In honor of the excellent Star Trek vs. Star Wars panel at Arisia, I present a slightly different debate:
Which is the better Wiki, Memory Alpha or Wookieepedia? Remember to support your argument with rational (not necessarily logical) arguments. Please keep the arguments about the wikis themselves. You may argue the merits of content, layout, visuals, authority, creativity, accessibility, practicality, comprehensiveness, etc.
I realized this morning in the shower (witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational new water heater) that I occasionally casually hang out with people I’ve known a decade or more.
As someone who grew up in a military family, this was a very sudden and shocking realization.
I’m glad for it.
That title is one of the buttons I picked up from NancyButtons at Arisia recently. Another one I picked up was ‘Being brutally assaulted by real life. Please call back later.’ This is exceedingly true at the moment. Let’s look at some of the highlights.
Some of you may remember, or have seen, that the ceiling in our foyer fell in during the holidays due to bad gutters. (Not intuitive, but true, I can explain if you care)
Classes just started on campus. As the courseware administrator, I’ve been up to my ears twice over. Think about having three simultaneous projects all due at the same time. Now you’re getting warmer.
It’s Con season! Arisia was good last weekend. Unity should be good next weekend. Love cons, hate the way they force me to sacrifice otherwise useful parts of real life. throwing myself with reckless abandon at cons and the responsibilities I pull down upon myself like an incompetent siege miner at the walls.
Good morning, no warm water for you! Yes, I woke up this morning to a dead water heater. Conferred with the experts (plumbers) tonight, and we help a dark ritual in the basement to confer the essence of its spirit out of this world and into the realm of warranty, where, so I am told, it will be transformed and reborn tomorrow morning into a new body. Hopefully tomorrow. If only because I already told my boss I was going to have to stay home tomorrow morning to accomplish this rebirth. Have I mentioned that I’m at capacity with work, and that I love having to stay home instead? (/sarcasm)
Of course, I’ll go easy on you and spare all the details of the _normal_ activities, plus the planning for wedding in September (which we intend to be planned for by March). Tasty!
And oddly enough, I’m actually in a good mood.
Some folks have asked what Panels I’m going to be on at Arisia, so here’s the list:
Gaming What is LARP, and Why Would I Want to Do It?
Fri 7:00 PM 1hr
Rebecca L Kletnieks, Chad Bergeron (m), Michael A Ventrella, Mark Waks, Anna R Bradley, John Bacon
Although I’m listed as a moderator, this is a group of old hats, so I expect a lively and self-moderating discussion. I’m minorly worried that the panelists may outnumber the attendees. That doesn’t bother me too much, because I think we can have a good conversation anyhow, so we’ll still get something from it. That said, you should all go, and it’ll be a better panel for it.
Gaming Intro to Board and Card Games
Sat 11:00 AM 1hr
Chad Bergeron (m), Jacob Sommer, Stephanie Clarkson, Christopher Weuve
Another intro panel. Given the topic and the environment, I’m again not sure how many attendees there will be. I think that at a con, people interested in an introduction to modern board and card games will probably just go to the game rooms. Still, there’s definitely a place for introducing people to gateway games, rather than having them go to a game room and get inundated with 18xx, Roads and Boats, or even Caylus type games as their first steps.
Gaming Tossing the Dice – Luck Free Games
Sat 3:00 PM 1hr
Kiralee B McCauley, Chad Bergeron (m)
This is a focused panel that I enjoy. I ran this panel at Pi-Con a few months back, and I think there’s enough meat here for attendees to sink their teeth into. I know a number of gamers out there who prefer games where strategy, skill, and brainpower are the core principles to winning, and I hope to see some of them here. As well, it is interesting to show people that games don’t have to be too abstract to be luck free. (Not that I think Luck is the enemy. When random luck outweighs any opportunities at luck management though, the game gets tired fast….)
SMOFing The Care and Feeding of Gophers
Sun 12:00 PM 1hr
The Marvelous MERV, Chad Bergeron, Eugene Heller, Mary Dumas
I asked for a fourth panel, and I’m pleased to have been added to this one. Gophers, or volunteers, or lackeys, or whatever you want to call them, are the backbone of any con, just like infantry are the backbone of the army (well, maybe not in modern times… computers may be the backbone of the modern army). There’s a good spread in this panel of people who have worked on different scale conventions, and in different Cat Herder roles. This is an unsexy topic, but that means that it will probably be a very meaningful dialogue for those who do attend.
So come to these panels if they at all interest you, and I hope to see you at Arisia. Please note that except for the panels, my entire reason to be at Arisia is to hang out with people, so if you’d like to arrange something, let me know!