One thing that's important to consider for players and GMs alike: what do you want to get out of your experience at the table? What do you expect from your game, your DM, your players? How do you want the game to go? Obviously, everyone can't get everything they want, but knowing what we're all looking for in a game will make the experience more enjoyable for all of us. That being said, here's what I'd like to get from our games:

I'm looking for a game where I can play a memorable character who's part of a memorable story. I want to have a distinct (but not fanatical) line between out of character and in character. I like gaming table chatter, but I want to focus on the game. I want a game that moves and flows; I don't like paging through rulebooks for minutiae -- I view the RAW (rules as written) more as guidelines than gospel. I want my players and my DM to be aware of the gaming social contract: put simply, don't be a jerk, and recognize that everyone's there to have fun. I prefer cinematic storytelling over realistic -- I want to be able to do cool stuff without it turning into an argument (or, Avandra forbid, a lecture) about physics. Within reason, of course -- I include myself when I say "don't be a jerk!"  

To sum it all up, I want everyone to play towards making an experience bigger than we could have done ourselves, and to have an absolute blast doing it.

I'll add my two cents to this whole bit.  I'm not exactly tied to the rule-set, being out of it for so long, but I do appreciate a good structure or framework for the mechanics.  I enjoy role-playing any character I create, that's a significant part of the fun for me.  As for aimless blabber, I suppose I should say that I enjoy a paced game that has room for a little blabber but is also goal oriented; a fulfilling game has with it a sense of accomplishment or discovery.
I'm mostly hoping that folks here don't have completely divergent expectations for how a game should be run.

I concur with Beyonder; my preference is 50% roleplaying and 50% rollplaying, and I get the feeling we're all looking for about the same vibe in our game -- which is heartening! I'm curious to hear about the kind of game that (HeWho)Rocks wants to run, and see how we fit into his vision.

On the topic of physical essentials, here's what I can bring to the table:

-a somewhat weathered (but still quite serviceable) battlemat, and markers to use with it
-a good number of dice (d4-d20)
-a small box of mostly crappy figurines
-I will happily contribute to snacks or delivery food
-PHB, DMG, MM1
-the official DM screen with plenty of handy charts and figures (which Rocks is more than welcome to use)

My cleric is coming together in my head now and I'm pretty happy with the way it's working out -- I'm excited for the game!

I'm up for 8/8 to start.  I've been gathering supplies slowly; I received and have been reading the 4e pbh, but the dice got eaten by the New Orleans mail system (I might be able to get some in Metairie after work).  When I played 2e we never used miniatures, it is going to be an interesting adjustment for me.  Good for visualizing battle scenes I imagine.  Where would a person pick those up?

8/8 or 8/9 work for me -- I'll have a character fleshed out by then!

What level/gold do we start at?

Update: 8/9 will work better for me, if we can manage it at all. I can work out 8/8 if necessary, but I'd really prefer Sunday. Where will we be playing?

Well, this game seems a mighty slow one to start.  I'm out this weekend, but still interested.  Other folks interested should post character concepts though.

So far we have only one character:  Aerandis (Elven Ranger)

I try to do something a little more imersive than  generic striker, generic wizard, in a tavern get shanghai'ed into finding the blah, blah blah...

The first post in any character should just be a loose this is the kind of character I want to play, here is his name and this is something about him. Questions like starting gold etc are really dependant on the character concept.  If you want to play a street urchin turned adventurer then you would have a much different set of starting resources than say a character who is a member of the aristocracy. Also the types of adventures you would become involved in would likely be vastly different.

I guess what Im saying is you want to be a rich fop, write and post/background about the character being a rich fop and write a narative on getting him to the start point. I am much more interested in what a distinctive character brings to the table than any "in game advantage" that characters background might lend. I try to have a pretty sharp eye for plot potential and will invole characters backgrounds extensivly in adventure design. There will be ramifications to any advantage you might garner from background.

In otherwords if you dont like court intreuge, dont make an aristocrat, if you dont like shady characters from your past showing up dont make a streetwise thug. I try to make the PC's the "star" of their own story and weave thoses stories together in interesting ways.

If you want to play come up with acharacter concept and post a thread, last minute entries and "just showing up" probably wont make the game very enjoyable for you. Without any background documented you will quickly find that the story isnt about you and you may fell like an NPC. More to the point I wont have time to prepare for you and the group experience as a whole may suffer.