The Second Generation Fan

I have stepped down as Co-Division Head of Marketing for Chicon 7.

I am sorelieved.

I’ve volunteered to stay on and take care of Social Media for them, which I am excited to do, but I cannot convey how relieved I am to have been able to step down. It was, and is a wonderful opportunity. There are great people to work with, but I’m not old enough, nor do I have enough experience to be able to give the monkees what they wanted, and to be able to tell them ‘tough luck’ (in a respectful way, of course) when they are asking for something I can’t give them.

Were there personal issues involved? Well of course. Fandom is a family thing, of course it was going to get personal. You don’t get those details, though.

I am excited to be getting back to doing something that I love. That is fun. After all, if it isn’t fun, you shouldn’t be doing it. (At least on a volunteer basis. Real life sucks, get used to it.)

The worst days are when I can’t feel anything. And I guess that’s not even a good description, because I do feel something. I feel a lack of feeling. When nothing is enough to cheer you up, and every negative thing – no matter how small- feels like a death blow. When going through the routines that usually help don’t do anything, except make you more depressed because it’s not helping. Because you’re not getting better.

I suppose I should be grateful that I don’t have more days like this. More days that I just write off as a loss because it’s exhausting to do anything more than curl up in bed and sleep. It’s exhausting to talk to other and to put on a face. So usually I don’t. The internet makes it so much easier.

This post has taken me two hours to write. Not even two hundred words, but harder than anything I ever had to write for Com Law. I hate what this ‘condition’ does to me. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I’m going to roll over and go back to sleep now. Hopefully I won’t wake up until tomorrow.

Apparently my boyfriend and I need to have a conversation. I want to borrow his cape.

1. I have been stupidly busy a of late, and not posting anything because of that. This is going to change – I hope- because I really do enjoy writing, and it’s a bit of a stress reliever for me which I need desperately.

2. Terry Gross is interviewing Trent Reznor today on Fresh Air. Her sweet voice over a bed of Closer by NIN made me giggle. Either way, you should listen to the interview. She’s fabulous, and so is he. I loved his work for The Social Network and I’m really excited to hear his work on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Oh Rick Perry…

I would really like to ask Rick Perry what he was thinking when he agreed to film that ad. Not in the angry parent ‘What the hell were you thinking when you crashed the car?!?!’ sort of way; I really just want to know why he thought the ad would go over well. He certainly had time to think about it. It’s a one-shot ad, and I’m betting that he didn’t get it right on the first try, which means he would have /plenty /of time to think over what he was saying. Advisers pored over that script and one even objected pretty strongly to it. Point is, Rick Perry can’t just say ‘Oops’ about this ad.

When I listened to the first few seconds of the ad, I was hopeful. Excited, even. “1.I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian..” is how he starts out for those of you avoiding the video.

And then the crazy fell out of his mouth.

“..but you don’t have to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. 2. As President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion. 3. And I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. 4. Faith made America strong. 5. It can make her strong again.”

1. Our kids can openly celebrate Christmas and pray in school. Our children can pray to whatever god/goddess/noodly appendage and celebrate whatever holiday they choose, as long as they are (and most of the time, even when they aren’t) respectful of their classmates’ choice to celebrate another. The Constitution gives us religious freedom, and that’s a wonderful thing. Because of that, we get ‘Separation of Church and State’ which is also a nifty phrase Thomas Jefferson discussed a while back. The only thing that the Establishment Clause restricts is the governments’ – and by extension the public schools’ endorsement of one mode of prayer over another. Or one holiday over another.

The second issue I have with this sentence is that he’s objecting to the repeal of DADT on religious grounds. Sorry buddy, since we’ve already talked about the Establishment Clause, you can’t pull this one. It’s a human rights issue. If elected, you’d be serving as the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, so alienating the troops may not be your best move.

3. Wait, like the ones you’re making? I want tickets to this fight..

4&5.  No, Mr. Perry, faith didn’t make America strong. Critical thinking skills did. The Establishment Clause did. Educated men did. You seem to be missing all of those, so I don’t believe you’re up to the job. Your willingness to attempt to misguide the uniformed makes you not only unfit for office, but unfit to be running. Your tactics are shameful.

The President of the United States is the representative of the people. All of the people. That means the gays, lesbians, transgendered, and straight. Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, and the Followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. If you’re not prepared to stand up and defend all of them, you’re not ready to be the President. Your religion shouldn’t be your political platform, and if it is, once again, you’re not ready to be the president. In September of 1960, JFK was asked about how his religious beliefs would affect his leadership, his response is quite famous, found in many a book, and it seems to me that you should meditate on it for a while before you make your next public address.

“I do not speak for the church, and the church does not speak for me.”

I get it, you’re a Christian, and you’re not ashamed of it. But that’s your faith, not mine, and I’ll be damned if I vote for someone who is going to try to thrust their religion down my throat.

This is probably the only picture I’ll ever get away with posting of my mother. Still, beautiful, no? I will now take bets on how long it takes her to send me an email threatening lack of cookies when I come home if I don’t take this down.

Anyways, you are gazing at the ear of the coolest woman I know. My mother is amazing. You think I’m busy? Ask her about her schedule. You’ll cry. She is intelligent, funny, and so very compassionate. I am so lucky to be her daughter.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you wont see me bitch about her here. What it does mean, is that if you bitch to me about her, there is a chance that I’ll send my minions and some Klingons after you.

She’s my mom, and I love her. Don’t mess with her. I tell you this for your own good – she’s not above poisoning cookies.

This is Kari. She’s going to give me a look (and maybe a ‘talking to’) for posting this. Which is silly, because I’m not going to say much.

Kari is a member -whether she likes it or not, really- of the 0.5%. She knows everything that I’m willing to share about my life. She is one of the kindest, most loving, most patient people that I know, and I am incredibly blessed to have her as a friend. She’s super funny, too.

Now you have a face for the name.

I had this plan… (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

I had this plan to post every day for the foreseeable future about con things and personal things. But as we all know, no plans survives contact with the enemy. Who/what is the enemy you ask? Well, I’ll tell you – it’s not like I can do much else this morning. My brain is still in it’s Saturday-morning-mushy-stage.

1. An unexpected cold snap.

Usually in Maryville (the last two years anyways), we’ve been able to get away with wearing shorts until about finals week. At that point we transition to the yoga pants and over-sized sweaters. Not this year. This year Maryville Weather is hell-bent on making us all miserable just a little bit sooner. It was 7°F on the walk to work this morning. The high today? 38°F. Why is all of this relevant you ask? Because I don’t like the cold. I’m not good with the cold – truth is I’m actually a reptile – and I’ll do anything to escape it. ‘Anything’ in this case means hiding in bed all day. My bed is Heaven. Four inches of memory foam with nine pillows and five blankets. When I climb in, it’s all over. I’m out – which is probably a good thing, as I don’t usually get enough sleep, anyways. So, when I haven’t been at work for the last few days or studying, I’ve been in bed, sleeping – and not writing.

2. Dead Week/Holy Shit Weekend/Finals Week

Honestly, I’m amazed that I was able to post anything last week. I was recovering from my trip to Amsterdam/SMOFCon29, working, writing my last paper for Comm Law, and prepping for finals. Declaring that I would post ever day was stupid. I have a 32 page minimum business plan due on Wednesday (Yes Mom, I have started it) and a comprehensive Comm Law test on Monday that is going to melt my brain. I’m lucky that I only have those two things, but those two things are still going to kick my ass. For those of you thinking, “Oh, you’ll be fine, just do it this weekend!”, first off, yes I’m already planning on working on it this weekend, but I work this weekend. 630-Noon today, and then 630-Noon, 3PM-7PM tomorrow. In between then I also have a shit-ton (read: things I’m not listing, because if I think of it all, I’ll cry) of work for Chicon to get done. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m turning into my mother.

So, with that, chances of me posting regularly (except to bitch about stress), are slim. No apologies.  Now I’m off to go answer an annoyingly large number of emails, listen to music with the newsroom speakers (if you have suggestions please leave them), and you know, do my actual job.

Final (unrelated) thoughts:

This post was, for some odd reason, really hard to write. This is a little different than what I was planning to write, but it’s what came out. Because it took so long, I’m only answering one question this evening. I’ll finish the rest this weekend. You know, in my copious free time.

1. Why do we run conventions?

 I still think that ‘Because we’re out of our goddamn minds’ is a good answer, but a ‘serious’ answer is what I said that I’d give, so here goes. I run conventions because I know how important it is for fans to have a place to go to connect. Members of fandom have been there for me every moment of my life. Fans have helped me celebrate, mourn, and they’ve picked me up when I needed help the most. I run conventions because fandom is family, and I’ll do anything to help support family.

Working on the conventions also helps pad my resume. I know it sounds silly, but for you SMOFS out there, how many hours do you spend a week writing emails or on the phone, planning and putting out fires? (My university is really flexible with the definition of internships – which is nice because you have to have nine credit hours of internship to graduation. To earn one hour of credit you have to work eight hours a week, something I easily do with all my requirements for Chicon.) While Chicon won’t be my only internship, it will probably be the most enjoyable one. I get to combine my real world work, with something that I love.

And last, but not least (and really there are a few more reasons, but I’m tired of typing), I run conventions because it’s fun. Some are fans of Dr. Who, Star Trek or Star Wars. Some geek for gaming, costuming or building computers. Running conventions is what I love. I love all of the interesting people that you get to meet doing so. I love the traveling that is sometimes required.  I even love (most of the time) the politics. This is what I geek about.

This is the list of questions that was posted at the SMOFCon mixer before dinner.

For those of you who can’t read this itty-bitty script, the questions are..

1. Why do we run conventions?

2. Why do we go to WorldCons?

3. What is SMOFCon’s role?

4. What does a convention offer that fans can’t get elsewhere?

And now my answers because it’s far too early to be serious.

1. Because we’re out of our goddamn minds.

2. Because we’re out of our goddamn minds.

3. To organize dinner.

4. An unlimited supply of alcohol.

Now, obviously, these are not my real answers. The real answers will be posted later after I’ve taken a nap. Naps are good. Especially when one has to be at work at 530AM.

P.S. The lovely lady in the picture is Barb VanTilburg who owns OffWorld Designs. You should go buy things from her here.

Read more…