Friend and fellow UCF member Anne recently took a dream trip to India, which she’s faithfully documented on her blog.

She’s amazingly thoughtful, and she collected addresses beforehand and sent us all postcards from her journey of some of the amazing sights. My postcard was of the Taj Mahal - one of the seven wonders, and a place I’ve always wanted to visit. Anne’s summary of her Taj Mahal visit is here.

It was very, very cool to get a real piece of mail from a friend in the mail. I’ve gotten nothing but bills and junk for so long I’d forgotten what that was like. OK, not entirely true - the family is pretty faithful at birthdays and holidays - but otherwise, it’s a custom that’s pretty much fallen by the wayside.

So Anne, thank you! It’s something that should be revived, and I’m glad you did.

As has already been reported on his blog, I had the opportunity to meet fellow blogger and writer Jim Wright today.

Jim and I are part of a loose circle comprised of blogging acquaintances, writer wannabes and science fiction fans. The group of us - known unofficially as the UCF, and I’m not sure we ever agreed on what that means - met on John Scalzi’s blog and forum, Whatever. Many of us have since encouraged each others’ writing efforts, participated in round robin writing games, and in general entertained and supported each other.

I am a fan of Jim’s writing, both blogging and fiction, so it was fun to get a chance to meet him in person. He is one of those great people who has integrity; he is the same in person as he is online and via email. (Okay, he’s a bit nicer in person, because he he can do an amazing rant online!)

Since his military retirement, he’s turned to writing and fine woodwork as a vocation, and I jumped at the opportunity to buy one of his hand-turned, gallery-quality bowls. It’s unique, super high quality work, and I expect it to be worth a fortune one day when his work is sitting in the MoMA in New York.

It’s a lot of fun to meet online acquaintances - I’ve had great success with making friends all over the world that way. And, of course, my wonderful husband was once an online acquaintance, too.

Next up: lunch in a couple of weeks with the talented, hilarious Beast Mom, founder of the SSBM (Secret Society of Beast Moms)! We’ve met before, I even went on her blogging retreat weekend in Cannon Beach, and I value her wisdom and perspective. She not only writes too, but has been published in various literary magazines and periodicals.

I am all about eliminating duplicated effort and creating economies of scale.

So, in that spirit, I’m declaring Nathan’s International Hijack Day^TM to also be Nathan Appreciation Day. We can show our appreciation not only by spreading chaos, but also by changing the subject to talking about Nathan.

So, tell Nathan why you appreciate him, in fact, fiction, or blank verse. In addition, maybe you could let him know what gift you’d send him for Nathan Appreciation Day, if, of course, you actually were into sending random gifts.

PS - I borrowed the appreciation day idea from Janiece - I promise I’ll return it undamaged, washed, and with the gas tank full.

A discussion in Janiece’s blog yesterday on meeting online friends brought to mind a classic SF novel.

The Naked Sun, by Isaac Asimov, postulates a world, Solaria, where face-to-face human contact has become a thing of the past. Residents live singly on huge estates, surrounded by technology and thousands of robots, and interact with their fellow humans only via telepresence.

The story is a murder mystery, solved by a human detective partnered with a humanoid robot. The taboo against face-to-face contact is so strong that one of the characters commits suicide rather than have a forced physical encounter with another human (who, ironically, is the humanoid robot).

It made me think – there are some science fiction visions of the future that are within the realm of possibility, given our environment today. (Isn’t that the nature of SF – creating plausible futures?) But some seem more probable, even start to seem eerily similar, as our culture changes and grows.

Gregariousness and technology adoption are both broad spectrums. Some folks spend all their time at busy brick-and-mortar workplaces, out and about with friends and family, involved in athletics, living in the real world. Others work at home in virtual offices, order their food & clothing online and have it delivered, work out at home, and for them, getting out is a rare occasion. It’s a generalization, but the folks at the out-and-about end of the spectrum tend to not spend a lot of time online; the folks at the other end spend a great deal of time online, and their computer screen becomes a window to their work, their daily practical logistics and their social life.

As a virtual office worker, I’ve become more reclusive, tending toward that latter end of the spectrum. I can see how it would be easy for a technologically oriented society to continue the trend toward isolation with a virtual interface to the world.

While I believe that online activities and friendships are valuable and rewarding, I really don’t want to become a geek-hermit. I need to get out of the house, do hands-on activities, and spend time with real-life friends and family more often.

I don’t think I want to visit Solaria, even as a tourist.

I had a really great lunch yesterday with the brilliant, lovely, hilarious Beast Mom. She graciously trekked downtown, met me at my Pioneer Square office and we went to one of my favorite places – Grand Central Bakery & Café.

The only dirt I can dish on her is that I suspect she lies about her age. She can’t even be 30, and yet she goes around telling folks she’s middle-aged. I don’t know what the deal is – does she want attention? Does she worry about having had kids so young? Don’t know – but she’s got a ton of energy and there’s not a wrinkle or grey hair to be seen.

I’m looking forward to getting together with her again, as well as seeing some of her writing in print. I’m trying to track down the Jan/Feb 2007 Bellowing Ark now to see her first published story.