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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Terrence is just unbelievably stupid.
Next he’s gonna claim he’s a Free Inhabitant under the Articles of Confederation…
huh… and I was worried he had some sort of diabolical plan… turns out he’s just and idiot. So long as the ladies continue to be calm and collected, which Lynn’s been giving a masterclass on lately, he is so arrested.
Ah, he’s going full Sovereign Citizen on us. This will end poorly.
He’s going Sovereign Citizen? Can’t he see the whole table is gold fringed?
They should just call the cops and have Terrance taken away, there is no reason to even stretch this out.
Terrence is self-centered to the extreme but not entirely stupid. He occasionally has a good idea. Or at least a not-horrible idea. So what’s the plan?
My guess is he’s trying to replay the “Nazi cosplay” incident. I’d be willing to bet that there’s someone with a camera taking video right now. It wouldn’t be hard to do. All Terrence has to do is stand there and be “Terrence” long enough for Lynn to lose her cool.
‘It’s a public space!’
Their business model is literally to charge people money to stay there. It’s like their entire thing. If you aren’t paying money to stay there, then someone else needs to be. Like the convention. Who just told you to go away.
Hotels are a public space. “Con space” and “Hotel space” are often different. Hotels have public restaurants and one has to be capable of getting to those restaurants. That being said, that really does limit Terrance’s available places to be, and with the restraining order, even if he does* have a room, he’s going to have some ‘splainin to do to the cops about why he has a hotel room in a hotel where a con is occurring where someone has a restraining order against him is one of the con-runners.
The term public gets dicey the way it gets thrown around. The convention is a public event because it is advertised to the public to attend. Any member of the general public can show up, buy a ticket, and gain entry. I imagine the hotel has advertised their business, so it too is open to the public. Both businesses can exclude specific people.
Then people start talking about public buildings and it gets weird because one can’t tell if they mean paid for with government money or open to the public.
Public Space – a park, a governemnt building.
Not a Public Space – a hotel, a venue. If you need to be a customer, it’s not a Public Space.