Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

We still have time to mess this up!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Beer Blogging / Open Thread: Pics from the L.A. Meetup

Open Thread: Pics from the L.A. Meetup

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burbank meetup 3

From commentor Ruemara, in whose honor it was called:

Well, the meetup got a wee bit maxi for a mini appellation. We had the great pleasure of Mary G, Ruckus, Higgs Bosun Mate, Something Fabulous (who is aptly named, I say), Mnemosyne, Roger Moore (on break from spying), Cthulu, Mrs. Cthulu (too nice to be married to an eldritch horror), El, Russ, Woodworker (who gets the award for making the most of last minute notice), and Jebediah. If I forgot you, or misspelled your nym, I beg your pardon. The food was fine Am/Irish pub chow, the booze was good, Applejack tastes of neither applejacks nor apples-discuss-and we managed to converse freely despite a music trio making an appearance. But they were quite good too. There was much chatter of general things, genial conviviality and Ruckus and Higgs started talking of plane things in sentences constructed in English, yet managing to make no sense to me. It was fascinating. It was like hanging out with a good group of friends you rarely see, which is not a bad way to spend a Saturday. We honored our blog host with a toast, spent 3 hours yapping but did not find any urge to discuss Edward Snowden at all, if that can be believed. It was with much regret we tore ourselves away and slipped back to our regular lives. Here’s a few pics of our rowdy crew.

burbank meetup 1

burbank meetup 2

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  12. 12.

    Southern Beale

    I’d say TN Gov. Bill Haslam and TN Sen. Bob Corker have a lot of egg on their faces:

    Volkswagen still eyeing works council for Chattanooga plant

    Volkswagen labor officials in Germany plan to come to the United States in a couple of weeks to find a new way to launch a works council at the carmaker’s Chattanooga plant.

    Gunnar Kilian, secretary general of VW’s works council in Germany, said that the result of the election has not changed its goal of creating a works council in Chattanooga.

    “We have always stressed that the decision over union representation lies in the hands of the workforce in Chattanooga,” he said in a statement.

    Kilian and Frank Patta, who oversees VW’s global network of works councils, plan to fly to the U.S. in two weeks to begin talks with the American labor law experts to see if there is a way to establish a works council in Tennessee within the framework of U.S. law.

    Wow and here Republicans are supposed to be so PRO-BUSINESS? Yet they interfered in something a business wants? How … odd.

  19. 19.

    MrSnrub

    My previous comment fell into moderation land. Waaah.

    Just got back from second interview. Not sure how it went. Hard to read the people I talked with. Also trying to judge whether I’d want to be there if I got an offer. Hrm.

  20. 20.

    Big R

    @Southern Beale: N.B.: For the current incarnation of the Republican party, “hating things that liberals like” is more important than “supporting what our constituents want.” Constituents only get what they want if liberals hate it.

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    @raven:

    Is that the joint right outside of LAX?

    Not even close. It’s close to Bob Hope Airport, though, which used to be Lockheed’s home field. There’s a lot of P-38 memorabilia at Bob Hope.

    ETA: or what everyone else said.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @MrSnrub: I hate interviews with people who think they need to be a blank slate. How the hell are you supposed to know if it’s a good fit if one side hides behind a mask? grrr.

  30. 30.

    raven

    @Roger Moore: My BIL’s father worked in the airline industry out there. Van Nuys I’m pretty sure. I guess the freeway was a mess this weekend because of the olg cuz my Sherman Oaks bro couldn’t make it to the Hawthorne birthday gig.

  31. 31.

    James E. Powell

    Very sorry I couldn’t make it. I’ve been without wheels since Thursday. Very much hoping to get the “it’s ready” call today.

  34. 34.

    Amir Khalid

    Why are there never Balloon Juice meet-ups in Kuala Lumpur? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY? Sob.

    On another note, there’s good news for sneaker fans: The Nike MAG sneakers worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II might come with actual power laces, just like the ones in the movie, next year. (The MAG was released in 2011, but with only regular laces.)

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @raven:
    This weekend was “Jamzilla”, the younger sibling of “Carmageddon”. Both involved weekend long closures on the 405, which is drastic enough to create ripple effects throughout the region. In practice, they seem to have scared enough people off the road with threats of apocalyptic traffic that things were actually quite manageable for the bold few who went out against advice.

  37. 37.

    negative 1

    Have any of these ever been done in the Northeast? It would seem as though they should, yet I can’t ever remember one.
    Or maybe I just wasn’t invited.

  40. 40.

    imonlylurking

    Another Winter Storm Watch was posted-I really picked the wrong week to screw up my back.

    I was thinking we could plan another Twin Cities meetup. Maybe after the snow melts? Of course, the way things are going that would put us into July.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    Awwww, y’all look so nice and normal! I was expecting something more along the lines of the Blade Runner market scene.

  42. 42.

    jibeaux

    @Amir Khalid:
    I’m gonna make a firm commitment right now: if I am ever in Kuala Lumpur, I am going to look you up. You can take that to the bank.

    We should have an RTP meetup sometime, except I think y’all are all coders.

  44. 44.

    catclub

    @Roger Moore: “threats of apocalyptic traffic that things were actually quite manageable”

    The safest day of traffic in Sweden was the day they switched from left to right -side driving.

  46. 46.

    ? Martin

    @Roger Moore: Doing the construction in this way is MUCH cheaper than finding a way to keep the road open. The original effort left them with almost no choice but to close the freeway. Now they’re looking at projects that could be done with the road left open and choosing to close it to save costs. It’s a good deal. A few days inconvenience to save enough money to run an entire additional project is well worth it.

  51. 51.

    feebog

    Sorry I missed it, but the Mrs. had knee surgery on Thursday, so my time was spent at the hospital.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodinger’s cat: Still a very dicey situation. We’re waiting and hoping. Can’t do anything else at this point, but she’s a tough bird, or she wouldn’t have hung in this long, so there’s that.

  61. 61.

    something fabulous

    @ruemara: (We are spoilsports like that. Beautiful Downtown Burbank and all that.) What a nice gathering/readership capture! Great photos. So glad I was able to escape from the Ikea Vortex and join y’all; as a frequent-lurker, I did feel a bit awkward at first, but needlessly!

    Thanks for finding the place/having the idea when coming to town/bringing the balloons/putting faces to names/the kind ride home, everyone! Nice to chat with so many, and even exchange info with several of you to (gasp) perhaps stay in contact IRL. VERY not-LA of us, but let’s do it!

  63. 63.

    Avery Greynold

    I didn’t see much in common between us until people started handing around pictures of their families (animals, in normal-speak)
    –Russ

  65. 65.

    PurpleGirl

    Definitely a fine looking group of fine people. Glad you all had fun.

    It’s time for another meet-up in NYC. (After some more snow/ice disappears, though.)

  67. 67.

    ranchandsyrup

    I saw FPer Randinho randomly on the facebooks and asked him when he was coming back to football (soccer) blawg. He said he hopes to soon after he moves.
    This is an unsolicited Juice report.

  74. 74.

    MomSense

    Look at all the beautiful balloon-juicers! So pleased you had a good time.

    We are having more snow. I can’t take it anymore and I’m pretty sure the snow plow drivers have just given up. The roads are not in good shape.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:
    I’m not intending to suggest that shutting down the 405 completely was a mistake. The planning and public announcements did a good job of making sure the whole thing went smoothly. If anything, the whole thing has been a big success, both in terms of the construction and in proving that people can survive a weekend without driving across the city.

  77. 77.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    When I read that you were on the train with your brother, I so wanted to find out how the visit was going. I have a joke with my dear friends (my chosen family) about what the “f” in family stands for. I hope you are enjoying your time with him.

    The idea of being in SoCal with warm sun sounds so appealing right now! I am watching the snow and the temperatures fall and wondering why the hell I live in the Northeast. The funny thing is that come the first beautiful day this Spring— all will be forgiven.

    This winter has been brutal in Chicago (my favorite city!) so I can imagine your brother is loving being in California.

    Cheers, M!

  78. 78.

    shortstop

    I would have reversed Ruckus and Roger Moore. I don’t know why; I never think DJs or voiceover artists look like their voices, either. Is that the cthulus in upper right? Who’s the friendly-looking lady in the blue and green?

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    @shortstop:

    The funny thing is, I only ever visited in the winter. Happy to say that my oldest loves it too. He hit all the blues clubs and the people he stayed with treated him to a ridiculously fancy and delicious steak house so now everything is on a scale of 1 to Chicago.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: I used to work with someone who would refer to the dean of our college as Bill F. George. it went on for months before I asked “why so formal?”

    Turns out that if he really didn’t like someone, he would just put the middle initial F in there, kind of a private joke and the recipients of the F were none the wiser.

  87. 87.

    shortstop

    @MomSense: You know, we moved to the 23rd floor of a high-rise last summer. It’s on the lakefront, and our place has sweeping lake and city views. (It’s a low-key building that could use some attention in the common areas, so assessments aren’t heart-stopping. Also, our unit hadn’t been updated since the Middle Ages, so we got it for a song and are slowly renovating.). We have an express bus stop and cab light right out front, and it’s a quick jump onto Lake Shore Drive.

    I was thinking about all this the other night and it occurred to me that we’d be excellent candidates for house exchanges with people in interesting locations across the globe. In the summertime, it seems like half of Europe, Australia and parts of Asia are here…and we welcome them!

    If I can get over the idea of someone I don’t really know sleeping in our bed (none of the rest of it bothers me in the least), we’re going for it. We’re travel whores and this is another way to stretch the wander budget.

  88. 88.

    MomSense

    @shortstop:

    I’m a PK and when I was a kid my Dad would do pulpit exchanges with other ministers. It was a lot of fun. We would swap houses for a week or two at a time and get to see another part of the country. We never did international swap but I say go for it!!

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    The visit is going fine — the main problem is that we’ve been walking too much. Seriously, I’ve been logging more than 13,000 steps a day since he got here. Now we’re both exhausted.

    (And it’s my brother-in-law — G’s brother — not my brother. Just to be clear and not turn it into a Wodehouse dialogue.)

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