I’ve been interacting with Chris, Brian, and Fredo through the blogosphere for the past two years, which has also taken to Twitterville (for Brian and Fredo) and Facebook. I’ve met all three of these guys in person in a one year period, and I look forward to more blog correspondence in the future.

With Joshua Minton, I found a friend who was putting forth his BFA creative writing afterlife on his blog. He put his fiction, poetry, rants, and articles out there. Actually, it was one of his articles on Every Writer’s Resource that got me in touch with him. While there isn’t a high level of blog banter and interaction going on between us, I read his Online Pulpit regularly and I have the upmost respect for him.

There are a couple of other bloggers I’ve met in that period, but those mentioned above have been a more significant part of my experience with ShindoTV and the blogosphere.

In the latter part of 2008, I started attending the local blog and Twitter meetups. On the surface, they were parties with lots of alcohol, but I’ve been making some new friends and some online contacts. One such friend is Melodie, who has shown up in some posts as a recurring character, and Rich, aka richandcreamy, who has been commenting on my blog lately. Along with developing some real time friendships, I hope to develop some good blog friendships amongs some of the local bloggers as well this year.

I’ve come across some interesting blogs out there as random people out there started following me on Twitter. Scott Campbell is a writer out in New York City with a quirky blog name, ThePete, which provides a lot of pointed commentary and discusses various projects. Another’s a more anonymous blogger, One Mean MFA, who’s currently working on the graduate creative writing degree and posts on teaching and the writing life. I’m following both of them for sure.

Then there are people I meet briefly and they move to other towns. Tamika‘s one such person and I’ve gotten to know her a bit more through all the Facebook witticisms and her blog. We’ll hang out a bit whether she visits San Diego in the future or if I head out to visit Dallas. I look forward to chatting it up in real time again, but I’m tuning in to the Gran Diva in the mean time.

I may come across some cool people to add to this community this year. Also, I hope that those I met also continue to enhance my blogging experience and I theirs. As for me, no flight plan, no problem. Here’s to seeing where this blog takes me in 2009.

Many local Twitterers, or Tweeps, were present, including @DowntownRob, whose business WebWizards Web Hosting was one of the sponsors of last nights event. He’s done a lot for the local online community, as he’s also an organizer of the San Diego Blogger’s Meetup.

One interesting feature was the Twitter Board, a screen where various tweets were projected. Many people present had their iPhones, including yours truly, and we were all standing around and posting. Oh, I shouldn’t forget about the Crackberries and the other kinds of mobile phones. Those were present as well.

I got to see a few people including my new friend Gio (@giographic), and Daniel Phillip (@danielphillip) and his partner Richard Allen (@richarchallen). I also got to meet up with Eileen (@eyemusing), whom I’ve been trading tweets about what I call the “fashionista trainwreck shows” and Alan (@awanisAlan). I had some good conversations with Tom (@big_perm) – thanks for the beer – and a brief chat with Richard (@richandcreamy), who went around taking pics of the party. Good times.

I was hoping to meet Shindy.TV at the tweetup but that never happened. I don’t doubt they were there, but I was talking to various people and just didn’t get around to meeting them. It would be fun for Shindo to meet Shindy. It’s gotta happen sometim in the future.

Thanks, Jennifer, Rob, Newsforce, and Engine Ready for making this Tweetup possible. It was awesome!

I now look forward to the Blogger’s Meetup later in October.