So I have started using Colloquy. Played with some of its display options. Found this fantastic one...
[11:56AM] okay," brianm says "this is weird"
[11:57AM] "that's some weird english dialogue thing?," asked meara. ""
[11:57AM] ammulder joined the chat room.
[11:57AM] "that's awful," said meara. ""
[11:57AM] "what's awful?," asked ammulder. ""
[11:57AM] "he's got a weird irc client," said meara. "it
reformats everything into dialogueso if I say "brian, how are you?""
=)