I've asked that no one give away the name of the "mystery" guest and then found that someone had jumped the gun

I will be posting a "thorough" follow up tomorrow with appropriate attention given to our surprise guest, so please bear with me until then and don't broadcast any more about our secret.

In the meantime I will have a few pictures up in a little while so please be patient with me. Soooo tired…!

GeneL

The wife and I had a great time! Gene really did a great job of organizing the event. Thanks to Dennis for the name badges, definitely came in handy.

A great time was had by all. It was a pleasure to meet so many fellow forumers, and thanks again to GeneL for organizing a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

---

It is what it is.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2006 11:30PM by N-OS X-tasy!.

Well, ...that sure wore me out!

Gene did a magnificent job of pulling that one off; even the cake was tasty. Baby Buzz is still trying to figure out how use the 1GB keychain drive he won in the raffle ;), and Mrs. Buzz had not a problem in the world with her McKenna's Bloody Mary... thanks all, it was fun.

Distance: 35.2 miles
Approximate Travel Time: 43 minutes
Actual Travel Time: about 12 minutes more, Mapquest didn't factor in an extra bit of construction zone traffic just north of LAX


Buzz
==

---

Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



==

Did N OS X Dance on The Tables ?~?~? Did he really kiss Rusty ?~?~? Did the Habormaster Really give a ticket to a Pelican who past on the wrong side of the L Bouy ?~?~? Does one good Tern deserve another ~?~? These and Utter questions will be answered or my real name is snot Dennis Rodman waiting for a Boat to Montana *(:>*

Hello?? Hello?? Is this thing on??

---

I suffer from the same sensitivity that you do. A few nuggets of wisdom were shared with me and I'm "trying" to incorporate them into my life. First, remember that nobody can hurt your feelings unless you let them. You can always reject what is being forced on you emotionally.
Second, nothing changes unless you change it. If you don't want the behavior to be repeated then you need to take action. Otherwise the kid has learned that his behavior is the way to get things done, because everyone lets him get away with it.
In the meantime I sympathize because I've been there.
-beerman

What ever happened to Marcos Malo?

No one knows. I think.

---

_______________________________________________________________
Security is just a word. The act of being secure is entirely different.
"...but I think that to make your dream a reality, having a dream itself is a mandatory prerequisite"
From A Book: Walking Through The Impossible

Just because it has two clutches, shifts faster, uses a torque converter or has near-infinite gear ratios, requires less driver intervention and is more efficient doesn't make it better in my opinion.
Save The Manual Transmission

haikuman, as N OS X was preparing to sit down across the table from me, I asked Harbourmaster to move over a seat to make room for N OS X to kiss Rusty; you can probably still feel the warmth and love in the main room at McKenna's...










(btw- Rusty was a no-show)

---

Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



==

I really hate to say this but I'm really struggling with the pictures. There are over sixty good pictures that really tell the story of our Lunch, but I'm having a tough time getting them up.

Thanks again, to MikeF who took most of them with my 20D.

I sorted and titled a good number of them and then found that I couldn't upload them from iPhoto with the titles and sequenced the way I had set them up.

Presently, I'm uploading a portion of them to Photobucket per mint's suggestion, but again no titles and no apparent way to keep my sequence.

I'd sure appreciate some help because I really want to get the pictures up as quickly as possible.

HELP!

GeneL

Gene, did you contact Larry?

---

It is what it is.

I did send a PM to Larry but the follow up was handled by rgG.

I'm so frustrated. In spite of my being so wiped out I've been steadily working on the pictures (which are really great) but, after putting titles on a bunch of them and setting them in proper order, I am having a terrible time with getting them online.

I just went through a laborious process to upload 19 pictures (the most Photobucket allows at a time) and found, after a long wait, that only 7 out of the 19 were actually showing up???

This is too aggravating.

I'm really stuck here.

Please someone give me a hand with this…

The pictures really tell the story of our Lunch and I desperately want to get them up.

I feel that, after doing a good job to help make the Lunch a success, I'm letting everyone down with the follow up.





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2006 03:14PM by GeneL.

Gene, we all understand and will show some patience. Maybe you just need to take a break and leave it alone for a little while and then hit it with that same vigor you used in organizing the event. Wish I could help. Maybe someone does have a .mac account or an easier way to do it for you. Just remember to relax. This isn't supposed to be stressful.

Dennis

Gene,

Download FTP Thingy at [www.versiontracker.com]. When you launch FTP Thingy use members.cox.net as the FTP host. Leave directory blank. Plug in your user name e.g. use GeneL if your email is GeneL@cox.net. Use 21 as the port number and enter your password. Hit connect.

Once connected hit the upload button and you can select the pictures. Then you can post each picture, sans titles unfortunately, using (take out the extra spaces I added to make the url show up)

Note: that the URL is case sensitive, so you’ll need to use the same case for the picture name and extension e.g. .JPG or .jpg depending on what the picture is titled.

That’s the easiest way I can think of.





Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2006 03:42PM by Webster J. Duck.

Gene, the easiest way to upload and be able to keep titles & sequencing is to start a Flickr account. Here: [www.flickr.com].

---

trisho.
----------------
Official Card-Carrying Mother Earthin' Sl*t.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2006 03:30PM by trisho..

trisho, I had a Flickr account but forgot.

Anyway, I tried uploading some of the pictures, but only one of the six allowed at a time actually appeared online?

I don't get why this happened, since a similar thing happened with Photobucket.

All the images are jpg and taken at the same time and with the same camera.

Why should only some of the shots upload?

GeneL

Woah Gene...that's never happened to me before. Have you since retried it and is it still happening that way?

---

trisho.
----------------
Official Card-Carrying Mother Earthin' Sl*t.

Flickr's a good idea -- I forgot about that. I still think .Mac would be easist, though. Anyone with a membership willing to host?

---

It is what it is.

How about pRon's account he used for the DMP?
[homepage.mac.com]

Carm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2006 05:30PM by Carm.

Why not a trial accout at .Mac? 25MB is a lot for 72 px/inch JPGs, and at least the
interface would be simple and easy to put captions and stuff with.

ihoto and .smac works 4 me

jimmypoo, I already had a trial account so that a no go

You could host them off your mac?

Just stick it all in the Sites folder, turn on Web Serving and forward port 80 to y our computer.

---

_______________________________________________________________
Security is just a word. The act of being secure is entirely different.
"...but I think that to make your dream a reality, having a dream itself is a mandatory prerequisite"
From A Book: Walking Through The Impossible

Just because it has two clutches, shifts faster, uses a torque converter or has near-infinite gear ratios, requires less driver intervention and is more efficient doesn't make it better in my opinion.
Save The Manual Transmission

chip,

I'm not familiar with doing what you suggested.

Can you give me more specific information?

What about security if I were to do this?

TIA,

GeneL

I doubt Gene's upload bandwidth is sufficient to host the pics. Besides, I wouldn't ask any member to potentially compromise the security of his personal computer by hosting anything from it.

---

It is what it is.

GeneL, if you want, you can zip all the files into a Stuffit file and send them to me via email. I can post them on my Flickr account for you.

---

trisho.
----------------
Official Card-Carrying Mother Earthin' Sl*t.

True, though possibly an idea.

I wouldn't want anyone to know my IP either.

---

_______________________________________________________________
Security is just a word. The act of being secure is entirely different.
"...but I think that to make your dream a reality, having a dream itself is a mandatory prerequisite"
From A Book: Walking Through The Impossible

Just because it has two clutches, shifts faster, uses a torque converter or has near-infinite gear ratios, requires less driver intervention and is more efficient doesn't make it better in my opinion.
Save The Manual Transmission

If it has not been figured out yet, I'll host them at .Mac or on a sub-domain on another server. Or, host at .Mac with a redirect from the subdomain.

I've set up a directory for either of the first 2, and can easily add a redirect for the last option.

I'll PM Gene now.

trisho and Pat,

I just sent the pictures to Clay.

If he is able to put them up we're all set. Otherwise, it's back to square one.

I'll let everyone know as soon as Clay gets back to me.

BTW, I tried using Ken sp's .mac account after he kindly gave me his log in info, but I couldn't see how to add my pictures.

This is one area of computer usage that has usually frustrated me, although putting the one picture of Precious on imageshack was no problem.

Please keep your fingers crossed that Clay is successful.

GeneL

Well, I'm happy to say that, thanks to Forum Member Clay, the pictures are finally available online.

I had wanted to have a clickable link to a full size slide show with titles but even without that I think you will still be able to see that we all had a great time.

When you access the pages with the pictures, please click them to see the full size images if you have the bandwidth,

Here's the link to the pictures: [www.callmeclay.com]

I'm sorry the pictures of our "Mystery Guest" lost their titles, somewhere in the process, but you can tell he got pretty wild and was chasing the beautiful staff at McKenna's. He got right into the raffle and grabbed a prize for himself and finally passed out on top of a box containing System 7.

Oh well! we all know what kind of guy he is.

My thanks to MikeF, who kindly volunteered to take all but a couple of these pictures (the two with Mike and Teresa) with my Canon 20D while I covered the rest of the bases

Guess what? As I was writing this I received an email from Larry saying that he would be happy to have OWC host the pictures and even to do this for others on the Forum.

This is great news because he said I'd be able to do the slide show that I wanted.

But for now I'm happy to post what we have available and to tell the story of our event.

And now the report:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Mavis and I arrived at McKenna's, I saw right away that Ken (Harbourmaster) had steered us to the right place.

As you can see the entrance is simple, warm and inviting.

Inside we received a warm welcome from the reception staff and Luis, the manager.

The tables had been set for fifteen people which is what I originally expected but there were several additions that I knew of, so seating for four more guests was quickly added, along with a table to hold the raffle donations and the birthday cake for the Members whose birthdays fell in the first half of the year. You'll clearly see their names in the pictures of the cake. I'm sorry to say that RgrF, Schmani and Webster J. Duck couldn't be there.

Look at the picture of the beautiful setup. The tables, the room, everything seemed just right to me

Once we had the tables set up, Mavis and I moved to the bar area where we told everyone to meet us. We were happy that MikeF and his wife, Teresa arrived early as promised.

Mike took over the camera duties and as more Members arrived I began to distribute our beautiful name badges. The badges were the work of Dennis R and his wife who generously designed, produced and mailed them at their own expense. Everyone at the Lunch sends their thanks. You can see the design in a number of the pictures including the one that the 'mystery guest is wearing in some of his more embarrassing shots.

As more Members and several more wives and one youngster arrived we moved to our tables and got seated.

It's interesting to me, how quickly everyone became comfortable, even with those Members we had never seen before. Clearly we are a community!

We all got into conversations and then began looking over the wonderful menu. I must admit that I'm very picky about restaurants, so when I saw the wide range of tempting selections on McKenna's menu, I was sure that I would find a dish that I would enjoy.

I want to thank Effin Haole for generously ordering an appetizer plate to share at our end of the table. The breaded shrimp I had were amazing and Mavis couldn't stop nibbling on the grilled artichoke. By the way, Effin explained the derivation of his screen name to us. It seems that when he was living in Hawaii, Haole was a term the Hawaiian locals used to put down outsiders. You can figure what "effin" stands for. Anyway, as he tells it, he often heard that term of "affection" when he was surfing with his friends and cut someone off. At least that's how I heard it :^)

When the food came, there was no question that everyone was happy with their choices. Mavis and I had sand dabs which were lightly breaded and came with asparagus, garlic roasted potatoes and a light lemon butter caper sauce. Delicious! I feel we all would be glad to recommend McKenna's to our friends.

With lunch out of the way, it was time for the raffle!

N-OS-xtasy! spoke right up and said "pick my number" and unbelievably I did! I wouldn't play cards with this guy after that :^)

As you can see from the pictures, everyone got something and both N-OS-xtasy! and Punkindrublik got to double dip. Most prizes were gags, like an original boxed System 7 and lots of outdated peripherals, but a few things were a bit better. There was a Radio Shack USB Scale! and a Sharp VCR. I hope the other Members will mention what they won, since I didn't think to make a list.

Looking back at the pictures, I enjoy seeing the smiles on everyone's face as we picked from the plain wrapped "treasures."

I had printed up a prize certificate for the OWC iTunes Gift Card and I put it in a small box with one of Precious' little plastic foot toys so it would rattle if the box was shaken. Pat's friend, Brenda L headed right for that little box without any hesitation. You can see from the pictures she wasn't sure what she had won at first. I was glad to hear that she could use it and she very happy. I'm forwarding her info to Larry on Monday.

I'd like to rely on the Members who were there to fill in the details that I'm leaving out. There was a lot going on all afternoon.

After the raffle we sang "Happy Birthday!" to Cam, N-OS-xtasy!, Pat, Punkindrublik, RgrF, Schmani and Webster J. Duck.

At this point, our "Mystery Guest," who turned out to be none other than Mini LEADER!, grabbed the very sharp knife and proceeded to cut the cake. Several of us managed to pry the knife out of his hands and for a while he was somewhat subdued. Cake cutting continued and I'm sure everyone had their fill.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with good conversation and a bit of drink.

I suggested that we start planning our event for the second half of the year early and the consensus seemed to be that we would do something in late September to mid October. Our plan is to start a new sticky and for the first two months to consider ideas for the event and for the date. We'd like to give it two months in order to chose something really creative and to allow some of our Members who live outside of the So Cal area to plan ahead to attend. It would be great to have a lot more of our friends at the next event.

The next two months will be devoted to logistics. Putting together the details for our event and arranging for out-of-towners to get here, to get picked up if necessary and perhaps even setting up a place to stay. I'm not sure about any of this. It's just an idea in my head right now, but I do know of someone with a vintage schooner who does charters and Catalina Island did seem interesting to the Members discussing this with me.

We ended up staying past 4 PM which surprised me but as they say "time flies when you're having fun!"

All in all I was very happy with our Lunch. I'm just upset that I found it so difficult to follow through with the pictures. I apologize for the delay and I hope you all enjoy the report of our event.

I want those of you who didn't make it to the Lunch, to make sure you come to our next event. You will enjoy yourself. That is a guarantee.

A last thanks to everyone that helped to make this a success, including the members and their family and friends, to MikeF for taking the pictures and to wms for his excellent pictures as well, to Dennis R and his wife for the buttons, to Clay for helping me by getting the pictures online, to Stuffed Shirt and rgG for helping with the stickies and the posts and for their suggestions, to the staff of Mckenna's and in particular Luis and Megan, and lastly, to Larry for his generosity and for providing us with a new forum, a community where we all feel at home and where we make and maintain friendships that seem to last for years.

We would love to have you to join us at our next event.

That's about it for now. I hope that I haven't left out anything important, so please fill in if I have.

Enjoy!

GeneL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2006 02:07AM by GeneL.

Great pix! That mini -- he is such a party ANIMAL! Keg stands in the middle of the table. Woohoo!

At this great remove, it's hard to say which was the more enjoyable--the planning/wrangling/arm-twisting before the event, the event itself, or the wild & crazy pictures. I'm glad all who attended had a good time, and I'll chip in my "Thanks!" for sharing with the geographically challenged (like me).

---

=TC

Pictures look great! Glad to see you guys had lots of fun. I wish I lived out near you guys, I would have loved to have come.

---

C(-)ris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throwback Thursday Signature:

Hey, it's good to see Mini again!

Will Mini start traveling again?

The pics were great.

Hmmmm, a Michigan Meet-up may not be bad but there are only like 3 or 5 of us that I know of in the area.

TheCaber, C(-)ris and ArtP, why don't you right now, start considering the possibility of attending MR SoCal's next event in the Fall. What would it take?

If I have anything to do with it, it will be a doozie and you are most certainly invited.

In fact, as I said in my follow up report, I want to make it clear that we're extending an open invitation to all of our Forum Members, wherever you live, to come and join us for our next get together.

We will want to make it very special and we will take the time to plan what it will be. You will have plenty of time to make your own plans and to schedule for it. So please, start thinking about it now and look for the announcement to appear.

I'm counting on meeting some of you who live outside of our area. In fact, I think I'm going to have to make a special surprise for the Member who travels the farthest to attend our next event. Maybe Haikuman will come here from Hawaii or the Philippines? That would probably be a record. Or perhaps voodoopenguin can make it here from the UK. Think about it

As they say at the race track, "Gentlemen (and Ladies), start your engines!"

GeneL



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2006 03:55AM by GeneL.

Looks like you all had a great time! Maybe someday I'll be
able attend one of these. Thanks for letting us view all the
wonderful pictures.

---

Grateful11

People may say surfing the computer is a waste of time but they did not see this event that came from it. Really looks like a nice place and good time! Nice people!

Mint wants a meeting near the Apple Hq.s.

P.S. Mini-Leader looks like he could use a meeting.

---

Da Good Life

This is definitely becoming the thread with the most views!

Number of views directly proportional to the amount of fun!

Glad all the pictures came out. Noticed you didn't post the couple of outside shots showing the great So Cal view and weather. Or the one with the forum rowing team...

I know I have a lot of duplicates, but I thought I'd put them up anyways. If anyone would like to come up with captions for these just let me know and I will put the most apropos up for everyone to see.
Thanx again GeneL for taking the time to make this all happen.
wms out.

[web.mac.com]

It really was a great time.
As for the "I don't know what Pat is thinking?" caption that accompanied this photo:

I was thinking, "There's no way that's one of those damn RS USB scales." I laughed my butt off. Best part was while we were cooking on Sunday, we were trying to figure out how many potatoes were in 2lbs. I got a big smile and said "I've got just the thing for that!"

I'm now officially part of the USB scale crew!

My wife was very appreciative of the iTunes gift card. That will give the credit card a little break, she's addicted to the iTMS. After listening to the stories and meeting everyone, she has already shown an increased interest in the forum, where there was none before, other than giggling at pRON's nic. She is still a little confused on the whole dealmac, AppleSwitcher, MacResource mess, though.

Whoops!

I just transmigrated from one topic to another.

A dimensional shift?

Lack of sleep?

Don't call me, I'll call you

GeneL has either become disoriented or his G5 is taking over his life.

Help me! I'm shrinking!

aargh!





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2006 11:46AM by GeneL.

Hey! If you shrink, can you shrink that damn flaming smiley too?

What is the shortcut for that thing ANYWAY?? I don't know that one!

;) B)


That pretty much spans my emotional range.

p.s.
I don't understand why there was no drunken brawls at this restaurant!
Talk about fuddy duddies!

Please tell me somebody recruited this girl to join the forum.

looks like you had fun

---

The Taoist Zhuangzi said, "Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone".
The sociologist, and historian, Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of spontaneous order in society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".

Our waitress was even better!

---

Strength without compassion is brutality. Compassion without strength is weakness.

We must train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

Here is her picture.



wms out.

as part of McKenna's group marketing plan, with three more posts like that, Effin gets a free beer at McKenna's...

seven more, and I think he gets a free appetizer or half-off an entre.

of course, all the babes there were smitten with Mini; then he either passed out, or wore himself out. I think the the new McKenna's t-shirts featuring Mini are due out later this afternoon...

---

Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



==

Maybe we need to find a mini-Larry too.

wms Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is her picture.



Aside from the off-center part in her hair. The waitress's face is curiously symmetrical. Not in a bad way.... just a peculiar observation.

I am glad all you guys had a great time. Thank you for sharing with us by posting the pictures. They look great. I wonder if mini-leader will remember what a great time he had.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2006 11:13AM by Stuffed Shirt.

Dennis R, I understand that Mini Leader is very attached to his mini-Leader Button. He did mention something about thanking you and your wife for making it. So speaking for the Mini Leader and for the rest of the Members at the Lunch, "thanks again!"

The last time I saw him he was completely out of control and couldn't stand up. The ladies sure like him, though.

As far as whether he ever remembers anything from experience like this, he wouldn't say but I get the impression that he's less of a talk and more of an action kind of guy.

Now my question is, what are you coming up with for our next MR SoCal Button."

GeneL