this is my account of what i did while attending web98 (sf, moscone center, 06.21-25.98). rather than try to describe what i felt during the week, i'm going to tell you about who i met, where i went, and show you the sights i saw. if you're offended by gratuitous namedropping and linking, you'd best leave now.

i arrived in san francisco saturday afternoon, eventually ending up at my hotel after a quick shuttle ride. after a dip in the pool, i called heather and steve. a plan was made: ethiopian food on haight street with the gang.

i arrived last...just when people were ordering. everyone cheered for some reason. i sat down next to michael, who was seated next to lance, who, proceeding counterclockwise, was seated next to adam, derek, drue, steve, and heather. conversation and food ensued.

after that, we all travelled to a bar just down the street. i found out that there's a gap on the corner of haight and ashbury. that's so perfect on so many levels.

on sunday, i went to the moscone center to pick up my badge. i got all sorts of other stuff as well: a free bag, notepad, and the world's thinnest (and therefore most flammable) t-shirt. after that, i set off for a day of wandering around and shopping in the union square area. i went to niketown, eddie bauer (where i purchased new sunglasses, having lost my previous pair right before the trip), stocked up on books & magazines i can't get in minneapolis, and ate a vienna polish dog from a street vendor.

after all the shopping madness, i met up with steve, lance, and kelley to discuss our strategy for the cool site in a day contest. after a productive hour-long discussion, the group broke up and lance & i cabbed off to derek and drue's for the big party.

arrived at derek and drue's turquoise house. had vegetarian food on a stick. i'm sure it was very well prepared, but i didn't like it much...not my cup of tea. got reacquainted with betty, a fellow minneapolitan. met peter, john, tarin, jeff, frank, molly, shauna, owen & his dad, maggy, trini, david, and a few people whose names i can't quite recall some 10 days later. i also saw rebecca, but didn't actually get to talk to her before she jetted out the door. good food, good folks, good time.

woke up late on monday...too late to attend the tutorial i was going to go to. bummer. lunch, tv, and then a three hour nap. then off to the moscone center to set up for the contest tomorrow. on the way, i happened upon betty, john, and adam drinking. i joined them for a brief time before we jetted off to moscone. after a short stop at the registration desk to get john his proper mac daddy pass, we proceeded to the online lounge for two hours of hardware and software setup. met kristen, carl, and srini.

with the computers set up for the next day's madness, the gang headed off to brandy ho's, where we all had too much chinese food that was way too hot. i had about eight glasses of water and two sprites. damn hot. damn damn hot.

getting up at the crack of eight the next morning, i headed off to the conference, meeting pippi johnstocking along the way. we headed for the online lounge and the contest. during the course of the day, i met amy, david, and leslie. the contest happened. i had three hours to design an interface for the new hospitality house web site. and i did. lance barked orders, steve did some crazy webmaster-type shit, david rolled over, and kelley managed all the content. and we won. there was much rejoicing. here's the site we built.

after the awards ceremony, we headed on over to the premiere screening of "home page", a full-length documentary about people on the web done by doug block. very good. after that, a few of us went to get dinner at hamburger mary's and then on to the requestline party. there was free beer at the party, so there was much drunken foolishness. michael danced, john & adam danced together, saw hans but didn't get to meet him, and i finally chatted with rebecca...for about 4 seconds. i also met a friend of leslie's (damn feeble brain can't remember her name) that could take the sentence you just said and repeat it back to you in reverse. i'm still really amazed by this. after the party, i drove molly and adam home in molly's car. boy, i haven't driven a stick shift in a while.

on wednesday, i finally got to go to some sessions. first, michael ripped apart our cool site in "deconstructing cool site". actually, he didn't do much ripping...all that drinking the previous night probably had a bit to do with that. and lance forgot to put 0sil8 up on the double big screen. oh, the agony. next, i went to drue's talk on "information design for the web". drue is just a great speaker...and teacher. i learned the seven ways in which i can order any list of things. very cool.

during lunch, i attended a roundtable discussion about "women on the web" featuring drue, molly, leslie, and betty. i learned that lance is a woman on the web. the next session was pretty worthless: "online fiction: storytelling on the web". not at all what i thought it was going to be. the final session of the day was a demo by macromedia of flash 3 and flash generator. very cool stuff, including an impressive demo by quokka sports.

after the sessions, a few of us went to a microsoft bbq, complete with free fleece sitebuilder blankets and people walking around with cowboy hats & bandanas. then onto the speaker party...so named because it was attended by speakers at web98. cool place and good music. i met and chatted with andrew beebe briefly. very cool guy. and i danced a little. lance "danced like a fool and [his] heart didn't explode." and i (finally) had a more-than-2-minute chat with leslie. much fun was had by all.

so much so that we moved on to hamburger mary's for more festivities. i played x-files pinball with carl, lance, john, and shauna. john won as i recall. and i had a chocolate malt, which i later learned is different from most other chocolate malts i've ever had in that it was really super chocolatey. the management kicked us out so we proceeded down the street to the flamingo lounge...or something like that. i wanted to go to "el bobo" but was shouted down. i put a "fuck work" sticker on the men's toilet and left soon afterwards, bidding a fond farewell to all my new good friends.