The List: 17. Walk like a ninja.

Life Tonight was another instalment of Social Media Week, this time the latest Social Media Café again held at John Moores University’s art academy. @petemc launched his new project #rezz a kind of Google Street View gathering the breadth of humanity rather than buildings, @mcknut took us through the process of creating an iPhone app, this iPhone app gathering information about the Social Media Café, @donmcallister interviewed @leolaporte about his podcast network and @wimpyking interviewed @Documentally via Skype (pictured above) all of whom are terribly creative.

The latter, Christian Payne, made a good point which confirmed something I’ve always thought – that your username, if you have a username, is your online brand – that it represents you online. My first, in the late nineties, was groovejet42 which is basically meaningless apart from the Sophie Ellis-Bexter/Douglas Adams reference. After I named this blog however (for reasons I last explained in detail here) it seemed only natural that I should adopt the same name when I signed up to Metafilter and I’ve continued using it through discussion boards and social media apparatus since. It’s my twitter name.

That was more than apparent when I got back home tonight. Because tonight I rather did the kind of thing I usually do. I finished work at 7pm on Thursday, the event began at 6(ish) so I was running later. When I reached the building and entered through the big glass doors the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. The next was the sound of my shoes across the wooden floor. Clop, clop, clop. Given that they’re Rockstorm "Revolt" Men's Slip On Casuals, or slippers with delusions of grandeur, this was a bit surprising. Down the stairs they clopped, across the floor of the echoey basement towards the lecture theatre too. Clop, clop, clop, bloody clop.

Knowing how nervous I was when I gave my talk the other month and now not wanting to interrupt whoever it was speaking, I decided the best thing for it would be to take advantage of the main selling point of the Rockstorm "Revolt" Men's Slip On Casuals and slipped them off so that could enter silently in my stocking feet. In I came through the doors only then remembering that the only way to approach the stadium seating from this angle was to walk the length of them from the side, out in front and then up the stairs. I breathed deeply and began the journey.

@petemc was at the front with a volunteer in the midst of a demonstration. The assembled crowd were talking amongst themselves. I smiled at a couple of people then grabbed a seat half way up the stairs on the end of the isle. Pete's demonstration continued. I put my shoes back on and that was that. Until some time late in the Everyman afterwards when it became apparent, after it was explained to me, that for all my chivalrous intent, I’d still managed to draw attention to myself. Because though I hadn’t made much noise I’d entered the hall carrying my shoes this not being something that could really be missed.

Returning home I find the following tweets waiting for me (edited below for retweeted content):

@amcewen: @feelinglistless creeps into @smcliv like a ninja (so @MethodDan says anyway :-)

@Defnetmedia: No shoes on either

@clairelsutton: A NINJA WITH NO SHOES!!!

And after I offered a two hundred and eighty character long version of this blog post:

@rosiebunny: I heard about this. Quite a fuss you caused.

Well at least I can do this:

17. Walk like a ninja.

I love @feelinglistless sometimes.