Nerdapalooza Wrap-up 1: All Apologies

I spent a good chunk of yesterday pouring over my notes from Nerdapalooza. There were a lot of them. As such, there was a large amount of, um, pouring.

I’ve got my write-up for GeekDad pretty well polished (it should go up sometime tomorrow), but it’s more about the big picture than a study of the tiny building blocks of nerdiness that made the event, at least in my humble opinion, such a total blast -- which is exactly the kind of stuff I’d like to get into here at Hipster, please! That being said, it’s gonna be a multi-post affair, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 separate entries, and it could take me a couple of weeks to get all my thoughts sorted out.

But there are a few things I need to say before we get into the real meat of my ruminations on Nerdapalooza. You see, like any man I have a selfish need to be liked and accepted by my peers. You’d think being a huge dork for three decades would have dulled this silly reflex, but no such luck. Case in point: when I got home Sunday night, the first thing I did was prepare a mental list of all the people I had harassed and/or annoyed over the weekend. It’s true.

Like Kid in the Hall Bruce McCulloch, I am a shame-based man. Therefore it is in the interest of clearing my conscience that I would like to apologize to:

• The fine folks at A Comic Shop for not buying anything. By the same token, I didn’t steal anything either (although that plush Doop was tempting), so I reckon it’s not as bad as it could’ve been.
• Anyone who found themselves on the receiving end of an unwelcomed hug. I’m sort of a hugger.
• Anyone who wanted a hug but didn’t get one. I imagine you’re in the minority, but I will snuggle the hell out of you when next we meet.
• Anyone whose set I missed.
• Anyone whose set I partially missed because I was taking notes or fucking with that damn Flip camera.
• Ant and MisterB for never making it to the EPP house to do that tag team podcast. I am both an old man and a lightweight.
• Justin for this picture. Man, even this one is pretty bad. I’ll try to be more handsome next time.
• That handful of you that asked me to sign something and had to cope with that totally horrified look I gave you. I didn’t mean to offend; I was just sort of taken aback.
• Those poor headliners who had to sit through my wholly inept introductions. I don’t do well addressing crowds.
• Those who had to sit through my wholly inept second introduction of YTCracker after he’d already been properly introduced simply because there was some confusion re: the master set list earlier that day, and by the time it got cleared up YT and I both obviously didn’t want to seem disrespectful to each other by going back on our previous agreement.
• Anyone whose drink got spilled because of me. (I am looking at you, funky49.)
• Wordburglar, The Potters, and everyone else that I neglected to buy merch from even though I kept reminding myself to do so. I am sore ashamed.
  
• Anyone who was nice enough to introduce themselves to me only to have me turn around and ask them again who they were a scant 5 minutes later.
• Anyone who got locked into a laborious conversation with me at the bar with nowhere to run. (I am looking at you, G minor 7.)
• Anyone who had to put up with me running off in the middle of a very nice conversation because I needed to check out what was going on on-stage. (I am looking at you, pretty much everyone at the merch table.)
• My friends Uncle Monsterface for singing along with all the songs in their set. Generally bands eat that shit up, but the way I sing it’s better if I don’t participate.
• mCRT for sitting down for the whole of his “set.” It was only one closer song, but I was so exhausted that I could barely make it back to the stage 1 area before collapsing in a heap. (I blame Math the Band; they sapped what was left of my strength.)
• Anyone else who I annoyed, ignored, passed over, bumped into, trod on, or otherwise inconvenienced.
• But most importantly I have to apologize to Dennis and Denika for being a slothful and utterly useless houseguest.(Please buy lots of cool zombie crafts and amigurumi from them so they can afford to let me come down and mooch off of them next year too!)
  

And with that, I am absolved!

Right, guys?

Absolution?

Right?