   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.
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Hey! A dealer selling CD’s!
And at a con with a “No Bootlegs” policy, no less!
They could legal copies of soundtracks to popular video games or anime series.
Guess I phrased that poorly. I was merely commenting on the lack of dealers selling CDs these days, when once they were abundant.
*sigh* I miss the old days. When fansubs were multigenerational VHS copies, a lot of things were dub-only, and $40 for two episodes was considered an acceptable price.
On second thought, I only miss certain, overly romanticized elements.
Agreed. Some parts of Cons Of The Past were pretty awesome… but as a whole, the modern stuff is better.
Yeah, besides the fact that a Pioneer/Geneon released a number of Jpop and anime soundtracks, and there’s a number of game soundtracks available in the US, a lot of groups also import Japanese CDs. As long as they’re not Son May or Ever Anime or one of the other bootleg groups, there’s no reason to question CDs being at a convention.
I really need to be more specific when I’m waxing nostalgic 😉
Yeah, the “Stubble Guy’s” table has CDs because I used to sell (legit, imported) CDs at cons.