
Last week we had a
Harry Potter Party, which was absolutely packed! The promoters' original ambition for this party was fairly modest: they were going to hand out masks and give out a costume prize and that's about it, but when we saw how well tickets were selling, we figured it deserved a bit more than that, and the gang spent two or three days decorating the hell out of the place and constructing props like "Quidditch Beer Pong". It was a lot of fun! Almost everybody who came made at least
some effort at costuming, which is always great to see. We will certainly be doing the Potter Party again. A sold out party on a Thursday? Yes please.
We've also been brainstorming about what other similar pop culture parade we could get in front of. I think the sweet spot might be "I was into it when I was 12, and it's still popular today, so the 'sexy costume' version of it makes me feel all funny inside."
Someone left a pretty entertaining message on the payphone that night. Listen! Nobody ever leaves messages on the payphone. You should drunkenly babble at the payphone. Yes, you. It is your confessor. It already knows. But it wants to hear you say it.
Important news! We're doing CYBERDELIA again!
- A screening of Hackers at 8pm;
- Hackers costume contest at midnight;
- Head-to-head Wipeout XL competition throughout the night;
- Skate ramps! Rollerblades welcome!
We're doing it on a Tuesday, which is a little odd, but that puts it right in the middle of the RSA conference, a massive computer security and cryptography convention at Moscone, and immediately after the B Sides conference happening at DNA on the 12th and 13th. B Sides is a community-run and more technical and political reaction to RSA, and we've happily hosted it since 2013. Anyway, doing a Hackers party during a hacker con seems like a solid plan. (If you're going to B Sides, keep a lookout for the Cyberdelia discount code.)
That Tuesday also happens to be Valentine's Day. You might be thinking, "Wait, Hackers isn't a date movie", but if you're thinking that you're probably dating the wrong people, my friend. Also the plot of the movie itself is totally romantic comedy material. Kate is so mean to that sad-sack Dade. I put together a few short promo videos proving this that I'll be posting on the InstaTwitBooks over the next few days. Here's the first one:

I have come to chew bubblegum and dd if=cyber.img of=/dev/disk3 bs=512 count=2880 and I am all out of bubblegum.
Anyway, that's only two weeks from now! Get your tickets now, because the reserved seating for the movie will go fast.
(Also, Hack the Planet.)
Speaking of the InstaTwitBooks, we have a set of Tumblrs for our various accounts now. Someone who seems to know things told me that Tumblr is getting more popular again as people look for alternatives to Facebook. Since I just created them a few days ago, they all have zero followers right now, so how if you use Tumblr, how about giving us a like or a share or two? Our new Tumblrs are: DNA Lounge, DNA Pizza, Codeword SF and ROT13. The full matrix is now:
All of our social media accounts except Facebook have pretty low follower accounts, and I don't particularly know what to do about that. "Be more interesting!"
Our Patreon is still doing nicely, but it pretty much stopped growing a week or two ago. I'm not entirely sure what to do about that, either. What should we do to promote it? Beats me.
I'm also curious about what the public reaction is to the Donate buttons I spammed all across the site, like atop the calendar. We are definitely getting some donations, but is it too intrusive? People tolerate Wikipedia's far more intrusive begging, though, so I'm guessing the answer is no. I always wonder if different words would make people open their wallets faster.
Anyway, give us your money so we can stay open. Thanks.
If you'd like to help in non-financial ways, we're having what Arlo has called a "primping party" on Wed, Feb 8, from noon until well into the evening. As he put it:
Like any other high traffic space, DNA requires a lot of upkeep and maintenance. It takes a fair amount of time with there's ony one or two of us tackling it, but with more hands, the work becomes much lighter!Please join us for a day of minor hammering, some possible drilling and a fair amount of scrubbing and painting. Rumor has it there'll also be periodic pizza and beer.
To be informed of other exciting hand-dirtying opportunities like this, you can join the DNA Lounge Street Team Facebook group.
Some photos: