   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So I'm just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "Conundrum." It's episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.
I don't know if it's because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson's Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don't know if it's because I just like a good "everyone has amnesia" story. I don't even know if it's just because it's a good Ro Laren episode. I don't know if it's just because we learn that Starfleet doesn't give a crap about lasers.
I just like it. It's neat.
And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up -- which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it's not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.
And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.
Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I'll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I'll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don't reach that potential, I'll think of it as "bad" -- when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.
*cough*I Hate November*cough*
So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.
It's just sort of how things work out.
Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches' Collective's April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!
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Well, now we know what the “P” stands for.
It’s been on the cast page for a while too. 😛
You expect me to do simple research?
On the Internet?!
Inconceivable! 😉
I’ve been going to conventions for 15 years, and I’ve never been to a ‘party floor’. Does what happens there differ significantly from your average dorm room party?
Really depends on the convention. I’ve been to cons which had practically no room parties at all, and I’ve been to cons that have entire floors of hotels booked exclusively by people running elaborate parties.
Some room parties are just some beverages, food and people playing Apples to Apples. Some room parties have elaborate sets to recreate a Klingon brig while a large man in full makeup calls you a p’tak and tries to convince you to eat a meal worm.
It’s a spectrum.
Weirdly, in my area [southern California] the anime conventions have very few room parties, but some of the general SF cons have huge ones. Some are run by individuals, others by conventions or publishing companies. Most are open to everyone, but a few are aimed at a particular sub-group of fandom.
Fans still talk about one year when the convention hotel was shared with an Amway convention, but my favorite was the time when there was a gathering of mariachis in town, and two conventions shared the same overflow hotel. So, they all had to dress up where they were staying and then travel to the hotels where the events were.
Yes, cosplayers and mariachis all walking out of the same elevator got some very strange looks from the hotel staff.
What does Sarah’s dad do for a living?
Business.