I must here take a pause to admit a private vice. I am stalking Tantek Çelik.
Every day my cellphone beeps new SMS's that tell me Tantek's whereabouts. Its gotten to the point that my husband is suspicious of my interest in Tantek. I mean afterall, he's one of the Top Ten Male Hotties Of The Web. But that's not how I came to be his stalker. I run into Tantek at conferences, but he's nearly always surrounded by people. I wanted a more singular conversation.
So, last year when Dodgeball started to get popular in San Francisco (before the Google acquisition that seems to have gone awry)...I signed up and asked Tantek to be my contact because I was hoping to figure out a less congested place to meet up with him. I'm big on tea dates at Samovar.
What I wasn't counting on was the sheer enthusiasm with with Tantek broadcasts his daily movements. It's not uncommon for me to get 10 messages about Tantek in a 24 hour period. I don't know that much about the whereabouts of my kid.
And I've gotten to where I worry a bit about Tantek (as a Mom...heck, I'm nearly old enough to be his Mom). So for instance, I'm happy when I see that he's at Mission Cliffs or munching brown rice sushi at Whole Foods. But I think he drinks too much coffee. And I worry when he's on the occasional pub crawl...will he make it home in one piece? On the other hand, I've learned about a few places from him, and I've found that we go to some of the same places.
The really funny thing is, I've still never met with him. Tantek, if you're reading this...can we just make an appointment?
You've never met Tantek?! Oh my god, I had no idea!
Posted by: Joey | June 21, 2007 at 04:40 PM
I don't come near Tantek in any respect, but if you're going to be at OSCON this year, we might be able to meet. I'll be speaking at Ubuntulive.
Posted by: Philip Tellis | June 26, 2007 at 07:17 AM
That's hilarious! I had Dodgeball-friended MJ at SXSWi a couple years ago and though we almost never talked, I felt the same way, worrying about her bar crawls and getting a peek at her life over time. It got to be a joke with my friends who would hear my phone buzz and would ask which bar or Web 2.0 event MJ was at. It was the same sort of random accidental stalking, and I left it going half out of laziness and half because it was amusing.
Posted by: Liz Henry | October 25, 2007 at 01:09 PM
I hope I'll never get stalked by anyone!
I think it's awful
Allen
Posted by: Allen | October 26, 2007 at 12:40 AM