GREAT times at this past week’s tweetup!  Thanks to everyone — whether you tweeted about it, blogged about it, offered words of support, or just plain showed up — who made it happen.  I noticed a LOT of new faces (yay) and a few missing regulars (boo), but it seems like everyone in attendance had a great time.  If you’ve never been to one, our Central PA tweetups (which, by definition, includes all of the contributors to blogHarrisburg) take place on the third Thursday of every month, from 7-9pm, in The Abbey Bar at ABC Harrisburg.   One of the issues raised at past meetups is getting to know everyone, and how we identify each other.  September’s tweetup will feature nametags so people can share their URL, real name (if they choose), and Twitter name.  A little geeky?  Perhaps, but aren’t we all?  It will help break the ice for the less-outgoing among us, and it will help anyone new to the group to locate us. I’ll also have a signup sheet so that we can track participation.  @SaraBozich conducted a sign-in roster at this past meetup; if you didn’t sign in, Tweet her a “hello” and let her know who you are.  I don’t plan on doing anything more dastardly with your information than publishing your Twitter username and/or your URL; your privacy is otherwise assured. So thanks again to everyone who made it out, wanted to make it out, or even thought about making it out!  If you weren’t there, do consider dropping by in September.  We’ll likely be inside this time (although if the deck is still open and the weather is “fall crisp” and not “winter OMG FREEZING”, I’m all for going outdoors).  Hope to see you then!

You can’t really live in this area without noticing that a large number of people who live here complain about living here.  You’ve heard it all before:  Central PA sucks, there’s no culture here, people are inbred, our educational institutions suck, the job market sucks, the housing sucks, the transportation options suck … you name it.  I always amuse myself by responding with “So then why DO you live here?”, the answer to which is always some fail-tastic statement like “Uh, well, I guess, uh, um … My husband works for Comcast.   So yeah.”   Anyway, a fellow Farker pointed out Find Your Spot.  Answer 8 pages of fairly straightforward questions on everything from weather to culture to geographic region and you’ll be paired with an ideal city.  You even get to choose if you want a major metro, a secondary city, or a small community.  You will ultimately be asked for your email address before seeing your results; just make something up. My top spot?  Fargo, North Dakota.  Yeah.  Carlisle (as in right down the road) was #7.  Altoona was #11.  My biggest city was Minneapolis-St. Paul at #14.  No Chicago, no NYC, not even Detroit!  I guess that’s because I selected housing “less than $140k” and rent under $800.  But still: Fargo. Fargo.