Con.TXT 2010
Jun. 24th, 2010 22:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladySo last weekend I went to Con.TXT 2010 in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was my first time going to this con, and I'd definitely love to go back if possible.
I drove down straight from work via I-95, and I am here to tell you, dear readers, that the entire Eastern seaboard is under construction--it says a lot when the southern stretch of the NJ Turnpike is the high point of high speed and no traffic. I had an attack of doubt when I crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge and immediately got into heavy traffic, but it turned out to be gaper delay for an overturned car on the northbound side, which had a six-mile backup according to my odometer when I cleared it. Despite it all I made it in two and a half hours, just like Google said, and in time for the Gay Steampunk Sherlock Holmes panel, yay! It was really nice, too, to be greeted at registration like people had been waiting for me, which apparently they had. The intimacy of a really small con, apparently!
So I went to the Holmes panel and sat betweensynecdochic and melannen, who recognized me based on my shopping bag of Star Trek books, and then I went down the hall to mod the Star Trek paracanon panel. It was a lot of fun, and I thought it went pretty well; it mostly was a conversation in which all of us wound up proselytizing our favorite bits of the paracanon while I wrote semi-random things on the big notepad. Fun times, to be sure, and I managed to score a physical copy of The Empty Chair at the book swap, as well as a random New Frontier book and a book about early Star Trek fandom, and then we also managed to dump the leftovers on the swap table despite the con suite technically being closed, FTW. We are stealthy!
On Saturday I took the Metro up and made it in time formelannen's Sinister Ducks, panel, which definitely affected how I saw the waterfowl around me for the rest of the weekend--ducks are everywhere if you look! Believe in the conspiracy! After the panel melannen and I had lunch at Panera, which was really awesome, though I give a thumbs-down to Panera's new tomato-mozarella-basil-cucumber salad. In short order I went to the Fanlore, AU love, and the dealing with privilege in fannish contexts panels, all of which were excellent. At four I wound up walking out of both the Daring Victorians! and Vidding 101 panels and hiked to Starbucks for iced coffee, because did I mention that it was hotter than hell in DC (and Jersey, for that matter) this weekend? Well, it was, and having been caffeinated I came back and went to Fandom Suddenly Loves the Ladies, which was pretty damn awesome.
So, yeah. I wish I'd known about this con, and all the other actually cool cons that apparently exist on the east coast, earlier. It was really nice to be able to recognize people in the halls and on panels--hi,ellen_fremedon!--both from Wiscon and from Dreamwidth and from the internet in general, and it was really nice to be able to be in a group in which I'm not the only person who can speak the fannish idiolect--the entire room twigged to who melannen was talking about when the topic of authors commenting on blog posts came up and an author was referred to as He Who Must Not Be Named, and it didn't take me long, in the context of a digression onto The Phantom Menace, to realize which is The Scene That Didn't Happen. And Con.Txt definitely draws a fairly wide age range of fandom, which was also really nice, to feel that I am part of a history, that we have a history, and to see older fans right there in the forefront. I'm not the only one, and we are in this together! In conclusion, ♥.
I drove down straight from work via I-95, and I am here to tell you, dear readers, that the entire Eastern seaboard is under construction--it says a lot when the southern stretch of the NJ Turnpike is the high point of high speed and no traffic. I had an attack of doubt when I crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge and immediately got into heavy traffic, but it turned out to be gaper delay for an overturned car on the northbound side, which had a six-mile backup according to my odometer when I cleared it. Despite it all I made it in two and a half hours, just like Google said, and in time for the Gay Steampunk Sherlock Holmes panel, yay! It was really nice, too, to be greeted at registration like people had been waiting for me, which apparently they had. The intimacy of a really small con, apparently!
So I went to the Holmes panel and sat between
synecdochic and melannen, who recognized me based on my shopping bag of Star Trek books, and then I went down the hall to mod the Star Trek paracanon panel. It was a lot of fun, and I thought it went pretty well; it mostly was a conversation in which all of us wound up proselytizing our favorite bits of the paracanon while I wrote semi-random things on the big notepad. Fun times, to be sure, and I managed to score a physical copy of The Empty Chair at the book swap, as well as a random New Frontier book and a book about early Star Trek fandom, and then we also managed to dump the leftovers on the swap table despite the con suite technically being closed, FTW. We are stealthy! On Saturday I took the Metro up and made it in time for
melannen's Sinister Ducks, panel, which definitely affected how I saw the waterfowl around me for the rest of the weekend--ducks are everywhere if you look! Believe in the conspiracy! After the panel melannen and I had lunch at Panera, which was really awesome, though I give a thumbs-down to Panera's new tomato-mozarella-basil-cucumber salad. In short order I went to the Fanlore, AU love, and the dealing with privilege in fannish contexts panels, all of which were excellent. At four I wound up walking out of both the Daring Victorians! and Vidding 101 panels and hiked to Starbucks for iced coffee, because did I mention that it was hotter than hell in DC (and Jersey, for that matter) this weekend? Well, it was, and having been caffeinated I came back and went to Fandom Suddenly Loves the Ladies, which was pretty damn awesome. So, yeah. I wish I'd known about this con, and all the other actually cool cons that apparently exist on the east coast, earlier. It was really nice to be able to recognize people in the halls and on panels--hi,
ellen_fremedon!--both from Wiscon and from Dreamwidth and from the internet in general, and it was really nice to be able to be in a group in which I'm not the only person who can speak the fannish idiolect--the entire room twigged to who melannen was talking about when the topic of authors commenting on blog posts came up and an author was referred to as He Who Must Not Be Named, and it didn't take me long, in the context of a digression onto The Phantom Menace, to realize which is The Scene That Didn't Happen. And Con.Txt definitely draws a fairly wide age range of fandom, which was also really nice, to feel that I am part of a history, that we have a history, and to see older fans right there in the forefront. I'm not the only one, and we are in this together! In conclusion, ♥.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-25 06:18 (UTC)there i some fun cons to come
in star trek fandom well i can't go again because i live in Chile, but
in august is the Closet con in england
and there will be a shore leave? i don't remember where
if you see the kirkspock community in live journal it say about it!
:)