Blog Fest West a resounding success

Saturday afternoon, fellow blogger Darren and I braved the suffocating Bay Area traffic that accompanied a 49ers-Raiders game and attended Blog Fest West, a get-together of right-leaning bloggers which was held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, which is adjacent to Fisherman's Wharf.

The event - co-hosted by Bay Area bloggers Cinnamon Stillwell, Ed Driscoll, and Nena Yablok - was an excuse for other bloggers from the area to get out of their pajamas, leave the confines of their computer screens and mix it up a little; to see some of the faces that go with those screens full of words.

Getting there wasn't easy. Since we found pretty quickly that the east bay traffic situation looked abysmal, we cut off at Vallejo and took the route to Highway 101 toward the Golden Gate Bridge. That was a good idea for awhile, but eventually, that traffic bogged down too. The views however were worth sitting in traffic. On a micro level - politics, traffic, trash, dirty homeless people - San Francisco is a contemptible hell. But on a macro level, looking at the peninsula from the Golden Gate Bridge, I can think of few more beautiful cities on earth. Darren and I made it to the Fort Mason Center about five minutes before Blog Fest West was set to begin.

What I really enjoyed was the variety of appearances and opinions that I experienced during the night. Two other fellow attendees have used the word "eclectic" on their blogs to describe the crowd last night. You had straight-laced people like myself, and you one guy who looked like he just rolled out of bed and slapped a beret on his head. But that is just window dressing. As I talked to the different people in attendance, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride well up inside me. This was especially true when I had a few conversations where I disagreed with the person about the war in Iraq - he didn't think we should be there at all, whereas I think we just need to change our tactics. But that is what I love about being a conservative. You are much more likely to be able to have a civil conversation with a fellow conservative, even if you disagree, whereas with our friends on the left: disagree with them, and out come the fangs and the bigoted epithets.

Aside from the three organizers, I was also impressed with the number of attendees whose reputations preceded them. Roger L. Simon was there. He is a Hollywood screenwriter, novelist, and blogger who cofounded Pajamas Media; Mickey Kaus, who writes for the online magazine, Slate.com, and is actually considered to be a liberal; Joanne Jacobs, who is considered to be the founding mother of the Edublogosphere. I met all these people last night... pretty cool.

The trip home was a lot faster than the trip there. It's a good thing because I was exhausted, and I had to usher at our church's morning service in a few hours. Whatever hardships I experienced were well worth the effort in order to attend Blog Fest West.

Good Day to You, Sir