Yearly Kos: Beginnings

When Yearly Kos Began on Thursday there was a bustling energy in the air. I don't think that any of us really knew how the world's first blogger convention was going to turn out. What struck me immediately was the preponderance of middle-aged people in the room. The media likes to portray bloggers as a bunch of pajama-wearing geeks fervently typing away from their mothers' basements. Being a 23 year old--no, I don't live in my mother's basement, and I am a nerd, not a geek--surrounded by 40 year old progressives was a pleasant surprise.

The bustling Riviera conference hallway
full of middle-aged bloggers typing away

Coincidences have a way of looking like intentional happenings. Now, by pure coincidence, I'm sure, the National Society of Accountants' convention happened to coincide with Yearly Kos. I know that the NSA is unlawfully wiretapping America citizens, reporters, and dissidents but couldn't they have been a little more creative? It reminds me of the Upright Citizens Brigade episode when their clandestine surveillance van read United Cake Bakers. Now, I'm no conspiracy wacko, and I'm sure that the National Society of Accountants is a legitimate organization that coincidentally convened at the same time in the same place as the foremost gathering of liberal bloggers in the world, but seeing the NSA at Yearly Kos gave me a hearty chuckle.

Big Brother is watching

The afternoon featured several caucuses for bloggers to meet, great, and discuss. I went to the Student, Northeast, and Science Caucuses.