The People You Meet

There has been more than one instance when I’ve been asked a curious question: “Do you know the people who comment on your blog?” The most recent person to ask was Rohan (occasional reader, even more occasional commenter from the famous “Rohan and Kate” partnership), and I thought that the question deserved a proper online reply. Because there has built up a bit of a crew who comment on here, and it might be nice to have a go at introducing one another. So there’s pretty much two groups: the people I know from real life, and the people I’ve (pseudo-)met through the blog.

Real Life Aquaintances

• Bec - Always put your fiancé first: I might not know many rules to this thing, but I do know that one. We’ve known each other fractionally longer than we’ve known that each other blogged, but if you’re ever in danger of dying of boredom, it’s quite amusing to have a look at the early flirtations (circa March - July 2006 here and at allsaidanddone.com) happening online.
• Scott and Christina - When I got a preaching gig at Ranges a couple of Sunday’s ago (which I’ll post the MP3 link to when Scotty puts it online), we pointed out that Scott actually taught me when I was in Sunday school. Scott and Christina were both a part of YVV for quite a while, and in the past year or so, it’s been great to get to know the better and to interact with the great things that they both write (although there has been a slow-down in the frequency of postings due to a certain little girl called Jemima)
• Gerry and Melinda - Gerry sometimes posts as Deri, but Gerry and Melinda are my future parents-in-law.
  They are genuinely lovely people, and as a bible translator for Solomon Islands Pijin, Gerry brings a unique perspective to just about anything he talks about.
• Virtually Paul - Although he might have started out as Bec’s friend, little Paulie is now a good mate - to the point that if the planets align correctly, we should be housemates for a little while before long.
• Tim - When it’s without an “O” or “Ogilvy” after it - it’s usually one of my groomsmen Tim. He links off to “halfdecentcoffee.com” despite the fact that there hasn’t been anything there for as long as I’ve known Tim well enough to want to check it out. But we have breakfast together every fortnight - so he’s a good bloke!
• Tim O(gilvy), aka Timmeh - This is a different Tim: far more likely to say something inflammatory in the interest of either starting something interesting or just for the sake of saying something controversial.
• Laura, Hannah, Emily - More likely to see Laura (Bec’s twin) on here commenting, but Hannah and Em-face have at times put up their heads. They are Bec’s (lovely) sisters.
• Rohan - Rohan is a funny one: he’d read my blog before I’d met him, but he was in the course I’ve been doing at Tabor. Lovely guy, always got something interesting to say. And he’s married to Kate who is equally as interesting and fun.
• Burkie - Can’t believe I missed the penguin on my first attempt, but James Burke (wedding photographer extraordinnaire) along with his lovely fiancé Beth are also semi-regular commenters here. I know Burkie because Bec knows Burkie. But now I like Burkie as well.

People I’ve Only Met Through Blogging

• Asta - It’s been a while since I received a comment from my favourite Lithuanian reader - but I’m pretty sure that Asta is still catching up on TheGeoffRe(y)port. I was amazed to see a regular reader from Lithuania not that long into blogging, and it still makes me chuckle. I love it
• Rick - Rick started reading and I started realising that I was actually out on the internet. He writes (much more often than I) at rianniello.blogpsot.com, and has some great stuff to say - especially for a religious-right calvinist (who’s also got a bit of Vineyard in him). Very fun and very funny. And he lived in Germany for a while!
• Mark Edwards - You’d be hard pressed to find a man more blindly in love with a team that plays in purple than Mark Edwards. I initially connected a little bit with Mark after discovering that Ra’ah - the Australian pastors blog was linking through to me, and we’ve traded comments on each others blogs since.
• Wayne Field - Same story as Mark only with less Fremantle ravings. These guys sort me out if I start getting too emerging
• Rodney Olsen - Perth radio host, prolific blogger and all round nice guy - Rodney is always keen to connect with everyone and anyone in the blogosphere. He’s always got good things to say, and he was nice enough to surprise Bec and I immensely when he posted a congratulations up after our engagement.

Now I’m sure there are people here that I’ve missed - if you let me know I might even edit you in here. But that might give you an idea of where people fit.