Twitter helped me meet with a complete stranger

View on Flickr

Earlier this week, Chris Marsden Twittered and wrote a blog post about his coming to Pasadena for a few days. So, we had a brief dialog through Twitter, and decided to meet for dinner (at Ichima Sushi) on Wednesday night. I figured he hasn’t had that too often, so it sounded fun. I was right, so he was at my mercy. Fortunately for him, the majority of sushi I order isn’t raw. 😉

We talked about a lot of stuff in the duration of the evening, and didn’t call it quits until 3 AM. Chris is awesome!

The topics included:

• Christianity, church, ministry, community
• money, work
• politics
• cell phones, computers, Windows Vista, Macs
• blogs, RSS, SEO
• music (Christian vs. Secular)

Did I mention that it was a lot of stuff?

So what’s significant about this?

First, we didn’t know each other. I subscribed to his blog since January because of his “Kinkless and my Hipster PDA” post. He hasn’t really been writing much lately about productivity, but I’ve kept subscribed to him anyway. At some point, he got a Twitter account, so I added him.

I don’t think we ever talked or sent e-mails. I had an idea of what he looked like, as opposed to him, because he had no clue what I looked like. (I’m not too shy. I’ve been on Flickr for awhile!) He wasn’t subscribed to my blog for awhile because he switched news readers, and never re-subscribed, so he didn’t see any of my posts or photos for awhile. Yet, he Twittered that he was in Pasadena, and we ended up meeting.

I’ve never done this before, but it was cool how we spontaneously met up. I wish I would’ve told my friend, Bill, to come. He loves talking about most of the things I listed above. I simply didn’t realize that’s what we had in store.

I know we could all interact through our blogs and e-mail. Twitter — or any of the other similar services — is meant for cell phones, and it seems to help bring us together that much more. I wish I could’ve recorded a podcast, but I couldn’t prepare any questions ahead of time.

What do I suggest to you? Get out of your comfort zone! Subscribe to people that share similar interests, and talk to them; you never know what will happen! In the future, I hope I get more chances to do this kind of stuff, especially if it doesn’t heavily rely on money.

Chris, it was great talking and listening to you! I learned so much, and you’ve helped me realize that some of the things that are on my mind aren’t exclusive to me. I’m sure there’s great things ahead for you — I hope you find time to write a bit more so we know what to pray for. 🙂