of the best analyses of the Conference offered by my fellow participants. If you would like your own site included in the round-up, please feel free to post a comment here or drop me a line at “VABlog06 AT Semitrue.com“. Thanks.