Long lost web-brother?

There are many people in the world that I respect; my parents, many teachers, friends, co-workers, some leaders, and even a few supervisors. These people I admire because they inspire & lead me. They are the people who push me to better myself even though I may not have been so willing to better myself.

Then there are some people who I consider to be family even though they are not blood relatives. They are the friends and people that you are extremely comfortable around. The kind of people that don't mind it when you let your hair down. I consider myself lucky, in that I feel that way about a lot of people.

Then there are the occasional few people who you meet for the first time and you fall into that mode immediately. My wife was like that for me, as I suspect many spouses are. I have had a few friends in life that were like that, and even a few people who worked for me. They were the spectacular people who just 'fit' into my world from the very first time we were introduced. I kind of viewed those people as siblings of the extended nature.

A New Brother?

A few weeks back, I had a chance to meet a person that I've admired technically for a few years now, Eric Meyer. I don't think he's a Web Pop Star, like so many people make him out to be. Rather I have thought of Eric as a person who is very knowledgeable and knows how to express that knowledge. Of course I felt honored to meet Eric, when you read someone's materials for years, you really get a sense that you know the person. So you want to meet them to see if you really did know them.

Being the first time that I've met Eric, I must say that I had the feeling as though I'd run into a long lost brother. I have read quite a bit of his work, and do follow his blog, so I did know a bit about him. It's not that part that I'm talking about.

Eric is a very comfortable person to be around. He's extremely witty and his sense of humor slides by many who don't pay attention. The more topics we discussed, the more that I realized how much my personality was similar to his. We had lunch together and had a meandering discussion of nothing important [those are the best discussions in my opinion], but we learned a bit about each other.

I even learned that Eric and I both have a BA in History; he had worked seven years at a university in the web development field, and I've spent the last seven years working for a university as the web coordinator. Maybe that's where things started to 'click' for me. I hope that I get a chance to spend some time with Eric again. Perhaps I'll run into him again at another event, since I'm still getting speaking requests on Accessibility & Web Standards.

Eric & Kat, congratulations on the adoption of your daughter! We're wishing you all the best!