Excerpted from today's entry on my blog. Just posting this here for whatever reason:

On a few hours sleep, I had lunch Saturday with Anthony Rapp, in town to promote his new book and do an acoustic show at the Swedish American Music Hall. Once again, the bears made me nervous as every brunch place on my way to Nirvana was overflowing with lines onto the sidewalk, but apparently, Nirvana was too healthy for the bears, and I got my pick of tables. Anthony and I had the longest conversation of the time we have known one another, and it was certainly enlightening.

One of the things I discussed with him, since I don't know many people who can relate, is that I have never been good at accepting praise for Oasis. It's been ten years, and when people e-mail me to thank me for the site, sometimes in their late 20s now after reading it when they were teens, it is not something I let in easily. The e-mails sit in my in box, and some block prevents me from just admitting that what I created has had an effect. The strange part is that Oasis was wholly my own invention, it is not even like I'm being humble because I don't want to step on other people's toes. There are no other toes. (Although it i safe to say that without Jase Pittman-Wells playing designer/webmaster from the start, it might not have come to fruition). Anthony said it was "unacceptable" to not take credit for it.

Flash forward to yesterday (Tuesday), and I'm reading the piece the SF Chronicle wrote about Anthony and his book, which has been getting across-the-board great reviews. After reading the piece, I am actually recalling our conversation from Saturday, in particular the notion that I need to own my role in Oasis. In that very moment, the phone rings, and it is a previous contributor to Oasis, who started reading it in his teens and is now a college senior, specifically calling me to thank me for Oasis and the impact it had on his life. Now, e-mails are pretty common on this topic, but this is the first random phone call of this kind I can ever remember. So, when the universe conspires to help you, it doesn't go for subtlety apparently.