NWC40

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It’s a little sad to watch my #nwc40 tattoo wear away as the days go by. (Though I’ll admit to being impressed at its longevity. I haven’t been pointedly scrubbing at it, but I haven’t been avoiding it while in the shower, either. Not bad!)

Linkdump for April 16th through April 19th

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Sometime between April 16th and April 19th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black: Dolezal is simply a white woman who cannot help but center herself in all that she does—including her fight for racial justice. And if racial justice doesn't center her, she will redefine race itself in order to make that happen.
  • Volunteers, Professionals, and Who Gets to Have Fun at Cons: If your fun is dependent using your status as a volunteer as an excuse to not act responsibly, if it requires victims to stay quiet about mistreatment: then it’s not really a fun time for “everyone” is it? It’s not the expectation of professionalism that’s killing the fun at cons, it’s the lack of it.
  • Time to Fix the Missing Stair: It’s time to stop pretending the missing stair doesn’t need to be fixed. Relying on word-of-mouth means that the people who are new, who are just entering, are the ones most at risk of trying to step on it.
  • seriously, the guy has a point: A global investment firm has used a global advertising firm to create a faux work of guerrilla art to subvert and change the meaning of his actual work of guerrilla art. That would piss off any artist.
  • Westboro Wannabes Picket Norwescon: Thank you for proving, by your actions, the value that Norwescon (and all such fan-run conventions) have in this world. Thank you for proving that we can’t be bullied. You gave us all a teachable moment, and we learned something about ourselves.

Norwescon 40 Wrap-Up

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Norwescon 40 Banner

In case you haven’t noticed (either by social media proxy, or by actually being there to watch me run around the con in person), I’ve been a bit busy over the past few days with Norwescon. For me, at least, this was a really good year; certainly better than last year (not that the con was bad last year, just that this year I didn’t overexhaust myself and make myself sick). I got to see (if not always as much as I might have liked) many friends, run around being silly in an inflatable T-Rex costume (and I wasn’t the only one this year), take a few thousand pictures, fanboy and chat with Pillow (renowned both as a burlesque performer and as an Alaskan), and generally thoroughly enjoy my annual geek vacation.

I experimented a bit this year with taking some photos and video clips on my phone each day, and then using Apple’s new Clips app to create short (less than a minute) “today at Norwescon 40” videos that went out on our social media channels (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). It was a fun little project, and I think it went okay; people seem to be enjoying them, at least. Definitely on my “to do next year” list.

I was also gratified to see the “happy 20th anniversary Sakura-Con” post get as many “likes” as it did (27 on the official Norwescon Facebook page’s post, and 89 on the post in the Norwescon Facebook group). Though I got approval for that beforehand, I’ll admit to a little trepidation, as both cons being scheduled over the same weekend gives some the perception that there’s more rivalry between the cons than there is. But since we gave them some assistance in starting out, as there is a decent amount of cross-pollination between the cons, and as we were both celebrating major milestone years (our 40th, their 20th), I wanted to be sure we recognized that. I’m quite glad to see so many people appreciated that recognition.

So, that’s a brief overview of my weekend. To all of you I got to see, I’m glad we crossed paths, however briefly, and I hope we get to do so again before too long (but if not, then at least next year at Norwescon 41). To those of you I didn’t manage to see, well, we’ll just have to try again later (it’s amazing how some people at Norwescon you see every time you turn around, while others can be in the same hotel as you for four days and virtually never interact (unless I’m just not noticing when I’m being stalked and when I’m being avoided…)).

Now rest up, and brace yourselves for the return to the mundane world. Less than a year to wait for our next gathering! You can make it!

(This post originally appeared in a slightly different form on Facebook.)