There is wrongness here

[eveglass]

I just found out that a bunch of people are tentatively planning to track each other at Pennsic parties... by posting to Twitter and Facebook from their cell phones.

Okay, I've got nothing against the modern world, and goodness knows I use modern technology at Pennsic. (I am a huge, huge supporter of my camp's propane-powered shower, for example, and definitely appreciate John lending me his cell phone every night so I can call Marc.)

That said, the idea of tracking other people at Pennsic by checking each other's Facebook status updates in real-time just seems really wrong somehow.

Comments, anyone? Am I alone in this?

Comments

[jtdiii.livejournal.com]

Sewing machines - yes
Hot showers - yes
Cell phone in your tent - Yes


Camp planning and contacts with arriving campers on a cellular broadband - Maybe
Electric fan oh how I waffle on that.


Twitter is going too far.

The thing is the the former items are things you can do quietly without others noticing outside a small area preferably in camp, the latter has a glow in the dark that everyone near you will notice.

[scjody.livejournal.com]

I've always been very happy cell phones don't work at Burning Man.

[freya46.livejournal.com]

I am with you on it. It's just wrong. Why are they even bothering to go to Pennsic? They might as well just go on an excursion somewhere for the two weeks and leave the rest of us to try to go back (within reason) in time.

[dipping_sauce]

That really sounds like it's missing the point.

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

As an aside, one can have reasonably convenient hot showers without propane by using a heat transfer system and using wood for a fuel. Bend about 50 feet of copper tubing into a coil with a stem so both input and output are at one end of the coil, insert into a 50 gallon drum, fill the drum with water, put the input hose at one end of the coil and the output at the other. Build a fire under the barrel. The water passing through the coil heats up from induction, giving you hot water for a shower.

Your campmaster could even build this, if he's of a mind to. I'm fairly sure the firewood used ends up being cheaper than the equivalent amount of propane, if the coolness factor wasn't sufficient. :)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I didn't read it that way, and I certainly won't have electronics there.

I saw it as a way to track parties -- in advance.

I always find there are places I would have rather been.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

My post wasn't in any way a remark against you. It was more about the guy who posted in a thread, "I'm putting forth a proposition (suggestion) that if you are at Pennsic wondering [sic] around from party to party with your mobile, post it to your Facebook status (or to this group)."

I've definitely had times at Pennsic when I found out there was somewhere I would much rather have been if I'd known about it. And kicked myself the next morning when I found out. But somehow the idea of blogging or twittering or updating your facebook status in real time at Pennsic while party-hopping just seems to me to be missing the point somewhere.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

Okay that is a BIT on the extreme side. I will admit that the reason LLT has a text messaging package on her phone is so we can text each other during pennsic for planning purposes. But Twitter and Facebook? I so don't think so.

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

Well, it certainly puts the "A" in SCA...

[nearlyvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

Siiiiiigh. That's one of the reasons I go to Pennsic - to get away from the electronic leash. To have the opportunity to step off the treadmill, off the grid, and just be with the here-and-now without worrying about what better things are on the other side of camp.

I hated myself for succumbing to the cell phone last year for "where the *#&^@ are you?!" communications. Desperate to avoid it this time.

grmmarbgrumblesptoodyharumphgrumble

Maybe I can just hide at the Enchanted Ground.....

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

Or, y'know, leave the cell in your tent or your car or something.

The only year I kept a cell phone on my person at Pennsic was the year my best friend's mom was in palliative care and I expected the call any minute of, "Yeah, she's passed on. Time to come home for the funeral."

That's about what it would take for me to carry a cell phone at Pennsic, as opposed to just keeping one in my tent for late-night calls to my boyfriend. But then again, that's just me.

[t-bard.livejournal.com]

We'll it would one system with 100% accuracy.

If you're on Twitter, you're not at Pennsic.

[t-bard.livejournal.com]

Regardless of your physical coordinates.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

I like that phrasing.