My friends are still teasing me for how little they saw of me at CONvergence, seeing as I rarely came back to the room. To which I still respond: "Uh, we were at con. The room is for sleeping, showering and changing into cosplay, and dumping merch when it gets too heavy ( Read more... )

So, first off, CONvergence fell in the middle of a ridiculous heat wave. It was a hundred degrees and HUMID. My first day I carried my luggage over to the house of the friends I was carpooling with, and oh, did I regret that decision. The back was my shirt was soaked with sweat. Even after we got to the hotel, it took awhile for their air ( Read more... )

Philosophically speaking, "the problem of other minds" is that, due to the nature of human beings, we simply cannot be certain that other human beings exist. We have no way to literally share sensations or thoughts or emotions, no way to enter their minds and determine that there exists a fully realized person like us. There is no way to be certain ( Read more... )

I am at CONvergence, and have officially popped my convention cherry.
Oh. My. God. Don't make me go back.
( I am so happy right now I don't even know what to do )

So I'm reading "Textual Poachers" by Henry Jenkins as part of my research for my fellowship project on fandom, race, identity, and creative work. I'm really enjoying it. But I just want to reflect on this quote from C.E. Amesley: "I have yet to find a self-identified 'Hard-Core Trekkie.' Whether fans watch the show every night, miss other events to ( Read more... )