So anyone who reads this LJ knows I'm big into the Opera browser. And you might have also read when I became Member of the Week back in June. Then, in September, Espen asked me to write a blog post about the My Opera Community reaching a million members. I did, and he used it for front page Community news. ;)

I've also been in contact with another Opera employee named Lawrence for a while now - ever since he contacted me about my Opera Web Browser Facebook group. It's linked on the Choose Opera blog and was featured a couple of times, like when we ran a contest. I called it a "great success" because more than 400 people joined during the week of the contest. We boasted 610 members in early June. We're now at 843 members. (Lee: Dangerously close to 1,000! Watch out!)

Now, I told you that story to tell you this story.

I'm going to San Francisco for four days.

For free.

Here's how it happened. Opera Software is having a product launch party at a nightclub in San Francisco on Thursday, October 25. The first official beta of Opera 9.5 for desktop computers will be released, along with the newest beta of Opera Mini 4, which is free for mobile phones. I think there's probably going to be something else announced, but they're being super secretive about it...

They're making this party a huge deal. It's being held at a nightclub called The Rickshaw Stop, and two indie rock bands are playing: The 88, and The Binges. Some very important people from Opera Software are coming all the way from Norway for this thing, including (I believe) Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO.

I didn't know any of this a few weeks ago. Lawrence caught me on AIM and asked me if I would be free the weekend of Oct. 25. I glanced at my calendar and said that I would. Then he invited me to this thing in San Francisco. I still didn't know what was going on - just that it was Opera related, and that the flight and hotel weren't going to cost me anything. Needless to say, I jumped at the offer!

So we got everything worked out, and behold, I have in my hand a printed out itinerary with flight and hotel information. (It's real. It has my name on it and everything. :P ) Next Thursday, I will be flying out of Birmingham at 6am (ouch) and on my way to San Francisco (with an hour long pit stop in Houston). The party is that night, and then I get spend Friday and Saturday exploring the city. I'll probably spend all my time eating awesome Chinese and seafood. I fly back Sunday morning.

So that's my exciting story for this month, and probably for this year. I want to thank Lawrence especially because he's the one who made this happen for me. Espen gets a shout out, too. He's pretty cool for a server monkey.

Here's some more info on the Rock Opera event itself. There's also a nifty press release that sums it up quite nicely.

Oh, and did I mention it was open bar? :D